雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第2章:下一個星期(16)
Yet the renegade author had said little more, although in different language, than was revealed by the headmaster:
然而，筆者叛徒說的多一點，雖然在不同的語言，這位作者還說：
Mind you, I am not attacking the Public School system. I believe in its enormous value, above all in the sense of duty and the loyalty and the law-abidingness which it inculcates. But it cannot escape the dangers attendant upon any system of discipline, the dangers of submitting to mere routine, of adopting ready-made sentiments at second-hand, of a slavish, or perhaps I should rather say a sheepish, want of independence of character.
聽好，我不是要攻擊公學體制，我認同它的大價值，尤其是它主張的責任、忠誠和服從。但是，它無法避免任何體制都會面臨的危險，那就是會導致守舊、奴性和盲從，或者說，泯滅了獨立的人格。
'The system cannot escape these dangers, ' he continued, 'but we individuals … can overcome them if we set the right way about it.' It was, however, very difficult for individuals to go against the grain of a total organisation. As Nowell Smith said, 'of all societies very few are so definite and easily understood as a school like this … we all here live under a common life, under a common discipline. Our life is organised with great thoroughness, and the organisation is directed to a definite aim. …' And the headmaster further observed that 'schoolboys, however much originality they may possess as individuals, are in their conduct to the highest degree conventional.' Nowell Smith was not a small-minded man and somehow managed to reconcile this system of education with his love of Wordsworth's poetry, of which he was an editor. Within the classicist there beat a romantic heart, and one which perhaps troubled him.
「這種體制，無法避免這些」，他繼續說，「但如果我們每個人……採取正確的態度，就可以克服它們。」然而對於個人來說，想要克服體制帶來的東西，是非常艱難的。正如史密斯校長說：「這樣的學校裏的人，要比社會上的人們更加清楚……我們都活在一套普遍的紀律當中，我們的生活，已經全都被規定好了，指向一個明確的目標……」他更進一步地認爲，「無論學生個體具備什麼樣的獨創性，實際上都是在向着高層次的紀律前進。」史密斯並不是個目光短淺的人，他熱愛華茲華斯的詩，是一位富有浪漫色彩的古典主義者，但他不知怎麼，就向教育體制妥協了，也許他自己的內心也備受煎熬。
