Part 3 Book 7 Chapter 2 The Lowest Depths

There disinterestedness vanishes. The demon is vaguely outlined; each one is for himself. The _I_ in the eyes howls, seeks, fumbles, and gnaws. The social Ugolino is in this gulf.

The wild spectres who roam in this grave, almost beasts, almost phantoms, are not occupied with universal progress; they are ignorant both of the idea and of the word; they take no thought for anything but the satisfaction of their individual desires. They are almost unconscious, and there exists within them a sort of terrible obliteration. They have two mothers, both step-mothers, ignorance and misery. They have a guide, necessity; and for all forms of satisfaction, appetite. They are brutally voracious, that is to say, ferocious, not after the fashion of the tyrant, but after the fashion of the tiger. From suffering these spectres pass to crime; fatal affiliation, dizzy creation, logic of darkness. That which crawls in the social third lower level is no longer complaint stifled by the absolute; it is the protest of matter. Man there becomes a dragon. To be hungry, to be thirsty--that is the point of departure; to be Satan--that is the point reached. From that vault Lacenaire emerges.

We have just seen, in Book Fourth, one of the compartments of the upper mine, of the great political, revolutionary, and philosophical excavation. There, as we have just said, all is pure, noble, dignified, honest. There, assuredly, one might be misled; but error is worthy of veneration there, so thoroughly does it imply heroism. The work there effected, taken as a whole has a name: Progress.

The moment has now come when we must take a look at other depths, hideous depths. There exists beneath society, we insist upon this point, and there will exist, until that day when ignorance shall be dissipated, the great cavern of evil.

This cavern is below all, and is the foe of all. It is hatred, without exception. This cavern knows no philosophers; its dagger has never cut a pen. Its blackness has no connection with the sublime blackness of the inkstand. Never have the fingers of night which contract beneath this stifling ceiling, turned the leaves of a book nor unfolded a newspaper. Babeuf is a speculator to Cartouche; Marat is an aristocrat to Schinderhannes. This cavern has for its object the destruction of everything.

Of everything. Including the upper superior mines, which it execrates. It not only undermines, in its hideous swarming, the actual social order; it undermines philosophy, it undermines human thought, it undermines civilization, it undermines revolution, it undermines progress. Its name is simply theft, prostitution, murder, assassination.It is darkness, and it desires chaos. Its vault is formed of ignorance.

All the others, those above it, have but one object--to suppress it. It is to this point that philosophy and progress tend, with all their organs simultaneously, by their amelioration of the real,as well as by their contemplation of the absolute. Destroy the cavern Ignorance and you destroy the lair Crime.

Let us condense, in a few words, a part of what we have just written. The only social peril is darkness.

Humanity is identity. All men are made of the same clay. There is no difference, here below, at least, in predestination.The same shadow in front, the same flesh in the present, the same ashes afterwards. But ignorance, mingled with the human paste, blackens it. This incurable blackness takes possession of the interior of a man and is there converted into evil.

在这里，忘我精神已经消失。魔鬼隐约初具形相，各自为己。没有眼睛的我在吼着，寻着，摸着，啃着。群居的乌戈林①便在这黑洞里。

①乌戈林（Ugolin），十三世纪比萨的暴君，大主教把他和他的两个儿子和两个孙子一同关在塔里，让他们饿死。乌戈林在试着吃他的儿孙以后才死去。

在这黑洞里游荡着的那些近似猛兽恶魔的狰狞鬼影是不管普遍的进步的，它们不理解思想和文字，它们所关心的只是个人满足。它们几乎没有善恶观念，内心空虚得骇人。它们有两个母亲，两个全是后娘：无知和穷困；一个向导：需要；唯一的满足形式：吃喝。它们粗鲁地大嚼大啖，这就是说，凶残到……不是象暴君那样，而是象猛虎。这些鬼怪从受苦走到犯罪，不可避免的传承，令人晕眩的接续，黑区的逻辑。匍匐在这社会第三地下层里的已不是对绝对真理发出那种受到窒息的要求，而是肉体的抗议。在这里，人成了毒龙。饥渴是起点，终点是成为撒旦。从这地窖里产生着拉色内尔。

我们刚才在第四卷里已经见过上层坑道的一角，那是政治、革命和哲学的大坑道。在那里，我们指出，一切都是高尚、纯洁、尊贵、诚实的。在那里，当然，人们可能走错路，而且是在错误的路上，但是那里的错误是可敬佩的，因为它含有牺牲精神。那里的工作，从全局看，有一个名称：进步。

现在是时候了，来看看另外一些深处，一些丑恶到极点的深处。

在社会的底下，让我们强调这一点，直到愚昧状态被清除的那一天，总还会有藏恶的大窟窖。

这个窟窖在一切窟窖之下，也是一切窟窖的敌人。那是普遍的恨。这窟窖不知道有哲学，它的尖刀从来没有削过一支笔。它的黑色和墨迹的卓越的黑色毫无关系。那些蜷曲在这毒气熏人的洞里的黑手指从不翻一页书，也从不打开一张报纸。对卡图什来说，巴贝夫是个剥削者，对施因德汉斯①来说，马拉还是个贵族。这窟窖的目的是推翻一切。

①施因德汉斯（Schindehannes），原名约翰·毕克列尔（JohannBuHckler，约1780?803），德国强盗，莱茵区匪帮的魁首，绰号“施因德汉斯”（意即“屠夫汉斯”）。在德国文学中，施因德汉斯作为侠盗、打抱不平的斗士和穷人的保护者的形象而久负盛名。

一切。包括它所唾弃的那些上层坑道。在它那极为丑恶的蠕动当中，它不仅只是要钻垮现在的社会秩序，它还要钻垮哲学，钻垮科学，钻垮法律，钻垮人类的思想，钻垮文明，钻垮革命，钻垮进步。它的名字，简简单单地说，叫做偷盗，邪淫，谋害，暗杀。它代表黑暗，它要的是漆黑一团。这窟窖的顶是无知构成的。

在它上面的那些地窖全都只有一个愿望，把它消灭掉。这便是哲学和进步同时运用它们的全部人力物力，通过现实的改善和对绝对真理的向往，全力奔赴的目标。摧毁这个无知窟窖，那罪恶渊薮也就毁灭掉了。

让我们把刚才所说的一部分用几个字概括起来，社会的唯一危害是黑暗。

人类，便是同类。所有的人都是同一块粘土。在前定的命运里毫无区别，至少在下界是这样的。从前，同样的一个影子；现在，同样的一个肉体；将来，同样的一撮灰。但是，在做人的面糊里搀上无知，它便变成黑的。这种无法挽救的黑色透入人心，便成为恶。

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