by Francis Bacon
translated by Bill Lin
(羅馬總督審問耶穌基督。聽到耶穌最後說：「...我是來替真理做見證，...」)
「什麼是真理？」彼拉多邊走邊戲謔地問，不等回答就走開了。
的確有人喜歡輕浮暈眩，認為固定的信念是一種束縛；會影響到他們在思考和行為上的自由意志。雖然这類派別的哲學家也會不久人世，終究還留下一些有小聰明的論述，不過，正如那些古代的學者一樣，他們是一脈相傳，都患了貧血症。
人們喜愛謊言，並非只因為尋求真理的過程既困難又費勁，也不是因為找到了真理以後，它對人類思想的拘束；而是出於一種對謊言本身自然卻又腐敗的愛好。一位近代的希臘學者，觀察了這現象，致力於思考人們為什麼喜好謊言；他發現他們不像詩人吟詩為的是愉人愉己，也不像商賈追求利益；而是因為是謊言的緣故。
但是我卻說不上來：這個同樣的赤裸裸的，在大白天下的真理，不表演世上的戴面具的鬧劇，凱旋遊行，卻只像燭光般一半的莊嚴和優雅。真理或許有珍珠般的珍貴，在白天呈現最美麗的光彩；但卻比不上鑽石或紅寶石，在燈光下的炫麗。
人生添加了謊言確實添加了樂趣。假如把空虛的看法，吹捧的盼望，錯誤的價值，和一個人儘可能的想像，等等…從人們的心裡拿掉的話，有人會懷疑：有許多人那可憐的萎縮的心裡，只剩下了鬱悶、不適和自我的不滿嗎？
有個教士，很嚴厲的宣稱“詩詞”是魔鬼的酒，因為它充滿著想像；然而，它只不過是有著一個謊言的陰影而已。
會傷害人的不是像耳邊風那樣的謊言，而是那種流進去而且待在心裡的，像我們以前提過的那一種。不管如何，這些東西就存在於人們墮落的判斷和感情之中；然而真理，只會審判自己，教導我們要查詢它(真金不怕火煉)；它是行出愛、或是追求愛，是真理的知識；它是現存的，也是真理的信仰；它是我們的喜悅，是人性最高的美善。
神在創造宇宙萬物時，首先創造了感性的光；最後創造了理性的光。日後所有祂的安息日的作為，都是祂的聖靈的光照。首先祂對混沌黑暗的淵面呼出了光；然後祂將這光吹進了人的臉，而後祂一直鼓舞吹送這光進入祂所揀選的人臉上。
一位詩人哲學家，他給他的宗派加添了光彩，否則他的宗派是乏善可陳，他說得好：
站在海邊，看著在海上顛簸的船隻，是一種樂趣；
從城堡的窗內，俯視一場驚險的爭戰，也是樂趣；
但總比不上站在真理的制高點(一處不被使喚的高陵，空氣總是清新安詳)，
觀看世人的繆誤、迷惘，和山谷中的迷霧和暴風雨來得有趣。
所以總該會懷著憐憫的觀點，而非自我膨脹或驕傲。當然，一個人若能心懷慈悲，永駐天意而且能洞燭真裡的兩極，不啻是在人間天堂了。
從神學、哲學的真理，到日常事務的真理，既清楚又直截了當，甚至那些不這麼做的人都認知的，就是個人本性的榮譽，和虛偽事實的混雜；正如金幣和銀幣鎔出的合金，可能有更好的用途，但是卻降級了。
因為這些歪歪扭扭的作為，是蛇的出入行徑，根本是以腹部而行，而非使用雙腳。沒有惡行像被人發現虛偽和被信棄義那樣的使人蒙羞。所以蒙田很巧妙的說：
說一個人撒謊，假如經過仔細的考量，
其實是在說他膽敢不敬畏神，
卻不敢面對人。
因為撒個謊是要面對神的，而且在人前要畏縮的。當然，謬誤的邪惡和背信是不可能招搖過市的，要是像那樣的話，那就是最後的一聲巨響，要招來神對歷代人類的審判，如同預言所說，當基督再來時，在這世上將找不到信實了。
What is truth? Said
jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be,
that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief;
affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the
sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain
discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so
much blood in them, as was in those of the ancients. But it is not
only the difficulty and labor, which men take in finding out of
truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposes upon men's
thoughts, that does bring lies in favor; but a natural though corrupt
love, of the lie itself. One of the later school of the Grecians,
examines the matter, and is at a stand, to think what should be in
it, that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure,
as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the
lie's sake. But I cannot tell; this same truth, is a naked, and open
day-light, that does not show the masks, and mummeries, and triumphs,
of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. Truth
may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that shows best by day; but
it will not rise to the price of a diamond, or carbuncle, that shows
best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie does ever add pleasure.
Does any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds, vain
opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one
would, and the like, but it would leave the minds, of a number of
men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and
unpleasing to themselves?
One of the fathers, in
great severity, called poesy vinum dæmonum (the wine of the devils),
because it fills the imagination; and yet, it is but with the shadow
of a lie. But it is not the lie that passes through the mind, but the
lie that sinks in, and settles in it, that does the hurt; such as we
spoke of before. But, howsoever these things are thus in men's
depraved judgments, and affections, yet truth, which only does judge
itself, teaches that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making,
or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it,
and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the
sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God, in the
works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last, was the
light of reason; and his Sabbath work ever since, is the illumination
of his Spirit. First he breathed light, upon the face of the matter
or chaos; then he breathed light, into the face of man; and still he
breathes and inspires light, into the face of his chosen. The poet,
that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest,
says yet excellently well:
It is a pleasure, to
stand upon the shore,
and to see ships tossed
upon the sea;
a pleasure, to stand in
the window of a castle,
and to see a battle, and
the adventures thereof below:
but no pleasure is
comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth
(a hill not to be
commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene),
and to see the errors,
and wanderings,
and mists, and tempests,
in the vale below;
so always that this
prospect be with pity, and not with swelling, or pride. Certainly, it
is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in
providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.
To pass from theological,
and philosophical truth, to the truth of civil business; it will be
acknowledged, even by those that practice it not, that clear, and
round dealing, is the honor of man's nature; and that mixture of
falsehoods, is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make
the metal work the better, but it embases it. For these winding, and
crooked courses, are the goings of the serpent; which goes basely
upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice, that does so
cover a man with shame, as to be found false and perfidious. And
therefore Montaigne says prettily, when he inquired the reason, why
the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an
odious可憎的charge?
Says he,
If it be well weighed, to
say that a man lies,
is as much to say, as
that he is brave towards God,
and a coward towards men.
For a lie faces God, and
shrinks from man. Surely the wickedness of falsehood, and breach of
faith, cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be
the last peal, to call the judgments of God upon the generations of
men; it being foretold, that when Christ comes, he shall not find
faith upon the earth.
