「汝,群衆に付和雷同し,悪を為すなかれ」祖母がこの聖句を強調してくれたことは,後になって,私がごく小さなマイノリティに属することを恐れなくさせてくれた。 |
写真:4歳の時のラッセル (出典:理想社刊『ラッセル自叙伝』より) After I reached the age of fourteen, my grandmother's intellectual limitations became trying to me, and her Puritan morality began to seem to me to be excessive; but while I was a child her great affection for me, and her intense care for my welfare, made me love her and gave me that feeling of safety that children need. I remember when I was about four or five years old lying awake thinking how dreadful it would be when my grandmother was dead. When she did in fact die, which was after I was married, I did not mind at all. But in retrospect, as I have grown older, I have realized more and more the importance she had in moulding my outlook on life. Her fearlessness, her public spirit, her contempt for convention, and her indifference to the opinion of the majority have always seemed good to me and have impressed themselves upon me as worthy of imitation. She gave me a Bible with her favourite texts written on the fly-leaf. Among these was "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil." Her emphasis upon this text led me in later life to be not afraid of belonging to small minorities. |
(掲載日:2006.10.22 /更新日:2010.6.25)