(单词翻译:单击)
It was a time of bitterness, polarization, and culture war—like today, but a thousand times worse.
那是一个充满苦难、两极分化和文化战争的时代——就像今天一样，但比现在还要糟糕一千倍。
The Reformation had divided Europe into hostile Catholic and Protestant camps.
宗教改革将欧洲分裂为相互敌对的天主教和新教阵营。
The wars were a series of massacres and counter-massacres, vicious retributions, and even more vicious counter-retributions.
战争是一系列的屠杀和反屠杀，恶毒的报复，甚至更恶毒的反报复。
Blaise de Monluc, a French commander, was a characteristic figure.
法国指挥官布莱斯·德·蒙卢克是一个典型的人物。
In 1562, as Sarah Bakewell recounts in her book How to Live, he was sent to pacify the city of Bordeaux after a Protestant mob had attacked the town hall during a riot.
1562年，正如萨拉·贝克韦尔在她的《如何生活》一书中所述，在一场骚乱中，一群新教徒暴徒袭击了市政厅，他被派去平定安抚波尔多市。
Monluc’s method was mass murder.
蒙卢克的方法是大规模屠杀。
He hanged Protestants in the street without trial.
他未经审判就在街上绞死新教徒。
His suppression was so bloodthirsty that his troops ran out of gallows and had to hang people from trees.
他的镇压是如此血腥，以至于军队耗尽了绞刑架，不得不把人吊在树上。
So many Protestants were killed and thrown into a well that their bodies entirely filled the deep shaft.
许多新教徒被杀后被扔进井里，以至于他们的尸体完全填满了深井。
In 1571, Monluc was shot in the face, and he spent the rest of his life behind a mask—a disfigured man from a disfigured age.
1571年，蒙卢克面部中弹，余生都在面具后面度过——容貌不在的年龄，毁了容。
Eventually many Europeans became exhausted and appalled.
最终，许多欧洲人变得精疲力尽、 活在担惊受怕之中。
The urgent task was this: how to construct a society that wouldn’t devolve into bitter polarization and tribal bloodbaths.
当务之急是:如何建设一个不会陷入痛苦的两极分化和部落相互屠杀的社会。
One camp, which we associate with the French Enlightenment, put its faith in reason.
一个阵营，我们把它与法国启蒙运动联系在一起，相信理性。
Some thought a decent social order can be built when primitive passions like religious zeal are marginalized and tamed;
一些人认为，当宗教热情等原始激情被边缘化和变得平淡时，可以建立一个体面的社会秩序;
when individuals are educated to use their highest faculty, reason, to pursue their enlightened self-interest;
当个人被教育去运用他们最高的能力，理性，去追求他们明智的个人利益时，可以建立一个体面的社会秩序;
and when government organizes society using the tools of science.
当政府利用科学工具组织社会时，可以建立一个体面的社会秩序。
Another camp, which we associate with the Scottish or British Enlightenment of David Hume and Adam Smith, did not believe that human reason is powerful enough to control human selfishness;
另一个阵营，我们把它与大卫·休谟和亚当·斯密的苏格兰或英国启蒙运动联系起来，他们相信人类的理性缺乏足够的力量来控制人类的自私;
most of the time our reason merely rationalizes our selfishness.
大多数时候，我们的理性只是让我们的自私合理化。
They did not believe that individual reason is powerful enough even to comprehend the world around us, let alone enable leaders to engineer society from the top down.
他们认为，个人理性的力量甚至不足以理解我们周围的世界，更不用说让领导人自上而下地改造社会了。
“We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason, because we suspect that this stock in each man is small,” Burke wrote in Reflections on the Revolution in France.
伯克在《法国革命反思》中写道:“我们害怕让每个人依靠自己的理性来生活和交易，因为我们怀疑每个人身上的理性太少了。”
