伽利略的复生
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Galileo Reborn
区分观点、依据、例子与限制，用自己的话准确重建论述。
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第1段
In his own lifetime Galileo was the centre of violent controversy; but the scientific dust has long since settled, and today we can see even his famous clash with the Inquisition in something like its proper perspective. But, in contrast, it is only in modern times that Galileo has become a problem child for historians of science.
伽利略在他那个时代，是激烈论战的中心。 不过，科学上的纷争早已平息。甚至他和宗教法庭的著名冲突，如今我们也能较为正确地看待。但是，与科学纷争的平息相对照的是，对于科学史学家们来说，（如何看待）伽利略只有在现代方成为难题。
第2段
The old view of Galileo was delightfully uncomplicated. He was, above all, a man who experimented: who despised the prejudices and book learning of the Aristotelians, who put his questions to nature instead of to the ancients, and who drew his conclusions fearlessly. He had been the first to turn a telescope to the sky, and he had seen there evidence enough to overthrow Aristotle and Ptolemy together. He was the man who climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped various weights from the top, who rolled balls down inclined planes, and then generalized the results of his many experiments into the famous law of free fall.
过去对伽利略的看法好在并不复杂。 他首先是个实验工作者,他蔑视亚里士多德学派的偏见和唯书本是瞻；他向自然界而不是向前人提出问题,并大胆地得出自己的结论。 他是第一个把望远镜转向天空的人，观察到的证据足以把亚里士多德和托勒密的理论一同推翻。他就是那个曾经爬上比萨斜塔，并从塔顶向下（同时）放下不同重物的人；他也是那个让球体沿着不同斜面向下滚动，然后将其数次实验结果归纳成著名的自由落体定律的人。
第3段
But a closer study of the evidence, supported by a deeper sense of the period, and particularly by a new consciousness of the philosophical undercurrents in the scientific revolution, has profoundly modified this view of Galileo. Today, although the old Galileo lives on in many popular writings, among historians of science a new and more sophisticated picture has emerged. At the same time our sympathy for Galileo's opponents has grown somewhat. His telescopic observations are justly immortal; they aroused great interest at the time, they had important theoretical consequences, and they provided a striking demonstration of the potentialities hidden in instruments and apparatus. But can we blame those who looked and failed to see what Galileo saw, if we remember that to use a telescope at the limit of its powers calls for long experience and intimate familiarity with one's instrument? Was the philosopher who refused to look through Galileo's telescope more culpable than those who alleged that the spiral nebulae
但是，随着人们更深入地了解那个时代，尤其是重新认识科学革命背后的哲学思潮，对有关证据的细致研究已大大改变了人们对伽利略的看法。如今，虽然旧看法下的伽利略继续存在于许多通俗读物中，但在科学史学家群体中，一个新的而且更为丰富的伽利略形象诞生了。 同时，我们对当年反对伽利略的人们渐生些许同情。伽利略用望远镜所做的观察，意义的确深远。 这些观察在当时引起了人们极大的兴趣，具有重要的理论意义，并为仪器和设备所蕴含的潜力做出了有力展示。但是，我们可别忘了，使用一架倍数有限的望远镜，需要长期的经验和对仪器的熟悉，那么我们能去责备那些做了观察却没能如伽利略所见的人吗？19世纪40年代，有人硬把罗斯勋爵的大型望远镜所观测到的螺旋状星云说成是磨镜工留下的磨痕，与之相比，难道（17世纪） 曾拒绝使用伽利略的望
第4段
observed with Lord Rosse's great telescope in the eighteen-forties were scratches left by the grinder? We can perhaps forgive those who said the moons of Jupiter were produced by Galileo's spyglass if we recall that in his day, as for centuries before, curved glass was the popular contrivance for producing not truth but illusion, untruth; and if a single curved glass would distort nature, how much more would a pair of them?
远镜的哲学家更应受到谴责吗？那些观测到木星的众多卫星而又说是由伽利略的小望远镜所产生的人，如果我们能想到数个世纪以前，曲面玻璃不过是产生各种幻象的流行小玩意儿，当不得真的，我们或许会原谅这些人吧。（对于他们来说，）如果一片曲面玻璃已经扭曲了自然界，更别说两片曲面玻璃会扭曲得什么样子了。
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