It is my temper, and I like it the better, to affect all harmony: and sure there is musick even in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument. For there is a musick where ever there is a harmony, order, or proportion: and thus far we may maintain the music of the Sphears; for those well-ordered motions, and regular paces, though they give no sound unto the ear, yet to the understanding they strike a note most full of harmony. Whatsoever is harmonically composed delights in harmony; which makes me much distrust the symmetry of those heads which declaim against all Church-Musick. For my self, not only for my obedience, but my particular Genius, I do embrace it: for even that vulgar and Tavern-Musick, which makes one man merry, another mad, strikes in me a deep fit of devotion, and a profound contemplation of the First Composer. There is something in it of Divinity more than the ear discovers: it is an Hieroglyphical and shadowed lesson of the whole World, and creatures of GOD; such a melody to the ear, as the whole World, well understood, would afford the understanding. In brief, it is a sensible fit of that harmony which intellectually sounds in the ears of GOD.

　　注釋：

　　1、harmony：n. 融洽、和諧、協調
　　2、temper：n. 性情、脾氣
　　3、note：n. 音符
　　4、Cupid：愛神丘比特
　　5、whatsoever：無論什么
　　6、compose：v. 著、撰、組成
　　7、distrust：v. 不信任
　　8、symmetry：n. 對稱、勻稱
　　9、obedience：n. 服從、順從
　　10、contemplation：n. 沉思
　　11、divinity：n. 神、神性
　　12、hieroglyphical：n. 象形文字
　　13、melody：n. 悅耳的音調

　　中文：　　

　　我生性耽愛一切之和諧，于此，我且頗以自得；確實，甚至在鴆彼得所奏放的無聲音籟之中與美感之內，無不有音樂的存在，其吐音之佳妙迥出一般樂器之上。此亦緣音樂即在和諧、秩序與比例勻稱之中，而星際樂聲一說至少可以此為部分依據；其秩序井然之動作，節拍分明之步武，此在常人耳中雖悄無聲息，然在穎慧者聽來，確乃和諧無藝之妙樂。大凡和諧構成之物，必喜和諧，據此，則彼輩攻擊一切教堂音樂者，其頭腦之中是否尚有勻稱二字，我實不能不深致疑慮。至于我自己，我對上述之音樂確實服膺無已，此固與我之虔誠信仰有關，亦系我的特殊稟賦所致；甚即通常旅店之俚俗音樂，所敘不出嬉樂激切之情，尚能使我對那最初制曲人于胸臆之中頓生仰慕之忱與遙深之想；其中圣潔處有非人耳所能察覺者。它是茫茫世界蕓蕓眾生的一篇佶屈恢詭的天啟，使上下塵寰徹悟之后捧供識者聆賞的一闕悠揚的妙樂。要言之，它是上徹天聽的玲瓏曼妙的仙籟的陣陣和諧。

　　（高健 譯）

　　注：本段文字節選自Thomas Browne的名著——《一位醫生的信仰》（Religio Medici）的第二章第二節。

※本文作者：佚名※