于是本城的法官中，有一个走上前来说，请给我们谈罪与罚。

他回答说：

当你的灵性随风飘荡的时候，

你孤零而失慎地对别人也就是对自己犯了过错。

为着所犯的过错，你必须去叩那受福者之门，要被怠慢地等待片刻。

你们的“神性”像海洋；

他永远纯洁不染，

又像以太，他只帮助有翼者上升。

他们的“神性”也像太阳；

他不知道田鼠的径路，也不寻找蛇虺的洞穴。

但是你们的“神性”，不是独居在你们里面。

在你们里面，有些仍是“人性”，有些还不成“人性”。

只是一个未成形的侏儒，睡梦中在烟雾里蹒跚，自求觉醒。

我现在所要说的，就是你们的“人性”。

因为那知道罪与罪的刑罚的，是他，而不是你的“神性”，也不是烟雾中的侏儒。

我常听见你们论议到一个犯了过失的人，仿佛他不是你们的同人，只像是个外人，是个你们的世界中的闯入者。

我却要说，连那圣洁和正直的，也不能高于你们每人心中的至善。

所以那奸邪的懦弱的，也不能低于你们心中的极恶。

如同一片树叶，除非得到全树的默许，不能独自变黄。

所以那作恶者，若没有你们大家无形中的怂恿，也不会作恶。

如同一个队伍，你们一同向着你们的“神性”前进。

你们是道，也是行道的人。

当你们中间有人跌倒的时候，他是为了他后面的人而跌倒，是一块绊脚石的警告。

是的，他也为他前面的人而跌倒，因为他们的步履虽然又快又稳，却没有把那绊脚石挪开。

还有这个，虽然这些话会重压你的心：

被杀者对于自己的被杀不能不负疚，被劫者对于自己的被劫不能不受责。

正直的人，对于恶人的行为，也不能算无辜。

清白的人，对于罪人的过犯，也不能算不染。

是的，罪犯往往是被害者的牺牲品，

刑徒更往往为那些无罪无过的人肩负罪担。

你们不能把至公与不公，至善与不善分开；因为他们一齐站在太阳面前，如同织在一起的黑线和白线，

黑线断了的时候，织工就要视察整块的布，也要察看那机杼。

你们中如有人要审判一个不忠诚的妻子，

让他也拿天平来称一称她丈夫的心，拿尺来量一量他的灵魂。

让鞭挞“扰人者”的人，先察一察那“被扰者”的灵性。

你们如有人要以正义之名，砍伐一棵恶树，让他先察看树根；

他一定能看出那好的与坏的，能结实与不能结实的树根，都在大地的沉默的心中，纠结在一处。

你们这些愿持公正的法官，

你们将怎样裁判那忠诚其外而盗窃其中的人？

你们又将怎样刑罚一个受戮肉体，而在他自己是心灵遭灭的人？

你们又将怎样控告那行为上刁猾、暴戾，

而事实上也是被威逼、被虐待的人呢？

你们又将怎样责罚那悔心已经大于过失的人？

忏悔不就是你们所喜欢奉行的法定的公道么？

然而你们却不能将忏悔放在无辜者的身上，也不能将它从罪人心中取出。

不期然地它要在夜中呼唤，使人们醒起，反躬自省。

你们这些愿意了解公道的人，若不在大光明中视察一切的行为，你们怎能了解呢？

■　和你一同笑过的人，你可能把他忘掉；但是和你一同哭过的人，你却永远不忘。

■　愿除了寻求心灵的加深之外，友谊没有别的目的。

只在那时，你们才知道那直立与跌倒的，只是一个站在侏儒性的黑夜与神性的白日的黄昏中的人，也要知道那大殿的角石，也不高于那最低的基石。

12

on crime & punishment

then one of the judges of the city stood forth and said, "speak to us of crime and punishment."

and he answered saying:

it is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind.

that you, alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself.

and for that wrong committed must you knock and wait a while unheeded at the gate of the blessed.

like the ocean is your god-self;

it remains for ever undefiled.

and like the ether it lifts but the winged.

even like the sun is your god-self;

it knows not the ways of the mole nor seeks it the holes of the serpent.

but your god-self does not dwell alone in your being.

much in you is still man, and much in you is not yet man,

but a shapeless pigmy that walks asleep in the mist searching for its own awakening.

and of the man in you would i now speak.

for it is he and not your god-self nor the pigmy in the mist, that knows crime and the punishment of crime.

oftentimes have i heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.

but i say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,

so the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.

and as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,

so the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.

like a procession you walk together towards your god-self.

you are the way and the wayfarers.

and when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone.

ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.

and this also, though the word lie heavy upon your hearts:

the murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder,

and the robbed is not blameless in being robbed.

the righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked,

and the white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon.

yea, the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured,

and still more often the condemned is the burden-bearer for the guiltless and unblamed.

you cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked;

for they stand together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together.

and when the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into the whole cloth, and he shall examine the loom also.

if any of you would bring judgment the unfaithful wife,

let him also weight the heart of her husband in scales, and measure his soul with measurements.

and let him who would lash the offender look unto the spirit of the offended.

and if any of you would punish in the name of righteousness and lay the ax unto the evil tree, let him see to its roots;

and verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad, the fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth.

and you judges who would be just,

what judgment pronounce you upon him who though honest in the flesh yet is a thief in spirit?

what penalty lay you upon him who slays in the flesh yet is himself slain in the spirit?

and how prosecute you him who in action is a deceiver and an oppressor,

yet who also is aggrieved and outraged?

and how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?

is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve?

yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty.

unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves.

and you who would understand justice, how shall you unless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light?

only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day of his god-self,

and that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.