68:0.1 (763.1) THIS is the beginning of the narrative of the long, long forward struggle of the human species from a status that was little better than an animal existence, through the intervening ages, and down to the later times when a real, though imperfect, civilization had evolved among the higher races of mankind.
68:0.1 (763.1) 這便是人類物種漫長而艱辛的奮進史詩之開端，從一種幾乎無異於動物般生存的狀態，歷經其間漫長的歲月，一路延續至後世，當人類的較高等種族中發展出一种真正（儘管尚不完善）的文明之時。
68:0.2 (763.2) Civilization is a racial acquirement; it is not biologically inherent; hence must all children be reared in an environment of culture, while each succeeding generation of youth must receive anew its education. The superior qualities of civilization—scientific, philosophic, and religious—are not transmitted from one generation to another by direct inheritance. These cultural achievements are preserved only by the enlightened conservation of social inheritance.
68:0.2 (763.2) 文明是一種種族的後天習得；並非生物學上的先天特質；因此，所有孩子皆須在文化的薰陶下撫育長大，而每一代接續而來的年輕人都必須從頭開始接受教育。文明的卓越特質——無論是科學、哲學或宗教的——都不會通過直接遺傳從一代傳至下一代。這些文化成就，唯有通過對社會遺產的理智守護，才能得以保存。
68:0.3 (763.3) Social evolution of the co-operative order was initiated by the Dalamatia teachers, and for three hundred thousand years mankind was nurtured in the idea of group activities. The blue man most of all profited by these early social teachings, the red man to some extent, and the black man least of all. In more recent times the yellow race and the white race have presented the most advanced social development on Urantia.
68:0.3 (763.3) 合作型態的社會演進是由達拉瑪希亞的導師們發起的，在隨後的三十萬年間，人類在群體活動的觀念薰陶下成長。從這些早期的社會教導中，藍種人受益最多，紅種人其次，而黑種人受益最少。在較近的時期，黃種人和白種人在玉苒廈呈現出最先進的社會發展。
68:1.1 (763.4) When brought closely together, men often learn to like one another, but primitive man was not naturally overflowing with the spirit of brotherly feeling and the desire for social contact with his fellows. Rather did the early races learn by sad experience that “in union there is strength”; and it is this lack of natural brotherly attraction that now stands in the way of immediate realization of the brotherhood of man on Urantia.
68:1.1 (763.4) 當人們被緊密地聚攏在一起時，往往能逐漸學會彼此喜愛，但原始人的天性中，並沒有自然而然地充盈著兄弟般的情誼，也缺乏與同伴交往的渴望。相反，早期的人類種族正是通過慘痛的教訓才領悟到「團結就是力量」；而如今，正是這種天生兄弟友愛的缺失，阻礙了人類兄弟情誼在玉苒廈上的即刻實現。
68:1.2 (763.5) Association early became the price of survival. The lone man was helpless unless he bore a tribal mark which testified that he belonged to a group which would certainly avenge any assault made upon him. Even in the days of Cain it was fatal to go abroad alone without some mark of group association. Civilization has become man’s insurance against violent death, while the premiums are paid by submission to society’s numerous law demands.
68:1.2 (763.5) 群居很早就成了生存的代價。除非身上帶有部落標記，表明自己隸屬於一個必定會為他報仇的群體，否則孤身一人便毫無自保之力。即使在該隱的時代，若沒有群體歸屬的標記便獨自外出，也是致命的。文明已成為人類免遭暴死的保險，而這份保費，則是通過服從社會種種法規的約束來支付的。
68:1.3 (763.6) Primitive society was thus founded on the reciprocity of necessity and on the enhanced safety of association. And human society has evolved in agelong cycles as a result of this isolation fear and by means of reluctant co-operation.
68:1.3 (763.6) 由此可見，原始社會是建立在基於生存需要的互惠，以及結伴所增強的安全感之上的。而人類社會正是出於對孤立的恐懼，並籍著勉為其難的合作，在漫長歲月的循環中演變而來的。
68:1.4 (763.7) Primitive human beings early learned that groups are vastly greater and stronger than the mere sum of their individual units. One hundred men united and working in unison can move a great stone; a score of well-trained guardians of the peace can restrain an angry mob. And so society was born, not of mere association of numbers, but rather as a result of the organization of intelligent co-operators. But co-operation is not a natural trait of man; he learns to co-operate first through fear and then later because he discovers it is most beneficial in meeting the difficulties of time and guarding against the supposed perils of eternity.
68:1.4 (763.7) 原始人類很早就認識到，群體的力量遠比個體的簡單相加強大得多。一百人團結一致、齊心協力，便能搬動一塊巨石；二十名訓練有素的維安人員，便能制止一群憤怒的暴徒。於是，社會就此誕生，它並非僅是人數的聚合，而是智能的合作者組織起來的結果。然而，合作並非人類與生俱來的特質；他起初是出於恐懼才學會合作，後來則是因為發現，在應對現世的困難以及防範所謂永恆的危險時，合作是最有益的。
68:1.5 (764.1) The peoples who thus early organized themselves into a primitive society became more successful in their attacks on nature as well as in defense against their fellows; they possessed greater survival possibilities; hence has civilization steadily progressed on Urantia, notwithstanding its many setbacks. And it is only because of the enhancement of survival value in association that man’s many blunders have thus far failed to stop or destroy human civilization.
