This vast enterprise had to be carried on in secret. John was determined2 not to attract attention to himself. He had to behave as a naturalist3 who studies the habits of some dangerous brute4 by stalking it with field-glass and camera, and by actually insinuating5 himself among the herd6 under a stolen skin, and an assumed odour.
Unfortunately, I cannot give at all a full account of this phase of John’s career, for I played but a minor7 part in it. His disguise was always the precocious8 but naive9 “schoolboy” character which had served him so well in making contact with financiers; and his approach was very often a development of the “gate-crashing” tactics which he had used in the same connexion. This technique was combined with his diabolically10 skilled vamping. Always his methods were nicely adjusted to the mentality11 of the particular quarry12. I will mention only a few examples, to give the reader some idea of the procedure, and then I will pass on to record some of the ruthless judgements which his researches enabled him to make.
He effected contact with a Cabinet minister by being taken ill outside the great man’s private residence at the moment when the minister’s wife was entering the house. It will be remembered that John had remarkable13 control over his organic reflexes, and could influence his glandular14 secretions15, his temperature, his digestive processes, the rate of his heart-beat, the distribution of blood in his body, and so on. By careful manipulation of these controls he was able to produce a disorder16 the symptoms of which were sufficiently17 alarming though its after-effects were not serious. A pale pathetic wreck18, he was laid on a couch and mothered by the minister’s wife while the minister himself phoned for the family doctor. Before the physician arrived, John was already an intriguing19 little convalescent, and was busy attaching the minister to himself with subtle bonds of compassion20 and interest. The medical pundit21 did his best to conceal22 his bewilderment, and recommended that the boy should rest where he was till his parents were found. But John wailed23 that his parents were away for the day, and the house would be shut till the evening. Might he stay until their return, and then go home in a taxi? By the time he left the house he had already gained some insight into the mind of his host, and had secured an invitation to come again.
The artificial illness had proved so successful that it became one of his favourite methods. He used it, for instance, to make contact with a Communist leader, supplementing it with an account of his shocking home conditions since his father “got the sack for organizing a strike.” Variants24 of the same method of artificial illness, with appropriate religious trimmings, were used also upon a bishop25, a Catholic priest, and several other clerical gentlemen. It also proved effective with a woman M.P.
As an example of a different approach I may mention that John bagged an eminent26 astronomer27-physicist by writing him a schoolboyish letter of the naive-brilliant kind, begging to be shown over an observatory28. The request was granted, and John turned up at the appointed rendezvous29 equipped with schoolcap and a pocket telescope. This meeting led to other connexions among physicists30, biologists, physiologists31.
The epistolary method was also used upon a well-known Cambridge philosopher and social writer. This time the handwriting was disguised; and, when finally John called on his man, he turned up with dyed hair, dark glasses and a Cockney accent. He intended to assume a very different character from that which had served with the astronomer; and he was anxious to avoid all possibility that the philosopher might identify him as the lad whom the astronomer had encountered.
The letter by which he effected this contact was nicely adapted to its purpose. It combined crude handwriting, bad spelling, dislike of religion, scraps32 of striking though crude philosophical33 analysis, and enthusiasm for the philosopher’s books. I quote a characteristic passage:
My father beet34 me for saying if god made the world he made a mess. I said you said it was silly to beet children, so he beet me again for knowing you said it. I said being abel to beet a fellow didn’t proove he was wrong. He said I was evil to answer back on my father. I said wots good and evil anyhow but just wot I like and dont like. He said it was blastphemy. Please let me call and ask you some questiuns about how a mind works and wot it is.
John had already made several visits to the philosopher’s rooms in Cambridge, when he received a note from the astronomer. I should have explained that a young schoolmaster in a London suburb was allowing John to use his flat as a postal35 address. The astronomer asked John to come and meet “another very wide-awake boy,” who lived in Cambridge and was a friend of the philosopher. The ingenuity36 and relish37 which John displayed in defeating the repeated efforts of both men to bring about this meeting afforded me an amusing sidelight on his character, but I have not space to describe it.
