I don't believe either of these propositions. In my opinion, the question of the nature of being and of the meaning of life is fundamental and is forced upon us when we think at all seriously. It may be that the question is unanswerable - and I think it is in fact not completely answerable -- but it is a real question; it is the question. To me it seems evident that the kind of life we shall regard as reasonable must be profoundly affected by the belief we hold about the kind of universe in which we are. Thus I find myself at odds with many eminent contemporary thinkers who assert that metaphysical beliefs are irrelevant to a philosophy of life. I maintain, on the contrary, that any set of opinions and values which is not related to a view of the nature of reality should not properly be called a philosophy of life.

　　对于上面叙述的两种主张，我都不接受。我个人的意见是，存在底性质和人生底意义是基本的问题，只要我们认真思想就必定要面对的。这些问题可能是无法回答的——我认为事实上是无法完全回答——但它是一个真切的问题；它是唯一的问题。在我看来，我们认为合乎理性的人生，必然深深地受到我们对所存处之宇宙的看法的重大影响。许多当代的重要思想家宣称形而上学的信念与人生哲学无关，对于这，我无从苟同。相反的，我认为，跟实在底性质无关的任何意见和准则，就不配称为人生哲学。
　　[being, (in which we) are: 英文的　be “是、存在”有各种不同形式，本段首先出现的being 和之后所用的are，都是“存在”的意思，这里因为它们的形式不同，所以译者把 are 改译为“存处”，一时甚为自得，不知阅读本文的朋友们同意否？
　　[存在底性质：“底”用法同“的”，但仅指定语和中心词之间为领属关系，即前者拥有后者，这里用在“存在”之后，似有必要；用于“人生”之后则似无必要。两处都用，只是为了在本句统一用法。（有关建议采用“底”，见本文十之一的讨论。）

So my philosophy of life begins with a metaphysical statement. It is a very old one, “I believe in one God”, or rather what I believe is that the statement "God exists" is true. Of course, it will be objected at once that I do not know precisely what I mean by this and I must admit that I cannot produce an adequate definition of the word "God". If I could, I should be sure that what I defined was not God, because it is an essential part of my idea of God that He is beyond my comprehension. But I am not reduced to the desperate situation in which I should have to say that I believe God exists, but have no notion at all of what He is. It seems to me that I am sure of a minimum definition: there is creative Mind and that creative Mind is single. Even if there had been no alleged revelation of God, and even if no one had ever thought of God before, I am inclined to believe that the idea would have forced itself on my attention as a probable explanation of my experience.

　　因此，我的人生哲学肇始于一个形而上学的陈述。“我信奉一个上帝”是古老的话，这句话毋宁是说，我相信“上帝存在”是真实的。当然，有人会立刻反诘说，我不了解这话的确切意义，而且我必得承认，我不能提出“上帝”一语的适当定义。如果我能够，我敢说我所界定的不是上帝，因为我基本上认为上帝是超出我的理解的。但是，我还没有沦至绝望的境地，不得已地说我相信上帝存在，但对于他是什么却没有观念。我个人确实有把握的最简单的定义是：有创始力的心灵是存在的，他是单一体。即使没有被指称为得自上帝的的启示，即使以前没有人想到上帝，我相信我会自然而然地得出上述的观点，作为解释我的经验的一个可能试图。
　　[creative Mind“有创始力的心灵”： mind 在本文是一个关键字，现在把它译为“心灵”，因为这，译者想到本文十之一开始处的 mind，也最好改译为“心灵”。一般把 mind 译为“心目”，不无可取处。
[ revelation 在这里译为“启示”，是偷懒的办法，把它译为“显露、展现”如何？]

The centre, then, of my belief in God is that there exists one eternal, creative Intelligence. But I go on from there to a further belief. It could be that the Mind "behind" or "within" phenomena is "the mind of a mathematician" and nothing more, but the suggestion is implausible. Mind, as I know it, at least in its higher forms, is concerned not only with relations and abstractions, it is occupied also with values. Only a distorted and imperfect mind is indifferent to values and to good. A mind that was satisfied with logic and equations, with no sense of values at all, is to me inconceivable; certainly we have no knowledge of such a mind among men, for before a man becomes absorbed in equations and logic he must at least have judged that it is worth while to devote himself to them. Mind, as we know it, is, by its very nature, directed towards truth as a value, or end, which is regarded as good. Thus my idea of God becomes enriched as I meditate upon it and I reach the idea of One who is the source of truth and value, Himself the final Reality and the supreme Good.

　　可以说，我信仰上帝的关键是，一位永恒的有创始力的神明是存在的。但是，我将从这一陈述延伸到更进一步的信念。那就是，在现象后或现象内的心灵有可能只是“一位数学家的心灵”，但是这意见是难以置信的。我所知道的心灵，至少就其较高的形态而言，不仅仅是涉及各种关系和抽象观念，而且还充分关注到各种价值。只有扭曲的不完美的心灵对于价值、对于善，漠不关心。一个满足于逻辑和方程式，而对于各种价值毫无认识的心灵，对我来说是不可想象的；我们在人类中一定找不出这样的心灵，因为人们在醉心于方程式和逻辑之前，至少需要断定从事该类工作是值得的。就其根本性质而言，我们知道，心灵被导向的是具有一种价值的真理，或是被引往认为是善的终端。由于深思默想，我所得的上帝的概念变为丰富了，他现在是真理和价值的源泉，他本身就是最终的实在以及至上的善。
　　[then“可以说”：英文的连接词 then，最常见的直译用语是“那么”，这里用“那么”译，似乎难以接受。]

This is no place to elaborate the arguments for the existence of God which would demand a treatise to itself. Here I can only offer some general remarks on the discussion of the reasonableness of belief in God as I see it. Like all questions which profoundly affect our personal lives, this involves a mingling of intuition and reasoning.

　　本文不容许篇幅详细陈述上帝存在的言论，仅仅该问题就足足需要一篇专文。在这里，我只能就我认为相信上帝合乎道理的讨论，提出若干一般的说明。正像所有深深地影响我们个人生活的问题一样，谈论这问题涉及把直觉和推理混合在一起。

It is my conviction that every normal person has an immediate apprehension of God. What Schleiermacher called "the God-consciousness" is, so to say, an element in our own self consciousness. When we become aware of ourselves, we also become dimly aware of a Reality which is both beyond and within us and, at the same time, both other than and not alien to us. This Reality of which we are dimly aware is deeper than nature, nature is only one very partial aspect of it, and also, as St. Augustine said, "more deeply within us than we are in ourselves". Therefore, to believe in God is, in a sense, natural to us. Nevertheless, this, of course, cannot be demonstrated and, if a man replies that he has no God consciousness, we can do nothing but ask him to look again.

　　我深信，每一个正常的人都对上帝具有直接的领悟。施勒马克称之为“上帝感”的，可以说是每个人都具有的自觉的一个成分。当我们感觉到自己时，我们也隐约地在我们自身之外和自身之内感觉到一个“实在”，而且还同时觉得该实在既不是自己但又与自己没有隔阂。这一个我们隐约地感觉到的实在，比自然更为深入，自然只是该实在的一个相当偏颇的方面，而且正如圣奥古斯丁所说，“他比我们自身之中的我们自己还要深入”。因此，从某一意义来说，我们相信上帝是自然而然的。可是，这当然无法证实，要是有人回答说他没有“上帝感”，我们只有请他再反省一下。
　　[“十之二”的总讨论：本文的这一部分，除了内容的翻译要求妥当之外，在英华两种语文的文词翻译上，特别在宗教用语方面，似乎还没有遇到重要问题。] （十之二完）