《论自由·第三章·个性·论幸福的要素之一》第19节
The combination of all these causes forms so great a mass of influences hostile to Individuality, that it is not easy to see how it can stand its ground. It will do so with increasing difficulty, unless the intelligent part of the public can be made to feel its value--to see that it is good there should be differences, even though not for the better, even though, as it may appear to them, some should be for the worse. If the claims of Individuality are ever to be asserted, the time is now, while much is still wanting to complete the enforced assimilation. It is only in the earlier stages that any stand can be successfully made against the encroachment. The demand that all other people shall resemble ourselves, grows by what it feeds on. If resistance waits till life is reduced nearly to one uniform type, all deviations from that type will come to be considered impious, immoral, even monstrous and contrary to nature. Mankind speedily become unable to conceive diversity, when they have been for some time unaccustomed to see it. The Sphere and Duties of Government, from the German of Baron Wilhelm von Humboldt, pp. 11-13. Sterling's Essays.
注释摘要
在这一段里，密尔正在为他关于“个性”的整套论证做一个总结性的警示。从第三章的整体结构看，他已经说明了为什么思想和行动的自由是必要的，为什么习俗的专制会让人的能力萎缩，为什么独创性需要被保护。现在，他要面对一个现实问题：当时的社会里，种种力量正合流威胁着个性，而留给人们阻止这种趋势的时间已经不多了。他这里要证明的是，维护个性不仅是一个理论上的好主张，而且具备…