The epistolary approach was used with equal effect upon a well-known modern poet. In this case the style of the letter and the persona which John assumed in the subsequent interviews were very different from those which had served for the astronomer and the philosopher. They were adjusted, moreover, not precisely38 to the conscious mentality of the poet as he was then known to the public and to himself, but to a mood or attitude in him which was subsequently to dominate his work. I quote the most striking passage from John’s letter:
In all my hideous39 frustration40 of spirit, at home, at school, and in my confused attempts to come to terms with the modern world, the greatest comfort and source of strength is your poetry. How is it, I wonder, that, although you seem simply to describe a tortured and degenerate41 civilization, the very describing lends it dignity and significance, as though revealing it to be, after all, not mere42 frustration, but the necessary darkness before some glorious enlightenment.
John’s efforts were not directed solely43 upon the intelligentsia and the leaders of political and social movements. Using appropriate methods, he made friends with engineers, artisans, clerks, dock-labourers. He acquired first-hand information about the mental differences between South Wales and Durham coal-miners. He was smuggled44 into Trade union meetings. He had his soul saved in Baptist chapels45. He received messages from a mythical46 dead sister in spiritualists’ seances. He spent some weeks attached to a gipsy caravan47, touring the southern counties. This post he apparently48 gained by showing his proficiency49 at petty theft and at repairing pots and pans.
One activity he repeated again and again, spending on it a length of time which seemed to me disproportionate to its significance. He became very friendly with the owner of a fishing smack50 near home, and would often spend days or nights with this man and his mate on the estuary51 or the open sea. When I asked John why he gave so much attention to the fishing community and these two men in particular, he said, “Well, they’re damned fine stuff, these fishermen, and Abe and Mark are two of the best. You see, when Homo sapiens is up against the sort of job and the sort of life that’s not really beyond him, he’s all right. It’s only when civilization gives him a job that’s too much for his intelligence or too much for his imagination that he fails. And then the failure poisons him through and through.” It was not till long afterwards that I realized his ulterior purpose in giving so much attention to the sea. At one time he became very friendly with the skipper of a coasting schooner52, and made several voyages with him up and down the narrow seas. I ought to have realized that one motive53 of these adventures was the desire to learn how to handle a ship.
One other matter should be mentioned here. John’s study of Homo sapiens now extended to the European Continent. In my capacity of family benefactor54 I was charged with the task of persuading Doc and Pax to join me on excursions to France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia. John always accompanied us, with or without his brother and sister. Since Doc could not leave his practice frequently or for long at a time, these occasional family holidays had to be supplemented by trips in which the parents did not participate. I would announce that I had to “run over to Paris to a journalists’ conference,” or to Berlin to see a newspaper proprietor55, or to Prague to report on a conference of philosophers, or to Moscow to see what they were doing about education. Then I would ask the parents to let me take John. Consent was certain, and our plans were often laid in detail before it was given. In this way John was enabled to carry on abroad the researches that he was already pursuing in the British Isles56.
Foreign travel in John’s company was apt to be a humiliating experience. Not only did he learn to speak a new language in an incredibly short time and in a manner indistinguishable from that of the native; he was also amazingly quick at learning foreign customs and intuiting foreign attitudes of mind. Consequently, even in countries with which I was familiar I found myself outclassed by my companion within a few days after his arrival.
When it was a case of learning a language entirely57 new to him, John simply read through a grammar and a dictionary, took concentrated courses of pronunciation from one or two natives or from gramophone records, and proceeded to the country. At this stage he would be regarded by natives as a native child who had been in foreign parts for some time and had lost touch somewhat with his own speech. At the end of a week or so, in the case of most European languages, no one would suspect that he had ever been out of the country. Later in his career, when his travels took him farther afield, he reckoned that even an Eastern language, such as Japanese, could be thoroughly58 mastered in a fortnight from his landing in the country.
