TheTrialThatRockedtheWorld全文及翻譯(word文檔良心出品)

1、The Trial That Rocked the WorldJohn ScopesA buzz ran through the crowd as I took my pl ace in the p acked court on that sweltering July day in 1925. The counsel for my defence was the famous criminal lawyer Clarence Darrow. Leading counsel for the p rosecution was William Jennings Bryan, the silver-

2、tongued orator , three timesDemocratic nominee for Pr esident of the United States, and leader of the fundamentalist movement that had brought about my trial.A few weeks before I had been an unknown school-teacher in Dayton, a little town in the mountains of Tennessee. Now I was involved in a trial

3、rep orted the world over. Seated in court, ready to testify on my behalf, were a dozen distinguished p rofessors and scientists, led byProfessor Kirtley Mather of Harvard University. More than 100 rep orters were on hand, and even radio announcer s, who for the first time in history were to broadcas

4、t a jury trial. Dont worry, son, well show them a few tricks, Darrow had whis pered throwing a reassuring arm round my shoulder as we were waiting for the court to open.The case had erup ted round my head not long after I arrived in Dayton as science master and football coach at the secondary school

5、. For a number of years a clash had been building up between the fundamentalists and the modernists. The fundamentalists adhered to a literal inter pretation of the Old Testament. The modernists, on the other hand, acce pted the theory advanced by CharlesDarwin - that all animal life, including monk

6、eys and men, had evolved from a common ancestor.Fundamentalism was strong in Tennessee, and the state legislature had recently p assed a law p rohibiting the teaching of any theory that denies the story of creation as taught in the Bible. The new law was aimed squarely at Darwins theory of evolution

7、. An engineer, George Rapp elyea, used to argue with the local people against the law. During one such argument, Rapp elyea said that nobody could teach biology without teaching evolution. Since I had been teaching biology, I was sent for.Ra pp elyea is right, I told them.Then you have been violatin

8、g the law, one of them Said.So has every other teacher, I rep lied. Evolution is expl ained in Hunters Civic Biology, and thats our textbook. Rapp elyea then made a suggestion. Lets take this thing to court, he said, and test the legalityof it.When I was indicted on May 7, no one, least of all I, an

9、tic ip ated that my case would snowball into one of the most famous trials in U. S. history. The American Civil Liberties Union announced that it would take my case to the U. S Supr eme Court if necessary to establish that a teacher may tell the truth without being sent to jail. Then Bryan volunteer

10、ed to assist the state in pr osecuting me. Immediately the renownedlawyer Clarence Darrow offered his services to defend me.Ironically, I had not known Darrow before my trial but I had met Bryan when he had given a talk at my university. I admired him, although I did not agree with his views.By the

11、time the trial began on July 10, our town of 1,500 people had taken on a circusatmos phere. The buildings along the main street were festoonedwith banners. The streets around the three-storey red brick law court spro utedwith rickety stands selling hot dogs, religious books and watermelons. Evangeli

12、sts set up tents to exhortthe p assersby. People from the surrounding hills, mostly fundamentalists, arrived to cheer Bryan against the infidel outsidersAmong them was John Butler, who had drawn up the anti-evolution law. Butler was a 49-year-old farmer who before his election had never been out of

13、his native county.The pr esiding judge was John Raulston, a florid-faced man who announced: Im just a reglar mountaineer jedge. Bryan, ageing and p aunchy , was assisted in his p rosecution by his son, also a lawyer, and Tennessees brilliant young attorney-general, Tom Stewart. Besides the shrewd 68

14、-year-old Darrow, my counsel included the handsome and magnetic Dudley Field Malone, 43, and Arthur Garfield Hays, quiet, scholarly and stee ped in the law. In a trial in which religion pl ayed a key role, Darrow was an agnostic, Malone a Catholic and Hays a Jew. My father had come fromKentucky to b

15、e with me for the trial.The judge called for a local minister to open the session with pr ayer, and the trial got under way. Of the 12 jurors, three had never read any book exce pt the Bible. One couldnt read. As my father growled, Thats one hell of a jury!After the pr eliminary sp arring over legal

16、ities, Darrow got up to make his op ening statement.My friend the attorney-general says that John Scopes knows what he is here for, Darrow drawled.I know what he is here for, too. He is here because ignorance and bigotryare , and it is a mighty strong combination.Darrow walked slowly round the bakin

17、g court. Today it is the teachers, he continued, and tomorrow the magazines, the books, the news pap ers. After a while, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until we are marching backwards to the glorious age of the sixteenth century when bigots lighted faggots to burn the m

18、en who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and Culture to the human mind.That damned infidel, a woman whis pered loudly as he finished his address.The following day the p rosecution began calling wit-nesses against me. Two of my pup ils testified, grinning shyly at me, that I had taugh

19、t them evolution, but added that they had not been contaminated by the exp erience. Howard Morgan, a bright lad of 14, testified that I had taught that man was a mammal like cows, horses, dogs and cats.He didnt say a cat was the same as a man? Darrow asked.No, sir, the youngster said. He said man ha