68:1.5 (764.1) 那些如此早早便自發組織成原始社會的族群，無論是在挑戰自然或抵禦同類方面都更為成功；他們具備了更強的生存优勢；因此，儘管遭遇了許多挫折，文明仍在玉苒廈穩步發展。而正因為群體結伴能提升生存價值，人類迄今為止的種種嚴重失誤，才未能阻止或摧毀人類文明。
68:1.6 (764.2) That contemporary cultural society is a rather recent phenomenon is well shown by the present-day survival of such primitive social conditions as characterize the Australian natives and the Bushmen and Pygmies of Africa. Among these backward peoples may be observed something of the early group hostility, personal suspicion, and other highly antisocial traits which were so characteristic of all primitive races. These miserable remnants of the nonsocial peoples of ancient times bear eloquent testimony to the fact that the natural individualistic tendency of man cannot successfully compete with the more potent and powerful organizations and associations of social progression. These backward and suspicious antisocial races that speak a different dialect every forty or fifty miles illustrate what a world you might now be living in but for the combined teaching of the corporeal staff of the Planetary Prince and the later labors of the Adamic group of racial uplifters.
68:1.6 (764.2) 當今的文化社會實屬相當新近的現象，這一點從至今仍存續的、如澳洲原住民、非洲布須曼人及俾格米人所展現的原始社會狀態，便可清楚地看出。在這些落後族群中，仍可觀察到早期群體間的敵意、個人之間的猜疑，以及其他極具反社會特徵的表現，這些曾是所有原始種族的典型標誌。這些古代非社會性族群的可憐殘餘，生動地見證了這樣一個事實：人類與生俱來的個人主義傾向，根本無法與社會演進所形成的更強大、更有影響力的組織與聯盟相抗衡。這些落後又多疑的反社會族群，每隔四十或五十英里便說一種不同的方言，這正說明了：若非行星君王肉身屬員的聯合教導，以及亞當種族提升者群體後續的努力，你們如今所處的世界將會是何等模樣。
68:1.7 (764.3) The modern phrase, “back to nature,” is a delusion of ignorance, a belief in the reality of the onetime fictitious “golden age.” The only basis for the legend of the golden age is the historic fact of Dalamatia and Eden. But these improved societies were far from the realization of utopian dreams.
68:1.7 (764.3)「回歸自然」這個現代術語，是源於無知的迷思，是對曾經虛構的「黃金時代」真實存在的錯覺。黃金時代傳說的唯一依據，便是達拉瑪希亞與伊甸園這兩項歷史事實。然而，這些較為進步的社會，離烏托邦夢想的實現仍相去甚遠。
68:2.1 (764.4) Civilized society is the result of man’s early efforts to overcome his dislike of isolation. But this does not necessarily signify mutual affection, and the present turbulent state of certain primitive groups well illustrates what the early tribes came up through. But though the individuals of a civilization may collide with each other and struggle against one another, and though civilization itself may appear to be an inconsistent mass of striving and struggling, it does evidence earnest striving, not the deadly monotony of stagnation.
68:2.1 (764.4) 文明社會是人類早期為克服對孤立的排斥所作努力的結果。但這並不一定意味著彼此之間有感情，而某些原始群體當前動盪的狀態，恰恰生動地說明了早期部落曾經是如何熬過來的。儘管文明社會中的個體可能會相互衝突、彼此抗爭，儘管文明本身看似是一團充滿奮鬥與掙扎的矛盾體，但這確實證明了人們正在全力以赴地奮鬥，而非陷入停滯所帶來的致命單調。
68:2.2 (764.5) While the level of intelligence has contributed considerably to the rate of cultural progress, society is essentially designed to lessen the risk element in the individual’s mode of living, and it has progressed just as fast as it has succeeded in lessening pain and increasing the pleasure element in life. Thus does the whole social body push on slowly toward the goal of destiny—extinction or survival—depending on whether that goal is self-maintenance or self-gratification. Self-maintenance originates society, while excessive self-gratification destroys civilization.
68:2.2 (764.5) 雖然智力水平極大地促進了文化進步的速度，但社會的本質設計，其實在於降低個人生存方式中的風險因素，而它的進步速度恰與其在減輕痛苦、增加生活樂趣方面的成效相符。因此，整個社會體正緩緩朝著命運的目標邁進——滅絕或生存——這取決於該目標是自我維持還是自我滿足。自我維持孕育了社會，而過度的自我滿足則會摧毀文明。
68:2.3 (764.6) Society is concerned with self-perpetuation, self-maintenance, and self-gratification, but human self-realization is worthy of becoming the immediate goal of many cultural groups.
68:2.3 (764.6) 社會致力於自我延續、自我維持與自我滿足，但人類的自我實現理應成為許多文化群體的當前目標。
68:2.4 (765.1) The herd instinct in natural man is hardly sufficient to account for the development of such a social organization as now exists on Urantia. Though this innate gregarious propensity lies at the bottom of human society, much of man’s sociability is an acquirement. Two great influences which contributed to the early association of human beings were food hunger and sex love; these instinctive urges man shares with the animal world. Two other emotions which drove human beings together and held them together were vanity and fear, more particularly ghost fear.
68:2.4 (765.1) 自然人內在的群體本能，幾乎不足以解釋為何會發展出如當今玉苒廈所存在的這種社會組織。儘管這種與生俱來的群居傾向是人類社會的根基，但人類的社交性在很大程度上是後天習得的。促使人類在早期結成群體的兩大影響因素是對食物的飢渴與性愛；這些本能衝動是人類與動物界所共有的。另外兩種促使人類聚集並維繫團結的情緒則是虛榮心與恐懼，尤其是對鬼魂的恐懼。
68:2.5 (765.2) History is but the record of man’s agelong food struggle. Primitive man only thought when he was hungry; food saving was his first self-denial, self-discipline. With the growth of society, food hunger ceased to be the only incentive for mutual association. Numerous other sorts of hunger, the realization of various needs, all led to the closer association of mankind. But today society is top-heavy with the overgrowth of supposed human needs. Occidental civilization of the twentieth century groans wearily under the tremendous overload of luxury and the inordinate multiplication of human desires and longings. Modern society is enduring the strain of one of its most dangerous phases of far-flung interassociation and highly complicated interdependence.
