时间机器

第四维度

The Fourth Dimension

我要叫他时间旅行者。这是对他最简单的称呼。他是一位科学家，住在伦敦附近里士满的一栋大房子里。每个星期四，我们几个人都会去他家吃晚饭。

I am going to call him the Time Traveller. That is the easiest name for him. He was a scientist, and he lived in a big house in Richmond, near London. Every Thursday a few of us had dinner at his house.

那个星期四，晚饭后我们正坐在火炉旁。时间旅行者亲手做了他的椅子，它们非常舒服。那是一顿美餐后懒洋洋的时光，人们很容易产生想法。

That Thursday we were sitting by the fire after dinner. The Time Traveller made his chairs himself, and they were very comfortable. It was the lazy hour after a good meal, when ideas come easily.

时间旅行者正在向我们解释一些困难的东西。他灰色的眼睛闪闪发光，苍白的脸因为兴奋而发红。我们向后靠着，听他讲。那时我们以为他的新想法只是一个文字游戏。

The Time Traveller was explaining something difficult to us. His grey eyes were shining, and his pale face was red with excitement. We sat back and listened. At that time we thought his new idea was only a clever game with words.

“仔细听我说，”他说。“我想告诉你们，一两个旧观念是错的。比如，你们在学校学的数学就是错的。”

“Listen to me carefully,” he said. “I want to show you that one or two old ideas are wrong. For example, the maths they taught you at school is wrong.”

“这可是个大问题，”菲尔比说。菲尔比有一头红发，他喜欢争论。

“That is a big thing to start with,” said Filby. Filby had red hair, and he liked to argue.

“我不是要你们在没有好理由的情况下相信任何事，”时间旅行者回答。“想想一条线。一条真正的线没有任何厚度，所以它不可能真正存在。你们在学校学过这个，不是吗？”

“I am not asking you to believe anything without a good reason,” the Time Traveller answered. “Think about a line. A true line has no thickness at all, so it cannot really exist. You learned that at school, didn’t you?”

客人中有一位心理学家。心理学家研究人们如何思考。“是的，那是对的，”心理学家说。

One of the guests was a psychologist. A psychologist studies how people think. “Yes, that is right,” said the Psychologist.

“现在想想一个盒子，”时间旅行者继续说。“它有长、宽和高。但是一个只有这三样东西的盒子真的能存在吗？”

“Now think about a box,” the Time Traveller went on. “It has length, width and height. But can a box with only those three things really exist?”

“当然可以，”菲尔比说。“所有真实的东西……”

“Of course it can,” said Filby. “All real things …”

“等一下，”时间旅行者说。“一个盒子能在没有时间的情况下存在吗？它能连一秒钟都不存在吗？”

“Wait a moment,” said the Time Traveller. “Can a box exist for no time at all? Can it be there for not even one second?”

“我不明白你的意思，”菲尔比说。

“I don’t understand you,” said Filby.

菲尔比开始思考，时间旅行者继续他的解释。

Filby started to think, and the Time Traveller went on with his explanation.

“每一样真实的东西都有长、宽和高，”他说。“但它也会持续存在。它会在那里一段时间。这四样东西中的每一项都是一个维度。维度是一个你可以测量的方向。所以时间是第四维度。它和另外三个维度没什么不同。但我们的思想沿着它移动，从我们出生那天到我们死去那天。这就是为什么我们认为它不同。”

“Every real thing has length, width and height,” he said. “But it also lasts. It is there for some time. Each of these four things is a dimension. A dimension is a direction you can measure. So time is the fourth dimension. It is not really different from the other three. But our mind moves along it, from the day we are born to the day we die. That is why we think it is different.”