美國革命的歷史意義
- The ways of history are so intricate and the motivations of human actions so complex that it is always hazardous to attempt to represent events covering a number of years,
- 歷史的進程是如此錯綜復雜，人類行為的動機是如此令人費解，以至于想把那些時間跨度大，
- a multiplicity of persons, and distant localities as the expression of one intellectual or social movement;
- 涉及人數(shù)多，空間范圍廣的事件描述成為一個智者或一場社會運動的表現(xiàn)的企圖是危險的。
- yet the historical process which culminated in the ascent of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency can be regarded as the outstanding example not only of the birth of a new way of life
- 然而以托馬斯.杰弗遜登上總統(tǒng)寶座為高潮的那一段歷史過程可以被視為一個特殊的例子。在這段歷史時期里不僅誕生了新的生活方式，
- but of nationalism as a new way of life. The American Revolution represents the link between the seventeenth century, in which modern England became conscious of itself,
- 而且民族主義成為了一種新的生活方式。美國獨立戰(zhàn)爭成為聯(lián)結17世紀現(xiàn)代英格蘭的自我意識
- and the awakening of modern Europe at the end of the eighteenth century. It may seem strange that the march of history should have had to cross the Atlantic Ocean,
- 和18世紀末現(xiàn)代歐洲的覺醒的紐帶。歷史的行程需要跨越大西洋，這看起來似乎有些奇怪，
- but only in the North American colonies could a struggle for civic liberty lead also to the foundation of a new nation.
- 但卻只有在北美殖民地為民權和自由的斗爭才能導致新國家的建立。
- Here, in the popular rising against a "tyrannical" government, the fruits were more than the securing of a freer constitution.
- 這里，反對"暴政"的民眾起義的成果不僅是獲得一個包含更多自由的憲法，
- They included the growth of a nation born in liberty by the will of the people, not from the roots of common descent, a geographic entity, or the ambitions of king or dynasty.
- 還包括了一個依照人民的意愿誕生在自由中的國家的成長。這個國家不是基于血緣、地理、君主或王朝的野心。
- With the American nation, for the first time, a nation was born, not in the dim past of history but before the eyes of the whole world.
- 由于有了美國，第一次一個國家的誕生不是發(fā)生在歷史模糊的過去，而是在全世界人們的眼前。