68:2.5 (765.2) 歷史不過是人類在漫長歲月裡為食物而抗爭的紀錄。原始人只有在飢餓時才會思考；儲備食物是他最早的自我克制與自律。隨著社會的發展，對食物的飢餓不再是人們相互結社的唯一動力。諸多其他形式的飢餓，即各種需求的滿足，皆促使人類建立更緊密的聯繫。然而當今社會卻因所謂人類需求的過度膨脹而頭重腳輕。二十世紀的西方文明，在奢華的沉重負擔，以及人類慾望與渴求的過度膨脹下，正疲憊地呻吟著。現代社會正承受著其發展歷程中最危險的階段之一所帶來的壓力：這個階段的特徵是無遠弗屆的相互關聯和極其複雜的相互依賴。
68:2.6 (765.3) Hunger, vanity, and ghost fear were continuous in their social pressure, but sex gratification was transient and spasmodic. The sex urge alone did not impel primitive men and women to assume the heavy burdens of home maintenance. The early home was founded upon the sex restlessness of the male when deprived of frequent gratification and upon that devoted mother love of the human female, which in measure she shares with the females of all the higher animals. The presence of a helpless baby determined the early differentiation of male and female activities; the woman had to maintain a settled residence where she could cultivate the soil. And from earliest times, where woman was has always been regarded as the home.
68:2.6 (765.3) 飢餓、虛榮心與對鬼魂的恐懼，作為社會壓力始終存在；但性滿足卻是短暫且間歇性的。單憑性慾，並不足以驅使原始男女承擔維持家庭的沉重負擔。早期家庭的建立，既基於男性在無法頻繁獲得滿足時所產生的性焦躁，也基於人類女性那份無私的母愛，這份母愛在某種程度上是所有高等動物的雌性所共有的。一個無助嬰兒的存在，決定了男女活動的早期分化；女性必須維持一個固定的居所，以便耕作土地。自古以來，女性所在之處，便始終被視為家。
68:2.7 (765.4) Woman thus early became indispensable to the evolving social scheme, not so much because of the fleeting sex passion as in consequence of food requirement; she was an essential partner in self-maintenance. She was a food provider, a beast of burden, and a companion who would stand great abuse without violent resentment, and in addition to all of these desirable traits, she was an ever-present means of sex gratification.
68:2.7 (765.4) 因此，女性很早便成為不斷演進的社會體系中不可或缺的一環，這並非主要源於轉瞬即逝的性慾，而是源於對食物的需求；她是自我維持的關鍵夥伴。她既是食物的供應者、干活的勞動力，也是能忍受嚴酷虐待而不懷激烈怨恨的伴侶；除了這些有益的特質之外，她更是隨時可供滿足性慾的工具。
68:2.8 (765.5) Almost everything of lasting value in civilization has its roots in the family. The family was the first successful peace group, the man and woman learning how to adjust their antagonisms while at the same time teaching the pursuits of peace to their children.
68:2.8 (765.5) 文明中幾乎所有具有持久價值的東西，都源於家庭。家庭是第一個成功的和平共同體，男女在學習如何調和彼此對立的同時，也將和平之道傳授給了後代。
68:2.9 (765.6) The function of marriage in evolution is the insurance of race survival, not merely the realization of personal happiness; self-maintenance and self-perpetuation are the real objects of the home. Self-gratification is incidental and not essential except as an incentive insuring sex association. Nature demands survival, but the arts of civilization continue to increase the pleasures of marriage and the satisfactions of family life.
68:2.9 (765.6) 婚姻在進化中的功能在於確保種族續存，而非僅僅實現個人幸福；自我維持與自我延續才是家庭的真正目標。自我滿足僅是附帶的，並非核心要義，除非它能作為維繫兩性結合的誘因。自然法則要求生存，但文明的技巧卻不斷增添著婚姻的愉悅與家庭生活的圓滿。
68:2.10 (765.7) If vanity be enlarged to cover pride, ambition, and honor, then we may discern not only how these propensities contribute to the formation of human associations, but how they also hold men together, since such emotions are futile without an audience to parade before. Soon vanity associated with itself other emotions and impulses which required a social arena wherein they might exhibit and gratify themselves. This group of emotions gave origin to the early beginnings of all art, ceremonial, and all forms of sportive games and contests.
68:2.10 (765.7) 倘若將「虛榮」的涵義擴展至包含驕傲、野心與榮譽，那麼我們不僅能覺察這些傾向如何促成人類聯盟的形成，而且還能理解它們如何將人們凝聚在一起——因為若無觀眾可供炫耀，此類情感便毫無意義。不久，虛榮便與其他情緒和衝動交織在一起，這些情緒與衝動都需要一個社交舞台，讓它們得以展現並獲得滿足。這組情緒催生了所有藝術、儀式，以及各類運動遊戲與競賽的最初雛形。
68:2.11 (766.1) Vanity contributed mightily to the birth of society; but at the time of these revelations the devious strivings of a vainglorious generation threaten to swamp and submerge the whole complicated structure of a highly specialized civilization. Pleasure-want has long since superseded hunger-want; the legitimate social aims of self-maintenance are rapidly translating themselves into base and threatening forms of self-gratification. Self-maintenance builds society; unbridled self-gratification unfailingly destroys civilization.
68:2.11 (766.1) 虛榮對社會的誕生起到了極大的推動作用；但在這些啟示浮現之際，一個極度虛榮的世代所進行的詭詐謀求，正威脅要淹沒並吞噬這座高度專業化文明的整個複雜結構。對享樂的渴求早已取代了對食物的渴求；自我維持這項正當的社會目標，正迅速轉化為低劣且具威脅性的自我滿足形式。自我維持締造社會；而肆無忌憚的自我滿足，則必然會摧毀文明。
68:3.1 (766.2) Primitive desires produced the original society, but ghost fear held it together and imparted an extrahuman aspect to its existence. Common fear was physiological in origin: fear of physical pain, unsatisfied hunger, or some earthly calamity; but ghost fear was a new and sublime sort of terror.
