HISTORY examines the manifestations of man’s free will in connection with the external world in time and in dependence on cause, that is, defines that freedom by the laws of reason; —
历史研究了人类的自由意志在时间中与外部世界的表现，并依赖于原因来定义那种自由，也就是说，用理性的法则来定义自由。 —

and so history is only a science in so far as that freedom is defined by those laws.
因此，只有在自由由那些法则定义的情况下，历史才能成为一门科学。

To history the recognition of the free wills of men as forces able to influence historical events, that is, not subject to laws, is the same as would be to astronomy the recognition of free will in the movements of the heavenly bodies.
对于历史来说，承认人们的自由意志可以影响历史事件，也就是说，不受法则约束，与天体运动中承认自由意志的情况类似。

This recognition destroys the possibility of the existence of laws, that is, of any science whatever. If there is so much as one body moving at its free will, the laws of Kepler and of Newton are annulled, and every conception of the movement of the heavenly bodies is destroyed. —
这种承认摧毁了存在法则的可能性，也就是摧毁了任何科学的概念。如果有一个物体随意运动，开普勒和牛顿的法则就无效了，天体运动的任何概念都会被摧毁。 —

If there is a single human action due to free will, no historical law exists, and no conception of historical events can be formed.
如果一个人的行动是由自由意志引起的，那么就不存在历史法则，也无法形成历史事件的概念。

For history there exist lines of movement of human wills, one extremity of which vanishes in the unknowable, and at the other extremity of which in space, in time, and in dependence on cause, there moves men’s consciousness of free will in the present.
对于历史来说，存在一条人类意志运动的线路，其中一端在不可知中消失，而另一端在空间、时间和原因的影响下，人们的自由意志意识在现在运动。

The more this curve of movement is analysed before our eyes, the clearer are the laws of its movement. —
这个运动曲线在我们眼前被分析得越清晰，其运动规律也就越清晰。 —

To discover and define those laws is the problem of history.
历史的问题在于发现和定义这些规律。

From the point of view from which the science of history now approaches its subject, by the method it now follows, seeking the causes of phenomena in the free will of men, the expression of laws by science is impossible; —
从历史科学现在接近其课题的观点来看，通过现在的方法，寻找现象的原因在于人们的自由意志，科学无法表达这些规律； —

since however we limit the free will of men, so long as we recognise it as a force not subject to law, the existence of law becomes impossible.
然而只要我们将人们的自由意志限制在无限小的程度上，也就是将其视为极小的数量，我们才会确信无法获得完全的原因，并且，历史不再寻找原因，而是寻找规律。

Only limiting this element of free will to infinity, that is, regarding it as an infinitesimal minimum, we are convinced of the complete unattainability of causes, and then, instead of seeking causes, history sees before itself the task of seeking laws.
只有将自由意志这一因素限制到无穷大，也就是将其视为极小量，我们才能确信无法获得原因，并且，代替寻找原因，历史面临的任务是寻找规律。

The seeking of those laws has been begun long ago, and the new lines of thought which history must adopt are being worked out simultaneously with the self-destruction towards which the old-fashioned history is going, forever dissecting and dissecting the causes of phenomena.
寻求这些法则的努力早已开始，并且历史所必须采取的新思路正在与那些旧式史学的自我毁灭同时进行，永远不停地分析和剖析现象的原因。

All human sciences have followed the same course. —
所有人类科学都走过同样的道路。 —

Reaching infinitesimals, mathematics, the most exact of the sciences, leaves the process of analysis and enters on a new process of approximating to summing up the unknown infinitesimals. —
进入到极小值，数学，作为最准确的科学，抛弃了分析过程，进入了一个近似和总结未知极小值的新过程。 —

Forsaking the conception of cause, mathematics seeks law, that is, properties common to all unknown, infinitesimal quantities.
数学离开了因果的概念，寻求的是法则，也就是所有未知的极小值所共有的特性。

The other sciences, too, have followed the same course, though under another form. —
其他科学也遵循着同样的道路，只是形式不同。 —

When Newton formulated the law of gravity, he did not say that the sun or the earth has the property of attraction. —
当牛顿阐述了万有引力定律时，他并没有说太阳或地球具有吸引力的属性。 —

He said that all bodies—from the greatest to the smallest—have the property of attracting one another; —
他说所有物体——从最大到最小——都具有相互吸引的属性； —

that is, leaving on one side the question of the cause of the movements of bodies, he expressed the property common to all bodies, from the infinitely great to the infinitely small. —
也就是说，无论物体的运动的原因是什么，他表达了从无穷大到无穷小，所有物体共有的属性。 —

The natural sciences do the same thing; leaving on one side the question of cause, they seek for laws. —
自然科学也做同样的事情；不考虑原因的问题，它们追求的是法则。 —

History, too, is entered on the same course. —
历史也进入了同样的轨道。 —

And if the subject of history is to be the study of the movements of peoples and of humanity, and not episodes from the lives of individual men, it too is bound to lay aside the idea of cause, and to seek the laws common to all the equal and inseparably interconnected, infinitesimal elements of free will.
如果历史的主题是研究民族和人类的运动，而不是个体人的片段，它也必须放弃因果的观念，寻求对所有相等且紧密相连的无穷小意志元素都共有的法则。