我们为何意见相左
本译文由人工智能辅助工具生成，可能存在不准确之处。如需查阅权威文本，请参考英文原文。
AI-translated. May contain errors. For accurate text, refer to the original English.
中文
我来给你们讲一个小故事。你们刚才听到了那位雄辩的演讲者说："让我们停止互相诋毁吧"——他对始终存在这么多分歧深感惋惜。
但我想我应该讲一个故事，来说明这种分歧的根源。有一只青蛙住在一口井里。它在那里住了很久，在那里出生，在那里长大，然而只是一只小小的青蛙。当然，那时进化论者还没有出现，无法告诉我们这只青蛙是否失去了眼睛，但为了故事的缘故，我们必须假定它有眼睛，而且它每天都以一种足以令现代细菌学家钦佩的精力，清除井水中的各种虫子和细菌。就这样，它日复一日，渐渐变得圆润肥壮。有一天，一只住在大海里的青蛙来了，跌落进了这口井。
"你从哪里来？"
"我来自大海。"
"大海！那有多大？有我这口井这么大吗？"说着，它从井的一边跳到了另一边。
"我的朋友，"海里来的青蛙说，"你怎么能用你这口小井来比大海呢？"
于是井里的青蛙又跳了一跳，问道："你的海有这么大吗？"
"你说的是什么荒唐话，竟想用你这口井来比大海！"
"好吧，"井里的青蛙说，"那么就没有什么东西能比我这口井更大了；什么都不可能比这更大；这家伙是个骗子，把他赶出去。"
这便是始终存在的困难所在。
我是一个印度教徒。我坐在自己那口小井里，以为整个世界就是我这口小井。基督徒坐在他的小井里，以为整个世界就是他的那口井。穆斯林坐在他的小井里，以为那就是整个世界。我要感谢你们美国人，感谢你们正在做出的伟大尝试——打破我们这个小小世界的藩篱。我希望在未来，上主将帮助你们实现这一宏愿。
English
I will tell you a little story. You have heard the eloquent speaker who has just finished say, "Let us cease from abusing each other," and he was very sorry that there should be always so much variance.
But I think I should tell you a story which would illustrate the cause of this variance. A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was born there and brought up there, and yet was a little, small frog. Of course the evolutionists were not there then to tell us whether the frog lost its eyes or not, but, for our story's sake, we must take it for granted that it had its eyes, and that it every day cleansed the water of all the worms and bacilli that lived in it with an energy that would do credit to our modern bacteriologists. In this way it went on and became a little sleek and fat. Well, one day another frog that lived in the sea came and fell into the well.
"Where are you from?"
"I am from the sea."
"The sea! How big is that? Is it as big as my well?" and he took a leap from one side of the well to the other.
"My friend," said the frog of the sea, "how do you compare the sea with your little well?”
Then the frog took another leap and asked, "Is your sea so big?"
"What nonsense you speak, to compare the sea with your well!"
"Well, then," said the frog of the well, "nothing can be bigger than my well; there can be nothing bigger than this; this fellow is a liar, so turn him out."
That has been the difficulty all the while.
I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole world is my little well. The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in his little well and thinks that is the whole world. I have to thank you of America for the great attempt you are making to break down the barriers of this little world of ours, and hope that, in the future, the Lord will help you to accomplish your purpose.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。