68:3.1 (766.2) 原始慾望催生了最初的社會，但對鬼魂的恐懼將其維繫在一起，並賦予其存在以一種超乎人類的層面。一般的恐懼源於生理本能：是對肉體的痛苦、難耐的飢餓或某種塵世災難的恐懼；但對鬼魂的恐懼，則是一種嶄新且崇高的恐懼。
68:3.2 (766.3) Probably the greatest single factor in the evolution of human society was the ghost dream. Although most dreams greatly perturbed the primitive mind, the ghost dream actually terrorized early men, driving these superstitious dreamers into each other’s arms in willing and earnest association for mutual protection against the vague and unseen imaginary dangers of the spirit world. The ghost dream was one of the earliest appearing differences between the animal and human types of mind. Animals do not visualize survival after death.
68:3.2 (766.3) 在人類社會的演進過程中，最關鍵的單一因素恐怕就是「鬼夢」。雖然大多數夢境都會讓原始人的心智深感不安，但「鬼夢」卻真正令早期人類感到極度恐懼，促使這些迷信的做夢者自願且真誠地連結在一起，彼此緊密依靠，以相互保護，共同抵禦靈界中那些模糊且看不見的虛構危險。「鬼夢」是動物與人類的心智類型之間最早顯現的差異之一。動物不會想像死後的續存。
68:3.3 (766.4) Except for this ghost factor, all society was founded on fundamental needs and basic biologic urges. But ghost fear introduced a new factor in civilization, a fear which reaches out and away from the elemental needs of the individual, and which rises far above even the struggles to maintain the group. The dread of the departed spirits of the dead brought to light a new and amazing form of fear, an appalling and powerful terror, which contributed to whipping the loose social orders of early ages into the more thoroughly disciplined and better controlled primitive groups of ancient times. This senseless superstition, some of which still persists, prepared the minds of men, through superstitious fear of the unreal and the supernatural, for the later discovery of “the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom.” The baseless fears of evolution are designed to be supplanted by the awe for Deity inspired by revelation. The early cult of ghost fear became a powerful social bond, and ever since that far-distant day mankind has been striving more or less for the attainment of spirituality.
68:3.3 (766.4) 除了這個鬼魂因素之外，整個社會都是建立在基本需求與基礎生物本能之上的。然而，鬼魂恐懼為文明引入了一個新的因素——這種恐懼遠遠超越了個體的基本需求，甚至遠高於為維繫群體而進行的奮鬥。對逝者亡靈的恐懼揭示了一種嶄新而驚人的恐懼形式，一種駭人且強大的恐懼，它促使早期鬆散的社會秩序，轉變為古代那些紀律更嚴明、管控更完善的原始群體。這種盲目的迷信——其中部分至今仍然存在——透過對虛幻與超自然事物的迷信恐懼，為人類的心智做好了準備，使其日後得以領悟「敬畏耶和華是智慧的開端」。進化中那些毫無根據的恐懼，注定要被啟示所激發的、對神靈的敬畏所取代。早期基於對鬼魂的恐懼而進行的崇拜，成為一種強大的社會紐帶，自那遙遠的時代以來，人類便或多或少地致力於追求靈性。
68:3.4 (766.5) Hunger and love drove men together; vanity and ghost fear held them together. But these emotions alone, without the influence of peace-promoting revelations, are unable to endure the strain of the suspicions and irritations of human interassociations. Without help from superhuman sources the strain of society breaks down upon reaching certain limits, and these very influences of social mobilization—hunger, love, vanity, and fear—conspire to plunge mankind into war and bloodshed.
68:3.4 (766.5) 飢餓與愛慾將人們凝聚在一起；虛榮與對鬼神的恐懼則將他們維繫在一起。然而，若沒有促進和平的啟示所帶來的影響，僅憑這些情感，必無法承受人類相互交往中所產生的猜疑與摩擦所帶來的壓力。若沒有超人類來源的協助，社會所承受的壓力一旦達到某種極限，便會崩潰；而正是這些社會集結的驅動力——飢餓、愛欲、虛榮與恐懼——會聯手將人類推入戰爭與流血的深淵。
68:3.5 (766.6) The peace tendency of the human race is not a natural endowment; it is derived from the teachings of revealed religion, from the accumulated experience of the progressive races, but more especially from the teachings of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
68:3.5 (766.6) 人類種族的和平傾向並非先天的稟賦；它源自啟示宗教的教導、源自進步種族的累積經驗，但更特別的是，源自「和平之君」耶穌的教導。
68:4.1 (767.1) All modern social institutions arise from the evolution of the primitive customs of your savage ancestors; the conventions of today are the modified and expanded customs of yesterday. What habit is to the individual, custom is to the group; and group customs develop into folkways or tribal traditions—mass conventions. From these early beginnings all of the institutions of present-day human society take their humble origin.
68:4.1 (767.1) 所有現代社會制度，皆源於你們野蠻祖先原始習俗的演變；今日的慣例，正是昨日習俗的修改與擴展。習慣之於個人，正如習俗之於群體；而群體習俗會發展成民俗或部落傳統——即大眾慣例。當今人類社會的所有制度，皆可從這些最初的起點，找到其樸素的起源。
68:4.2 (767.2) It must be borne in mind that the mores originated in an effort to adjust group living to the conditions of mass existence; the mores were man’s first social institution. And all of these tribal reactions grew out of the effort to avoid pain and humiliation while at the same time seeking to enjoy pleasure and power. The origin of folkways, like the origin of languages, is always unconscious and unintentional and therefore always shrouded in mystery.
