美文欣赏Declaration-of-Independence上.doc

Declaration of Independence (excerpts)美国独立宣言（节选）（上） When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Natures God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinion of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.在人类历史事件的进程中，当一个民族必须解除其与另一个民族之间迄今存在的政治联系、而在世界列国之中取得那自然法则和自然神明所规定给他们的独立与平等的地位时，就有一种真诚的尊重人类公意的心理，要求他们一定要把那些迫使他们不得已而独立的原因宣布出来。We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.我们认为这些真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等，他们都从他们的“造物主”那里被赋予了某些不可转让的权利，其中包括生命权、自由权、追求幸福的权利。为了保障这些权利，才在人们中间成立政府。而政府的正当权力，则来源于被统治者的同意。一旦任何一种形式的政府变成了损害这些目的的政府，则人民有权改变它或废除它，以建立新的政府。这种新的政府必须建立在这样的原则基础上，并按照这样的方式来组织其权力机关，以便在人民看来它是最能够保障他们的安全与幸福的。诚然，谨慎的心理会主宰着人们的意识，使之认为不应该为了某些轻微的、暂时的原因而把设立已久的政府加以更换；而且过去的经验也都表明，只要政府的罪恶尚可容忍时，人类总是宁愿默然忍受，而不愿废除他们久已习惯的政府形式以恢复他们自己的权利。然而，当一个政府恶贯满盈、倒行逆施、一贯地企图把人民抑压在绝对专制主义的淫威之下时，人民就有权利、有义务把那样的政府推翻，而为人民自己未来的安全建立新