Continued from: 林奈 – Carl von Linné, Carolus Linnaeus (续)
林奈曾在Critica botanica中重温往昔植物探寻者说:Good God! When I observe
the fate of botanists, upon my word, I doubt whether to call them sane
or mad in their devotion to plants。这一句话应是留在前一贴末尾的,我搁在这
一线头提起。剩下内容不多了,还得精选,争取在圣诞节前完结。以后到Maya Chilam
遗址替玛雅朝拜朝拜,但愿她真有尼采说的“猫有九条命”式的强健!
那一线虽只有十八个贴,也拉得够长的,只好再劈一线,就象音乐的尾声或歌剧的终
场,就叫Finale。虽然,还有一位腾伯格,最重量级的,承继林奈的衣钵,至少也是林
奈逝后,我还是等林奈逝后再将之终结。原谅我那一线留在那儿!
前面说过跳过两节林奈本土行旅,就急急谈到门徒行。其实几位先行门徒与他在本土
并行不悖。他在本土并有两次行旅,前面提过Öland &Gotland两岛屿行,有可能再
勘探西Gothland行省(Västergötland)(1741),可惜因为Gotland岛等船太久,终未
能成行。当然能借到游记(Öländska och gothländska Resa, 1745),还好书写。
1746年他专程勘探了一回Västergötland行省也是在校园里闹得不欢。林奈一有不
欢的事便可以托辞找到旅行,回复自然,这种调剂很有益于身心。我上回用的合图不
太清晰,这回把还得把这行程图再贴一下,也是图中的蓝色行旅:
Linnaeus’s explorations of Sweden
林奈1746年6月12日出发,从瑞典最大的湖Vänern南滨一路向西,一直到达西海岸
Gothenburg。再绕湖北边返回,8月11日,行程1,700英里,只有一个人Lidbeck相
伴随。一路上他们遇到不少蒙古医生,其实林奈本人也有点蒙古。后面我再提一点他
的医学实践,除了治性病外,乌普萨拉大学可是当时医学前沿。英国有一位十九世纪
女作家Florence Caddy写过一本Through the fields with Linnæus。她走了林奈
的每一步路,才写了这一本书,书中自然引有不少林奈的笔记旅行(Wästgöte-Resa
[1747]). 虽然她也感慨日记没有英译,她是取的德译:)
在Ällestad,林奈遇到苏格兰著名的冒险家Blackwell(author of ‘A Curious Herbal’)
夫妇,光顾他们的模范农场(后1747.Blackwell因间谍罪被斩首)。
…when animals die they are converted into mould, the mould into plants.
The plants are eaten by animals, thus forming the animals’ limbs, so that
the earth, transmuted into seed, then enters man’s body as seed and is
changed there by man’s nature into flesh, bones, nerves, etc.; and when
after death the body decomposes, the natural forces decay and man again
becomes that earth from which he was taken.
在Gothenburg海滨,他观察一种当地叫Elof的黑海欧空中强夺他鸟的捕食行为。以后
他也在植物园养了一只gull,并Elof,Elof,驱使它吐食:
It was very amusing to observe how this Cossack harried the other gulls;
the moment one of them had caught a fish, Elof continued pursuing him until
he had disgorged the fish he had caught and already half swallowed. For
several years I kept a tame gull in the botanic Garden, and I used to watch
with amazement how, even if he had had hardly any food, when anyone
chased him he would immediately disgorge what he had eaten. This facility
for easily vomiting has been made use of by the Creator to support our
Elof family, for the herring gulls often catch more than they need and can
afford to give.
回程中他观察了著名的Trollättan瀑布,但觉得跟拉普兰比这只是个玩具。十八世纪
人们尝试挖一条运河,从北海通往巴尔的海。1810年,苏格兰工程师Thomas Telford
终于用多重关闸试验成功,以后,此瀑更是徒有其名:
Trollättan Falls, 1705, from Suecica Antiquaet Hodierna
瀑布上面不远,维纳恩湖北滨,他与同行争执把墓地肥沃的土壤用于农植是不是妥当,
他说了上面Caddy引用的那段话,这段话很有名,是林奈深思广筑的一节:
….Thus when plants chance to sow themselves in this mould they grow
luxuriantly, transmuting the human earth to their nature so that the fairest
maid’s cheeks can become the ugliest henbane, and the arm of the most
stalwart Hercules the frailest pondweed. this is eaten by a stinking cimex
[bed bug] and becomes such an animal. This cimex is then eaten by birds
and becomes a bird; the bird is eaten by man and thus becomes a part
of him.