68:4.2 (767.2) 必須銘記的是，禮俗的起源在於人類為調整群體生活、適應大眾生存條件所作的努力；禮俗是人類最早的社會制度。而所有這些部落應對機制，皆源於人們在力求避免痛苦與屈辱的同時，亦追求享樂與權力的努力。民俗的起源，正如語言的起源一樣，總是無意識且非刻意的，因此始終籠罩在神秘之中。
68:4.3 (767.3) Ghost fear drove primitive man to envision the supernatural and thus securely laid the foundations for those powerful social influences of ethics and religion which in turn preserved inviolate the mores and customs of society from generation to generation. The one thing which early established and crystallized the mores was the belief that the dead were jealous of the ways by which they had lived and died; therefore would they visit dire punishment upon those living mortals who dared to treat with careless disdain the rules of living which they had honored when in the flesh. All this is best illustrated by the present reverence of the yellow race for their ancestors. Later developing primitive religion greatly reinforced ghost fear in stabilizing the mores, but advancing civilization has increasingly liberated mankind from the bondage of fear and the slavery of superstition.
68:4.3 (767.3) 對鬼魂的恐懼驅使原始人想像出超自然的存在，從而為倫理與宗教這些強大的社會影響力奠定了堅實基礎；而這些影響力又反過來確保了社會的禮俗與習俗代代相傳，完好無損地保存下來。早期促使禮俗確立並逐漸定型的關鍵，在於人們相信：死者對其生前或死時所遵循的方式極度在意；因此，若在世凡人膽敢輕率蔑視他們生前所尊崇的生活準則，死者必將降下嚴厲的懲罰。當今黃種人對祖先的敬畏，便是對此最好的詮釋。後來發展出的原始宗教，在鞏固禮俗的過程中極大地強化了這種對鬼魂的恐懼，然而，隨著文明的進步，人類已日益從恐懼的桎梏與迷信的奴役中獲得解放。
68:4.4 (767.4) Prior to the liberating and liberalizing instruction of the Dalamatia teachers, ancient man was held a helpless victim of the ritual of the mores; the primitive savage was hedged about by an endless ceremonial. Everything he did from the time of awakening in the morning to the moment he fell asleep in his cave at night had to be done just so—in accordance with the folkways of the tribe. He was a slave to the tyranny of usage; his life contained nothing free, spontaneous, or original. There was no natural progress toward a higher mental, moral, or social existence.
68:4.4 (767.4) 在達拉瑪希亞導師們帶來解放與開明的教導之前，遠古人類曾是禮俗儀式中無助的受害者；原始的野蠻人被無盡的繁文縟節所包圍。從清晨醒來，到夜晚在洞穴中入睡，他所做的一切都必須分毫不差地進行——完全依照部落的民俗。他淪為慣例暴政的奴隸；他的生命中毫無自由、自發或獨創可言。在邁向更高層次的心理、道德或社會存在之路上，並不存在任何自然的進程。
68:4.5 (767.5) Early man was mightily gripped by custom; the savage was a veritable slave to usage; but there have arisen ever and anon those variations from type who have dared to inaugurate new ways of thinking and improved methods of living. Nevertheless, the inertia of primitive man constitutes the biologic safety brake against precipitation too suddenly into the ruinous maladjustment of a too rapidly advancing civilization.
68:4.5 (767.5) 早期人類深受習俗的束縛；野蠻人可說是慣例的真正奴隸；但時不時地，總會出現一些偏離常規的異類，他們敢於開創新的思維方式和更完善的生活方式。儘管如此，原始人類的慣性卻構成了一種生物學上的安全煞車，防止人類過於倉促地陷入因發展過於快速的文明所導致的毀滅性失調之中。
68:4.6 (767.6) But these customs are not an unmitigated evil; their evolution should continue. It is nearly fatal to the continuance of civilization to undertake their wholesale modification by radical revolution. Custom has been the thread of continuity which has held civilization together. The path of human history is strewn with the remnants of discarded customs and obsolete social practices; but no civilization has endured which abandoned its mores except for the adoption of better and more fit customs.
68:4.6 (767.6) 然而，這些習俗並非一種徹底的惡；它們的演變應當持續下去。若試圖通過激進的革命來全面改變這些習俗，對文明的延續幾乎是致命的。習俗一直是那條維繫文明連續性的紐帶。人類歷史的道路上，散落著被拋棄的習俗與過時社會慣例的殘骸；但沒有任何文明能在拋棄自身禮俗後得以存續，除非它們採納了更佳、更合適的習俗。
68:4.7 (767.7) The survival of a society depends chiefly on the progressive evolution of its mores. The process of custom evolution grows out of the desire for experimentation; new ideas are put forward—competition ensues. A progressing civilization embraces the progressive idea and endures; time and circumstance finally select the fitter group for survival. But this does not mean that each separate and isolated change in the composition of human society has been for the better. No! indeed no! for there have been many, many retrogressions in the long forward struggle of Urantia civilization.
68:4.7 (767.7) 一個社會的存續，主要取決於其禮俗的漸進式演變。習俗演變的過程源於對嘗試新事物的渴望；新觀念被提出時——競爭便隨之而來。一個不斷進步的文明會接納進步的理念，並得以長存；時間與環境最終會篩選出更具適應力的群體，使其得以存續。但這並不意味著人類社會結構中每一個單獨和孤立的變化，都是向好的方向發展。不！絕非如此！因為在玉苒廈文明漫長的向前奮鬥歷程中，曾發生過無數次的倒退。
5. Land Techniques––Maintenance Arts
5. 土地利用技術––謀生技藝
68:5.1 (768.1) Land is the stage of society; men are the actors. And man must ever adjust his performances to conform to the land situation. The evolution of the mores is always dependent on the land-man ratio. This is true notwithstanding the difficulty of its discernment. Man’s land technique, or maintenance arts, plus his standards of living, equal the sum total of the folkways, the mores. And the sum of man’s adjustment to the life demands equals his cultural civilization.
