公民Ben的七大美德（13/13）

He also wrote parodies that poked fun at Puritan intolerance. In one of them, called "A Witch Trial at Mount Holly," a couple of accused witches were subjected to two tests: weighed on a scale against the Bible, and tossed in the river with hands and feet bound to see if they floated. They agreed to submit--on the condition that two of the accusers take the same test. With colorful details of all the pomp, Franklin described the process. The accused and accusers all succeed in outweighing the Bible. But both of the accused and one of the accusers fail to sink in the river, thus indicating that they are witches. The more intelligent spectators conclude that most people naturally float. The others are not so sure and resolve to wait until summer when the experiment could be tried with the subjects unclothed.

他还经常写一些打油诗来讽刺清教徒的偏激行为。其中一首名为《Mount Holly的女巫审判》（A Witch Trial at Mount Holly），里面描写了两个有罪的女巫被罚进行两个测试：用圣经来衡量他们的体重，还有被捆绑扔到河里看是否能浮起来。他们接受了这个建议——条件是两名原告也要进行这两项测试。通过精细的描写，Franklin生动的重现了这个过程。原告和被告都成功地通过了第一项测试。但是两名被告和其中一名原告在河里沉下去了，这表明了他们都是女巫。聪明的看客认为大多数人都能自然而然地浮起来。其他的人并不确定，并决定等到夏天再看看，因为那样被测试的人不能穿衣服。

Franklin's freethinking unnerved his family. When his parents wrote of their concern over his "erroneous opinions," Franklin replied with a letter that spelled out a religious philosophy based on tolerance that would last his life. It would be vain for any person to insist that "all the doctrines he holds are true and all he rejects are false." The same could be said of the opinions of different religions. He had little use for the doctrinal distinctions his mother worried about. "I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. And the Scripture assures me that at the last day we shall not be examined by what we thought, but what we did ... that we did good to our fellow creatures. See Matthew 26." (His parents, a bit more versed in the Scripture, probably caught that he meant Matthew 25.)

Franklin的自由思想引起了家里的一阵骚动。他的父母曾写信说因为这一“错误观点”要与其断绝关系，Franklin在回信中详细阐明了宽容的宗教理念，这个在他后来的人生里一直坚信的观点。对其他人来说这相当于无稽之谈：“所有被人认同的宗教都是正确的，所有的鄙弃行为都是错误的。”这个观点可以适用于所有不同宗教。他并不在乎各宗教上的理论差别，这正是他母亲担心的地方。“当正统信仰受尊重程度超过了道德时，我想宗教本身也在蒙难。圣经告诉我，最后一天我们不能以自己所想来判断事务，但是我们能做的……就是对同胞寄予最大的慷慨。见马太福音26节。”（熟知圣经的父母可能会明白他说的是马太福音25节。）

By the end of his life, he had contributed to the building funds of each and every sect in Philadelphia, including £5 for the Congregation Mikveh Israel for its new synagogue in April 1788. During the July 4 celebrations that year, he was too sick to leave his bed, but the parade marched under his window. For the first time, as per arrangements that Franklin had overseen, "the clergy of different Christian denominations, with the rabbi of the Jews, walked arm in arm."

在生命最后一站，他还向费城各人与各教派建筑基金捐款，包括1788年四月向翻修的以色列犹太人教堂捐款5英镑。当年7月4日的宗教庆典，他已经卧病在床，病情很是严重，但是游行还是经过了他家窗口。这是第一次，因为Franklin的努力，“不同基督教派的神职人员，包括犹太教的拉比们，手牵着手一起前进。”

And when he was carried to his grave two years later, his casket was accompanied by all the clergymen of the city, every one of them, of every faith.

两年后，他入土为安。城市里所有的牧师，所有的，所有的不同信仰的神职人员都加入了送葬的队伍。

In a world that was then, as alas it still is now, bloodied by those who seek to impose theocracies, Franklin helped to create a new type of nation that could draw strength from its religious pluralism. This comfort with the concept of tolerance--which was based on an aversion to tyranny, a fealty to free expression, a willingness to compromise, the morality of respecting other individuals and even a bit of humor and humility--is what most distinguishes America and its like-minded allies in the messy struggles that confront a new century.

即便是现在我们也还在叹惋，在这个被那些宗教狂热分子的血腥所覆盖的世界，Franklin曾致力于建造一个因其宗教多元化而且强大的新型国家。这因为宽容的信念而来——它建立在对暴政的抵制、追求自由的信念、发自内心的让步、尊重他人的美德和一些幽默及谦虚上——它是美国的标示，也是美国和它志趣相投的同盟们为开创一个崭新的纪元而努力的依据。