Travelling with John on the European Continent I often asked myself why I allowed this strange being to hold me perpetually as his slave. I had much time for thought, for John was as often as not away hunting some writer or scientist or priest, some politician or popular agitator59. Or else he was getting in touch with the workers by travelling in third — or fourth-class railway carriages, or talking to navvies. While he was thus engaged he often preferred to be without me. Every now and then, however, I was needed to act the part of guardian60 or travelling tutor. Sometimes, when John was particularly anxious to avoid giving any suggestion of his unique superiority, he would coach me carefully before the interview, priming me with questions to ask and observations to make.
On one occasion, for instance, he persuaded me to take him to an eminent psychiatrist61. John himself played the part of a backward and neurotic62 child while I discussed his case with the professional man. This interview led to a course of treatment for John, and occasional meetings between the psychiatrist and myself to discuss progress. The poor man remained throughout ignorant that his small patient, seemingly so absorbed in his own crazy fantasies, was all the while experimenting on the physician, and that my own intelligent, though often provoking, questions had all originated in the mind of the patient himself.
Why did I let John use me thus? Why did I allow him to occupy so much of my time and attention, and to interfere63 so seriously with my career as a journalist? It could hardly be said that he was lovable. Of course, he was unique material for the journalist or the biographer, and I had already decided64 that some day I would tell the world all that I knew of him. But it is clear that even at this early stage the unfledged spirit of John exercised over me a fascination65 more subtle than that of novelty. I think I felt already that he was groping towards some kind of spiritual re-orientation which would put the whole of existence in a new light. And I hoped that I myself should catch some gleam of this illumination. Not till much later did I realize that his vision was essentially66 beyond the range of normal human minds.
For the present the only kind of illumination which came to John was apparently a devastating67 conviction of the futility68 of the normal species. To this discovery he reacted sometimes with mere contempt, sometimes with horror at the doom69 which awaited the human world, and with terror at his own entanglement70 in it. But on other occasions his mood was compassion, and on others again sardonic71 delight, and yet on others delight of a more serene72 kind in which compassion and horror and grim relish were strangely transmuted73.
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1
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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naturalist
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| n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者) | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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insinuating
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| adj.曲意巴结的，暗示的v.暗示( insinuate的现在分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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precocious
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| adj.早熟的；较早显出的 | |
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naive
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| adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的 | |
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diabolically
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mentality
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| n.心理，思想，脑力 | |
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quarry
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| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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glandular
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| adj.腺体的 | |
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secretions
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| n.分泌（物）( secretion的名词复数 ) | |
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disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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intriguing
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| adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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pundit
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| n.博学之人；权威 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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variants
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| n.变体( variant的名词复数 )；变种；变型；（词等的）变体 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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astronomer
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| n.天文学家 | |
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observatory
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| n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台 | |
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rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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physicists
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| 物理学家( physicist的名词复数 ) | |
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physiologists
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| n.生理学者( physiologist的名词复数 )；生理学( physiology的名词复数 )；生理机能 | |
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32
scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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beet
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| n.甜菜；甜菜根 | |
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postal
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| adj.邮政的，邮局的 | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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frustration
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| n.挫折，失败，失效，落空 | |
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degenerate
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| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
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42
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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smuggled
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| 水货 | |
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chapels
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| n.小教堂， （医院、监狱等的）附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 )；（在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的）礼拜仪式 | |
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mythical
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| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
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caravan
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| n.大蓬车；活动房屋 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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proficiency
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| n.精通，熟练，精练 | |
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50
smack
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| vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍 | |
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51
estuary
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| n.河口，江口 | |
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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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benefactor
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| n. 恩人，行善的人，捐助人 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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56
isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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agitator
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| n.鼓动者；搅拌器 | |
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guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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61
psychiatrist
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| n.精神病专家；精神病医师 | |
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neurotic
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| adj.神经病的，神经过敏的；n.神经过敏者，神经病患者 | |
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63
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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fascination
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| n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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futility
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| n.无用 | |
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doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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entanglement
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| n.纠缠，牵累 | |
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sardonic
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| adj.嘲笑的，冷笑的，讥讽的 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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transmuted
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| v.使变形，使变质，把…变成…( transmute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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