68:5.1 (768.1) 土地是社會的舞台；人類則是演員。人類必須不斷調整自己的表演，以適應土地的客觀條件。禮俗的演變，始終取決於土地與人口的比例。儘管這一點難以辨識，但卻是確凿的事實。人類的土地利用技術——即謀生技藝——加上其生活水準，便構成了民俗的總和，即禮俗。而人類為適應生存需求所作出的調整，其總和即等同於其文化發展的程度。
68:5.2 (768.2) The earliest human cultures arose along the rivers of the Eastern Hemisphere, and there were four great steps in the forward march of civilization. They were:
68:5.2 (768.2) 最早的人類文明誕生於東半球的河流沿岸，而文明的進步歷經了四個重大階段。它們分別是：
68:5.3 (768.3) 1. The collection stage. Food coercion, hunger, led to the first form of industrial organization, the primitive food-gathering lines. Sometimes such a line of hunger march would be ten miles long as it passed over the land gleaning food. This was the primitive nomadic stage of culture and is the mode of life now followed by the African Bushmen.
68:5.3 (768.3) 1. 採集階段。迫於食物的壓力，即飢餓，催生了最早的產業組織形式——原始的食物採集隊伍。有時，這樣一支飢餓的覓食隊伍，在穿越大地搜尋食物時，長達十幾公里。這便是文化發展中的原始遊牧階段，也是當今非洲布希曼人所遵循的生活方式。
68:5.4 (768.4) 2. The hunting stage. The invention of weapon tools enabled man to become a hunter and thus to gain considerable freedom from food slavery. A thoughtful Andonite who had severely bruised his fist in a serious combat rediscovered the idea of using a long stick for his arm and a piece of hard flint, bound on the end with sinews, for his fist. Many tribes made independent discoveries of this sort, and these various forms of hammers represented one of the great forward steps in human civilization. Today some Australian natives have progressed little beyond this stage.
68:5.4 (768.4) 2. 狩獵階段。武工器具的發明使人類得以成為獵人，從而從食物的奴役中獲得相當程度的自由。一位善於思考的安東族人，曾在一次激烈的搏鬥中，拳頭嚴重挫傷，他重新發現了這樣的構想：用一根長棍作為手臂的延伸，並在棍端用筋腱綁上一塊堅硬的燧石，充當拳頭。許多部落都獨立地發明了這類器具，而這些各式各樣的錘子，代表了人類文明的一大飛躍。時至今日，部分澳洲原住民的發展幾乎未超越此階段。
68:5.5 (768.5) The blue men became expert hunters and trappers; by fencing the rivers they caught fish in great numbers, drying the surplus for winter use. Many forms of ingenious snares and traps were employed in catching game, but the more primitive races did not hunt the larger animals.
68:5.5 (768.5) 藍種人逐漸成為技藝高超的狩獵者和捕獸者；他們在河道設置柵欄，捕獲大量魚類，並將多餘的部分曬乾以備冬季之用。他們運用各種巧妙的套索和陷阱來捕捉獵物，然而，較為原始的族群並未獵捕較大型的動物。
68:5.6 (768.6) 3. The pastoral stage. This phase of civilization was made possible by the domestication of animals. The Arabs and the natives of Africa are among the more recent pastoral peoples.
68:5.6 (768.6) 3. 畜牧階段。這一文明階段的出現，歸功於動物的馴化。阿拉伯人和非洲原住民屬於較晚期的遊牧民族。
68:5.7 (768.7) Pastoral living afforded further relief from food slavery; man learned to live on the interest of his capital, the increase in his flocks; and this provided more leisure for culture and progress.
68:5.7 (768.7) 畜牧生活讓人們進一步擺脫了食物的奴役；人類學會了依靠資本的收益——即牲畜的增加——來維持生計；這也為文化與進步提供了更多的閒暇。
68:5.8 (768.8) Prepastoral society was one of sex co-operation, but the spread of animal husbandry reduced women to the depths of social slavery. In earlier times it was man’s duty to secure the animal food, woman’s business to provide the vegetable edibles. Therefore, when man entered the pastoral era of his existence, woman’s dignity fell greatly. She must still toil to produce the vegetable necessities of life, whereas the man need only go to his herds to provide an abundance of animal food. Man thus became relatively independent of woman; throughout the entire pastoral age woman’s status steadily declined. By the close of this era she had become scarcely more than a human animal, consigned to work and to bear human offspring, much as the animals of the herd were expected to labor and bring forth young. The men of the pastoral ages had great love for their cattle; all the more pity they could not have developed a deeper affection for their wives.
68:5.8 (768.8) 畜牧階段之前的社會是一種兩性合作的社會，但畜牧業的普及卻將婦女推入了社會奴隸的深淵。在早期，獲取動物性食物是男人的責任，而提供植物性食物則是女人的職責。因此，當人類進入其生存的畜牧時代後，女性的尊嚴便大幅下降。她仍須辛勤勞作，以提供維生所需的植物性食物，而男性只需前往牧場，便能獲得豐沛的動物性食物。由此，男子在某種程度上擺脫了對婦女的依賴；在整個牧畜時代，婦女的地位持續下滑。到這個時代結束時，女性幾乎已淪為一隻「人類動物」，被迫勞動和生育後代，正如畜群中的動物理所當然去勞作並繁衍後代一樣。牧畜時代的男人對他們的牲畜懷有深厚的愛意；令人扼腕的是，他們卻未能對自己的妻子萌生出更深的憐愛。
68:5.9 (769.1) 4. The agricultural stage. This era was brought about by the domestication of plants, and it represents the highest type of material civilization. Both Caligastia and Adam endeavored to teach horticulture and agriculture. Adam and Eve were gardeners, not shepherds, and gardening was an advanced culture in those days. The growing of plants exerts an ennobling influence on all races of mankind.
