NATURE OF SPIRIT

灵魂的本质

It used to be supposed in Science that if everything was known about the Universe at any particular moment then we can predict what it will be through all the future. This idea was really due to the great success of astronomical prediction. More modern science however has come to the conclusion that when we are dealing with atoms and electrons we are quite unable to know the exact state of them; our instruments being made of atoms and electrons themselves. The conception then of being able to know the exact state of the universe then really must break down on the small scale. This means then that the theory which held that as eclipses etc. are predestined so were all our actions breaks down too. We have a will which is able to determine the action of the atoms probably in a small portion of the brain, or possibly all over it. The rest of the body acts so as to amplify this. There is now the question which must be answered as to how the action of the other atoms of the universe are regulated. Probably by the same law and simply by the remote effects of spirit but since they have no amplifying apparatus they seem to be regulated by pure chance. The apparent non-predestination of physics is almost a combination of chances.

在过去，科学界往往认为，我们了解了某一时刻的宇宙，就能预测将来会发生什么。这个观点，是基于天文预测方面的成功。然而，现代科学得出的结论是：当我们和原子、电子打交道时，我们无法知道它们确切的情况，因为我们的测量工具本身就是原子和电子。预测宇宙这种想法被推翻了，“我们所有的行为都是预先确定的”这个理论，也因此而垮掉了。我们有某种意识，在控制着一部分、或者整个大脑的原子的运动，身体的其他行为，则是为了增强这种运动。现在必须解决的问题是，宇宙中其它原子的运动是如何控制的。也许是一样的原理，还有灵魂的远程作用，但因为没有东西来增强这种运动，所以它看起来好像是纯粹被概率控制的。很显然，物理没有预先确定，几乎就是很多概率的组合。

As McTaggart shews matter is meaningless in the absence of spirit (throughout I do not mean by matter that which can be a solid a liquid or a gas so much as that which is dealt with by physics e.g. light and gravitation as well, i.e. that which forms the universe). Personally I think that spirit is really eternally connected with matter but certainly not always by the same kind of body. I did believe it possible for a spirit at death to go to a universe entirely separate from our own, but I now consider that matter and spirit are so connected that this would be a contradiction in terms. It is possible however but unlikely that such universes may exist.

正如麦克塔伽所说，缺少灵魂的实体是无意义的（自始至终，我说的实体，不光是指物理上的固体、液体或气体，还包括光和引力，也就是组成宇宙的全部实体）。我个人认为，灵魂会永恒地与实体发生相互作用，但不一定总是表现为同样的形态。我相信在我们死后，灵魂会到达一个与我们完全隔绝的宇宙，但我现在考虑到，实体和灵魂紧密联系，这在形态上可能会自相矛盾。这有可能是对的，但那些宇宙又不太像是存在的。

Then as regards the actual connection between spirit and body I consider that the body by reason of being a living body can 'attract' and hold on to a 'spirit', whilst the body is alive and awake the two are firmly connected. When the body is asleep I cannot guess what happens but when the body dies the 'mechanism' of the body, holding the spirit is gone and the spirit finds a new body sooner or later perhaps immediately.

至于灵魂和身体的真正关系，我认为，当身体活着时，可以吸引并抓住灵魂，使其紧紧地联系在一起。当身体睡着时，我猜不出会发生什么，但当抓着灵魂的身体死亡时，它就会“失灵”，然后灵魂会去寻找一个新的身体。