关于林奈的宗教性前面已说了不少,有人以为,所谓林奈工程,其实是宗教和世俗为
主题的一种混合物。人类的使命是感激造物主的慷慨施恩,崇拜他创造的丰富多彩的
宇宙万物。林奈也从未厌倦过对神的歌颂,但对他来说,神是造物主但不是救世主。
林奈这样的认识不乏战略性:自然科学,自然历史学都会受惠于有宗教为凭依。但在
这种对神的感激之中,一种从世俗眼光出发对自然有益于人类的认识已经开始蠢蠢欲
动了。十八世纪的瑞典是实用主义显见的年代,林奈正是其最积极的代言人。自然万
物都有目的,每一个物体都有其目的和功用,而它们的功用大都是有益于人类的。另
外,林奈并没有从神的慈爱的角度罗列所有让人迷恋自然的功用,他的乐观精神的另
一面经常是他对人类悲哀命运和对自然规律的深刻见解的叹息。针对大自然的规律林
奈也发表了多篇论文,例如《大自然的组织法则》(1749)Oeconomia naturae和
《大自然的管理法则》Politia naturae(1760)。自然界有三个关联的阶段:繁殖、
生存与死亡,用粗暴的比喻可以说此物之死,是他物之生的源。在毁亡阶段,肉食动
物作为大自然的警察统治着整个舞台,它们帮忙将自然打点得干净漂亮。传统神学中
的矛盾体现在万能的上帝创造了众多美好事物,但世界仍然充满邪恶和不足。林奈对
这种神学困惑的解释没有停留在浮华绚丽的描写上,而是用血与肉的真实来描绘这个
过程。在林奈看来,人类同其他生物一样都属于自然 生态循环的一部分。从林奈在
《西约特省游记》的摘记中可以看到林奈一天站在墓地中,是如何轻松地哲理人生
大事的:
当我将铁锹插入墓地的土壤时,我撅上来的是一块曾经是人类而今又传递给人类的物
体。当我将它带回我的菜园,在上面种上花菜的时候,我得到是的花菜头,而不是人
头。可当我把这些花菜/头/煮熟,服侍人吃的时候,它们就又变成了人头或是人体
中的其他部位。就是这样,我们咀嚼着我们的死亡,茁壮成长。
林奈对物种秩序的着迷可以追究到他内心深处的不安,这种不安显然存在,并且成为
林奈内心世界心理变化的原因。(希望今天的物种分类学研究不要沾梁上过分吹毛求
疵的毛病)林奈的时代还有一种“大瑞典”炫耀精神。这来源于吕倍克父子的信念宣扬
创造各种覆盖宇宙万物的浩大而又不能实行的工程,这些工程覆盖宇宙间所有的细节
,所有的时代,最好都用物种真实的大小来完成。这种将宇宙间所有伟大创造的来源
都归结到斯堪的纳维亚半岛的认识,听上去近乎痴人梦臆,但让人吃惊的是这种想法
在实际中的影响,尤其是对现代科学成就的影响已经流传到欧洲的各角落。林奈是培
根的信徒,他希望自己能成为生命科学中的牛顿,尽管,他自己对牛顿的认识一直处
于模棱两可中。
林奈的宗教感情,我想,与达尔文一脉相承,虽然一个在教内,一个教外。甚至后来
的尼采,都有小牧师式的感情(都生于牧师家庭)。德国人Goerke的传记中说得更
彻底:Man’s place in nature was redefined by Linnaeus, but his image of
the world continued to be that of his time. It was strongly marked by the
impression of the parental parsonage, and in his writings and letters he
often represented himself as a believing Christian who accepted the subordination
of man to God’s omnipotence as incontrovertible fact. According to Oscar
Levertin, he is “of all the men of the century the only great writer who
thinks biblically, feels biblically, and writes biblically.”
今天礼拜天,我多几个字谈林奈的宗教感情。前面遇Blackwell他就说B是Atheist,
林奈这样的信徒,在左一点的环境,比如天主教宗教裁判下的西班牙,怕是要有问题。
记得哥伦布的书中即说哥危险的思想怕触犯宗教裁判,又说他思想聪明得可以称新教
徒。这么说,新教有这个自然魅力。我读一些宗教传承的书,把尼采与乔伊斯的思想
都放在圣经思想范筹内,严肃的书籍哟。
言归正传,再谈谈林奈的西约特省行。此后,林奈有几段描述,比如Toad与阴湿地的
臭气味的草同趣:I have seen how toads invade a house into which Stachys
foetida has been brought; in Ukraine, where Cotula foetida(stinking mayweed)
is commoner than elsewhere, there are such quantities of toads that every
house is full of them, but as soon as the mayweed withers, the toads also
disappear. 林奈放狗咬蟾蜍,蟾蜍身上的每个毒脉都放出毒,,,让我想起洛尔伽写
的猫吃蟾蜍的景象,又吐了出来。总是很恶心的意象,故而foetida。
还提到一种驱除墙上臭虫的方法,用松节油涂在木墙,薄薄一层,烧!当然这很危险,
Hippocrates说experiment is dangerous,但很有效!另一种方法是用一种薄荷驱虫,
此方法动物界,尤其灵长类也常用。这一段行程中的借景抒情,很精彩:night fell with
its dense darkness – a darkness in which the fir forests seemed to stand like
a wall, twice as high as by day. Summer lightning flickered like ghostly fires,
often without any sound of thunder. Sparks flew as the shoes of the horses
struck against the stones; owls shrieked like ghosts, and the nightjars churned
like spinning wheels; and Vulcan’s shirt-sleeved apprentices thundered and
hammered with superhuman strength at their distant forges until, at eleven
o’clock and after a journey of an hour and a quarter, we reached Norum.
九天以后到达Fällingsbro,来路曾经过,两个月已过去。那时原野上的北极花正开放,
如今已谢。秋声将即,林奈赶紧回身赶回乌普萨拉去。行程最后一段当时农作的景象,
很辛苦,很本份,也很田园:
The fields were filled with golden stocks, and between the yellow corn-
stubble green weeds were growing. A wet summer had filled the dykes,
which masses of marsh marigolds clothed in yellow. The waysides were
covered with persicarias, now turning red and beginning to droop their
heads. Everywhere peasants were abroad and hard at work. some of the
men were cutting corn with sickles while their womenfolk, whose heads
and arms were quite white, tied it into bundles. some were carting home
their rye, some threshing, some breaking up the sods, some harrowing
the fields, some sowing winter rye, some hoeing down the barley, some
levelling the fields with rollers, while the herdsmen’s children sang and
blew their horns to call home the cattle that were grazing in the more
distant pastures. Then as the chill evening wind began to blow and the
bright sun to dip below the horizon, we came to the garden at Uppsala.
行经的这一片田野,十几个世纪前据说还是大海一片。最近的一轮气候,尤其是湾流
对北欧极其有益。1745年8月11日晚上林奈回到植物园,投身于功名中。
to be continued…