20、d reasoning po wer.There is some doubt about that, Darrow snorted.After the evidence was com pleted, Bryan rose to address the jury. The issue was sim pie, he declared The Christian believes that man came from above. The evolutionist believes that he must have come from below. The sp ectators chuckl

21、ed and Bryan warmed to his work. In one hand he brandished a biology text as he denounced the scientists who had come to Dayton to testify for the defence.The Bible, he thundered in his sonorous organ tones, is not going to be driven out of this court by exp erts who come hundreds of miles to testif

22、y that they can reconcile evolution, with its ancestors in the jungle, with man made by God in His image and put here for His purp ose as par t of a divine pl an.As he finished, jaw out-thrust, eyes flashing, the audience burst into appl auseand shouts of Amen. Yet something was lacking. Gone was th

23、e fierce fervour of the days when Bryan had swe pt the p olitical arena like a pr airie fire. The crowd seemed to feel that their cham pion had not scorched the infidels with the hot breath of his oratory as he should have. Dudley Field Malone popped up to reply. Mr. Bryan is not the only one who ha

24、s the right to sp eak for the Bible, he observed. There are other people in this country who have given up their whole lives to God and religion. Mr. Bryan, with p assionate sp irit and enthusiasm, has given p ost of his life to p olitics. Bryan sipped from a jug of water as Malones voice grew in vo

25、lume. He app ealed for intellectual freedom, and accusedBryan of calling for a duel to the death between science and religion.There is never a duel with the truth, he roared. The truth always wins - and we are not afraid of it. The truth does not need Mr. Bryan. The truth is eternal, immortal and ne

26、eds no human agency to support it!When Malone finished there was a momentary hush. Then the court broke into a storm of app lause that surp assed that for Bryan. But although Malone had won the oratorical duel withBryan, the judge ruled against p ermitting the scientists to testify for the defence.-

27、INSIDE. (This was J. R.When the court adjourned, we found Daytons streets swarming with strangers. Hawkerscried their wares on every corner. One shop announced: DARWIN IS RIGHTDarwins everything to Wear Store.) One entre preneur rented a shop window to dis play an ape.Sp ectators p aid to gaze at it

28、 and po nderwhether they might be related.a rep orter noted, afraid itThe poor brute cowered in a corner with his hands over his eyes, might be true.H. L. Mencken wrote sulp hurous dis patches sitting in his P ants with a tan blowing on him, and there was talk of running him out of town for referrin

29、g to the local citizenry as yokels . Twenty-two telegra phists were sending out 165 000 words a day on the trial.Because of the heat and a fear that the old courts floor might colla pse, under the weight of the throng, the trial was resumed outside under the mapl es. More than 2 000 sp ectators sat

30、on wooden benches or squattedon the grass, p erched on the tops of p arked cars or gawked from windows.Then came the climax of the trial. Because of the wording of the anti-evolution law, the p rosecution was forced to take the p osition that the Bible must be interpreted literally. Now Darrow sp ra

31、ng his trum p card by calling Bryan as a witness for the defence. The judge looked startled. We are calling him as an expert on the Bible, Darrow said. His rep utation as an authority on Scri pture is recognized throughout the world.Bryan was sus picious of the wily Darrow, yet he could not refuse t

32、he challenge. For year s he had lectured and written on the Bible. He had cam paigned against Darwinism in Tennessee even before p assage of the anti-evolution law. Resolutely he strode to the stand, carrying a p alm fan like a sword to repel his enemies.Under Darrows quiet questioning he acknowledg

33、ed believing the Bible literally, and the crowd pu nctuated his defiant rep lies with fervent Amens.Darrow read from Genesis: And the evening and the morning were the first day. Then he asked Bryan if he believed that the sun was created on the fourth day. Bryan said that he did.How could there have

34、 been a morning and evening with-out any sun? Darrow enquired.Bryan mopped his bald dome in silence. There were sniggers from the crowd, even among the faithful. Darrow twirled his sp ectacles as he pu rsued the questioning. He asked if Bryan believed literally in the story of Eve. Bryan answered in

35、 the affirmative.And you believe that God pu nished the serp ent by condemning snakes for ever after to crawl upon their bellies?I believe that.Well, have you any idea how the snake went before that time?The crowd laughed, and Bryan turned livid. His voice rose and the fan in his hand shook in anger

36、.Your honor, he said. I will answer all Mr. Darrows questions at once. I want the world toknow that this man who does not believe in God is using a Tennessee court to cast slurs on Him.I object to thatstatement, Darrow shouted.1 am examining you on your tool ideas that nointelligent Christian on ear

37、th believes.The judge used his gavel to quell the hubbuband adjourned court until next day.Bryan stood forlornly alone. My heart went out to the old warrior as sp ectator s p ushed by him to shake Darrows hand.The jury were asked to consider their verdict at noon the following day. The jurymen retired to a corner of the lawn