正文
是个语法上的不及物动词。
Believing is a disposition. Thinking, apart from the contexts
that
and
so
, is an activity, however sedentary. We could tire ourselves out thinking, if we put our minds to it, but believing [19]takes no toll. We sit and think, but do we sit and believe? The White Queen, indeed, professed to do so: "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. " But it will be agreed that the White Queen was atypical.
Believing
（相信）是一种倾向。而在不后接
“that”
或
“so”
的语境中，
thinking
（想）却是一种活动，尽管它并不涉及身体的运动。我们也许会疲劳不堪，如果我们全神贯注地想的话。但相信却不费吹灰之力。我们可以坐下来想，但我们会坐下来相信吗？白王后声称她就是这样做的：
“
我像你这么大年纪的时候，每天都要练上半个钟头。有时我会在早餐前就已相信了六个之多的不可能的事情。
”
但大家都认为，白王后并没有典型性。
She represented beliefs, some of them anyway, as voluntary activities rather than dispositions. She was wrong about their being activities; they are dispositions. But we may still ask whether they are ever voluntary, for some dispositions are. We are voluntarily acquiring a disposition, or trying to, when we memorize "II Penseroso" or the multiplication table or make a New Year's resolution. Belief, however, is not that kind of a disposition. To speak of simply deciding to believe something, independently of any evidence real or imagined, is to stretch the term 'belief' beyond belief.
她把信念（至少其中的一些）描述为主动的活动而非倾向。这是错的，因为信念是倾向而不是活动。但我们仍可以问：信念可以是主动的倾向吗？有些倾向确实是主动的。当我们背诵诗歌
“
忧郁的人
”
（
Il Penseroso
）或乘法表，或制定新年计划时，我们就是在主动地或努力地获得一种倾向。不过，信念并不属于这类倾向。有人谈起信念时，仿佛它们可以招之即来、挥之即去，一切都取决于我们当下的决定，而根本用不着考虑（真实或想像的）证据；我只能说，他们所说的所谓信念已越出了
“
信念
”
这个词的外延了。
An
enamored
（迷恋的）
young man has his reasons for subscribing to the tenets of his fiancee's church, and a
heretic
（异教徒）
threatened by the
Inquisition
（宗教裁判所）
had his reasons for a similar move; but these are cases of
feigning