68:5.9 (769.1) 4. 農業階段。這個時代是由植物的馴化所促成的，它代表了物質文明的最高形態。卡裡迦夏和亞當都致力於傳授園藝與農業。亞當和夏娃是園丁，而非牧羊人，在當時，園藝已是一種先進的文化。植物栽培能為所有人類種族都帶來一種高尚的影響。
68:5.10 (769.2) Agriculture more than quadrupled the land-man ratio of the world. It may be combined with the pastoral pursuits of the former cultural stage. When the three stages overlap, men hunt and women till the soil.
68:5.10 (769.2) 農業使全球的土地人口比翻了四倍多。它可與前一文化階段的畜牧活動相結合。當這三個階段交疊並存時，男性負責狩獵，女性則負責耕種。
68:5.11 (769.3) There has always been friction between the herders and the tillers of the soil. The hunter and herder were militant, warlike; the agriculturist is a more peace-loving type. Association with animals suggests struggle and force; association with plants instills patience, quiet, and peace. Agriculture and industrialism are the activities of peace. But the weakness of both, as world social activities, is that they lack excitement and adventure.
68:5.11 (769.3) 牧民與農耕者之間向來存在摩擦。獵人和牧民性情好鬥、好戰；農耕者則屬於更愛和平的類型。與動物相處意味著鬥爭與武力；與植物相處則能培養耐心、寧靜與和平。農業與工業都是和平的活動。然而，這兩者作為世界性社會活動的弱點，在於它們缺乏刺激和冒險。
68:5.12 (769.4) Human society has evolved from the hunting stage through that of the herders to the territorial stage of agriculture. And each stage of this progressive civilization was accompanied by less and less of nomadism; more and more man began to live at home.
68:5.12 (769.4) 人類社會從狩獵階段，經過畜牧階段，最終演進到農業的定居階段。而這種漸進文明的每個階段，都伴隨著遊牧生活的逐漸減少；越來越多的人開始居家生活。
68:5.13 (769.5) And now is industry supplementing agriculture, with consequently increased urbanization and multiplication of nonagricultural groups of citizenship classes. But an industrial era cannot hope to survive if its leaders fail to recognize that even the highest social developments must ever rest upon a sound agricultural basis.
68:5.13 (769.5) 如今，工業正在不斷補充著農業，進而導致城市化加劇，以及公民階層中非農業群體的數量成倍增加。然而，倘若工業時代的領導者未能認識到，即便是最高層次的社會發展，也必須始終建立在穩固的農業基礎之上，那麼這個時代便難以存續。
68:6.1 (769.6) Man is a creature of the soil, a child of nature; no matter how earnestly he may try to escape from the land, in the last reckoning he is certain to fail. “Dust you are and to dust shall you return” is literally true of all mankind. The basic struggle of man was, and is, and ever shall be, for land. The first social associations of primitive human beings were for the purpose of winning these land struggles. The land-man ratio underlies all social civilization.
68:6.1 (769.6) 人類是來自土地的受造物，是大自然的孩子；無論他如何竭力試圖逃離這片土地，歸根結底必定會失敗。「你本是塵土，終將歸於塵土」這句話，對所有人類而言確實千真萬確。人類最根本的鬥爭，過去是、現在是、將來也永遠是為了土地。原始人類最初的社會聯盟，其目的正是為了贏得這些土地爭奪戰。土地人口比，是所有社會文明的根基。
68:6.2 (769.7) Man’s intelligence, by means of the arts and sciences, increased the land yield; at the same time the natural increase in offspring was somewhat brought under control, and thus was provided the sustenance and leisure to build a cultural civilization.
68:6.2 (769.7) 人類的智能，藉由技藝與科學，提高了土地產量；與此同時，後代的自然增長也在某種程度上得到了控制，從而為建立文化文明提供了生計與閒暇。
68:6.3 (769.8) Human society is controlled by a law which decrees that the population must vary directly in accordance with the land arts and inversely with a given standard of living. Throughout these early ages, even more than at present, the law of supply and demand as concerned men and land determined the estimated value of both. During the times of plentiful land—unoccupied territory—the need for men was great, and therefore the value of human life was much enhanced; hence the loss of life was more horrifying. During periods of land scarcity and associated overpopulation, human life became comparatively cheapened so that war, famine, and pestilence were regarded with less concern.
68:6.3 (769.8) 人類社會受控於一條規律，該規律注定了人口必然與土地耕作技藝成正比，並與特定生活水準成反比。在這些早期時代，關乎人口與土地的供需規律，決定著兩者的評估價值，這一點甚至比當下更甚。在土地——即未被占用的土地——充裕的時期，對人口的需求極大，因此人的生命價值大幅提升；正因如此，生命損失也顯得更加駭人。而在土地稀缺且伴隨人口過剩的時期，人的生命變得相對廉價，以致人們對戰爭、饑荒與瘟疫的關注程度也隨之降低。
68:6.4 (770.1) When the land yield is reduced or the population is increased, the inevitable struggle is renewed; the very worst traits of human nature are brought to the surface. The improvement of the land yield, the extension of the mechanical arts, and the reduction of population all tend to foster the development of the better side of human nature.
68:6.4 (770.1) 當土地產量下降或人口增加時，那場不可避免的生存之爭便會再度加劇；人類本性中最惡劣的特質便會浮現出來。提高土地產量、推廣機械工藝以及減少人口，這些都有助於促進人性中較好一面的發展。
68:6.5 (770.2) Frontier society develops the unskilled side of humanity; the fine arts and true scientific progress, together with spiritual culture, have all thrived best in the larger centers of life when supported by an agricultural and industrial population slightly under the land-man ratio. Cities always multiply the power of their inhabitants for either good or evil.
