致第二版.
对于那些看过本书第一版而不太爽的各式批评家和那些同样写和回复了自己意见的读者来说，我的感恩是由衷而明确 。他们指出了其中的一些事实，基于实践检验，而不是，作为证据，完全满意；并且我的目标是去发现和支持那些质疑之上的事实真相，我已经在第二版中省略他们指出的部分。批评的关键是用已知和可证明的数据与他所读的部分做对比，公正的对待自己发现的证据，并且指出逻辑上的不足和第一性原理的不一致，却从不阻碍他自己的意见。他应当，事实上，在任何时候以公正女神，阿斯特莉亚之名牢牢的坚守以事实为依据的尺度。
To the various critics who reviewed unfavourably the first edition of this work, and to those also who wrote and published replies to it, my thanks are due and now respectfully tendered. They pointed out several matters which, on proper examination, were not, as evidence, entirely satisfactory; and as my object is to discover and hold to that only which is true beyond doubt, I have omitted them in the present edition. The true business of a critic is to compare what he reads with known and provable data, to treat impartially the evidence he observes, and point out logical deficiencies and inconsistencies with first principles, but never to obtrude his own opinions. He should, in fact, at all times take the place of Astrea, the Goddess of Justice, and firmly hold the scales, in which the evidence is fairly weighed.
我建议所有已经成为地平论主义者的我的读者不要止步于以上部分；同时也不要因为是对手的反对就失去客观与公正。更应当坚持反对已经是完备的或者甚至是可成立的。
I advise all my readers who have become Zetetic not to be content with anything less than this; and also not to look with disfavour upon the objections of their opponents. Should such objections be well or even plausibly founded,
[p. vi]
他们只会倾向于使我们免于错误，并且净化和提升我们的地平论哲学。一句话，让我们成为朋友吧，或者，至少，与我们的敌人友好相处并用敌之长吧；进而，如果我们不能使之成为更好的原因，让我们仔细检查他们的反对意见，如果可能公平的对待他们，始终把他们当作我们未来指导的火炬。
they will only tend to free us from error, and to purify and exalt our Zetetic philosophy. In a word, let us make friends, or, at least, friendly and useful instruments of our enemies; and, if we cannot convert them to the better cause, let us carefully examine their objections, fairly meet them if possible, and always make use of them as beacons for our future guidance.
几乎在所有方面，都有如此多的真理对我们有利，以至于我们完全可以承受我们的选择，坦荡，仁慈，我们可以理直气壮的面对那些简单的选择相信我们，但却无法证明我们错了的人。我们无需抓住每一个瑕疵和病态产生的结果，或者仅仅像是他们提供的结果，最微不足道的形成证据的机会，例如每一个理论家都有义务去这么做，如果他想要使自己的理论完美契合。我们完全等得起，小心称重，善待每一个先进的论点，以确保质朴的真理能得到充分的保证，而不仅仅是某个人的意见，迟早注定取得优势。
In all directions there is so much truth in our favour that we can well afford to be dainty in our selection, and magnanimous, charitable, and condescending towards those who simply believe, but cannot prove, that we are wrong. We need not seize upon every crude and ill-developed result which offers, or only seems to offer, the slightest chance of becoming evidence in our favour, as every theorist is obliged to do if he would have his theory clothed and fit to be seen. We can afford to patiently wait, care-fully weigh, and well consider every point advanced, in the full assurance that simple truth, and not the mere opinions of men, is destined, sooner or later, to have ascendancy.
"IN VERITATE VICTORIA."
"PARALLAX."
London, September 24, 1872.
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