68:6.5 (770.2) 拓荒社會發展了人類非未經雕琢的一面；而純藝術與真正的科學進步，連同靈性文化，在農業與工業人口略低於土地人口比時，都會在較大的生活中心獲得最蓬勃的發展。城市總是會放大其居民的力量，無論是善是惡。
68:6.6 (770.3) The size of the family has always been influenced by the standards of living. The higher the standard the smaller the family, up to the point of established status or gradual extinction.
68:6.6 (770.3) 家庭規模總是受到生活水準的影響。生活水準越高，家庭規模往往越小，直到達到既定狀態，或逐漸滅絕為止。
68:6.7 (770.4) All down through the ages the standards of living have determined the quality of a surviving population in contrast with mere quantity. Local class standards of living give origin to new social castes, new mores. When standards of living become too complicated or too highly luxurious, they speedily become suicidal. Caste is the direct result of the high social pressure of keen competition produced by dense populations.
68:6.7 (770.4) 縱觀歷史長河，生活水準始終決定著存續人口的品質，而非單純的數量。地方各階層的生活水準會催生新的社會等級與新的禮俗。當生活水準變得過於複雜或過於奢華時，便會迅速導致自我毀滅。種性制度，正是人口稠密引發激烈競爭，進而產生高社會壓力的直接結果。
68:6.8 (770.5) The early races often resorted to practices designed to restrict population; all primitive tribes killed deformed and sickly children. Girl babies were frequently killed before the times of wife purchase. Children were sometimes strangled at birth, but the favorite method was exposure. The father of twins usually insisted that one be killed since multiple births were believed to be caused either by magic or by infidelity. As a rule, however, twins of the same sex were spared. While these taboos on twins were once well-nigh universal, they were never a part of the Andonite mores; these peoples always regarded twins as omens of good luck.
68:6.8 (770.5) 早期的族群經常採取旨在限制人口的措施；所有原始部落都會殺害畸形或體弱多病的孩子。在購妻時代之前，女嬰經常被殺害。有時嬰兒會在出生時被勒死，但最常見的方法是將其棄置於戶外。雙胞胎的父親通常會堅持殺死其中一個，因為人們相信雙胞胎的降生，要麼是魔法所致，要麼是出軌所致。不過，一般而言，同性的雙胞胎則會倖免於難。雖然這些針對雙胞胎的禁忌曾經幾乎遍及世界各地，但它們從來都不是安東族禮俗的一部分；這些民族始終將雙胞胎視為好運的徵兆。
68:6.9 (770.6) Many races learned the technique of abortion, and this practice became very common after the establishment of the taboo on childbirth among the unmarried. It was long the custom for a maiden to kill her offspring, but among more civilized groups these illegitimate children became the wards of the girl’s mother. Many primitive clans were virtually exterminated by the practice of both abortion and infanticide. But regardless of the dictates of the mores, very few children were ever destroyed after having once been suckled—maternal affection is too strong.
68:6.9 (770.6) 許多族群都掌握了墮胎的技術，而在未婚分娩的禁忌確立後，這種做法變得非常普遍。長期以來，未婚少女殺死自己的孩子是一種習俗；但在較為文明的族群中，這些非婚生子女則成為少女母親的監護對象。許多原始氏族幾乎因墮胎與殺嬰的行徑而遭到滅絕。然而，無論禮俗如何規定，一旦嬰兒開始哺乳後，極少有孩子會被殺害——母愛實在太過強烈。
68:6.10 (770.7) Even in the twentieth century there persist remnants of these primitive population controls. There is a tribe in Australia whose mothers refuse to rear more than two or three children. Not long since, one cannibalistic tribe ate every fifth child born. In Madagascar some tribes still destroy all children born on certain unlucky days, resulting in the death of about twenty-five per cent of all babies.
68:6.10 (770.7) 即使在二十世紀，這些原始的人口控制方式的殘餘仍持續存在。澳洲有一個部落，那裡的母親們拒絕撫養超過兩個或三個孩子。就在不久之前，某個食人部落每五個降生的嬰兒，就會吃掉一個。在馬達加斯加，有些部落至今仍會殺死所有在特定不吉利日子出生的嬰兒，導致約百分之二十五的嬰兒因此喪生。
68:6.11 (770.8) From a world standpoint, overpopulation has never been a serious problem in the past, but if war is lessened and science increasingly controls human diseases, it may become a serious problem in the near future. At such a time the great test of the wisdom of world leadership will present itself. Will Urantia rulers have the insight and courage to foster the multiplication of the average or stabilized human being instead of the extremes of the supernormal and the enormously increasing groups of the subnormal? The normal man should be fostered; he is the backbone of civilization and the source of the mutant geniuses of the race. The subnormal man should be kept under society’s control; no more should be produced than are required to administer the lower levels of industry, those tasks requiring intelligence above the animal level but making such low-grade demands as to prove veritable slavery and bondage for the higher types of mankind.
68:6.11 (770.8) 從全球角度來看，人口過剩在過去從來都不是一個嚴重的問題；但若戰爭逐漸減少，且科學日益能控制人類疾病，這在不久的將來便可能成為一個嚴重的問題。屆時，世界領導階層的智慧將面臨重大考驗。玉苒廈的統治者們是否具備足夠的洞見與勇氣，去促進普通或地位穩固人類的繁衍，而非放任超常者與數量急遽增加的低能者這兩類極端群體的擴增？應當培育正常人；他是文明的支柱，也是人類種族中突變天才的源泉。智力低於常人者應置於社會的管控之下；其數量不應超過維持產業基層運作所需的人數——那些工作雖需高於動物層級的智力，但提出的要求卻如此之低，以證明對更高層次的人類而言，這實質上無異於奴役與桎梏。
68:6.12 (771.1) [Presented by a Melchizedek sometime stationed on Urantia.]
68:6.12 (771.1) [由一位曾駐留在玉苒廈的默基瑟德所呈獻。]