Mr Asterias was accompanied by his son, to whom he had given the name of Aquarius — flattering himself that he would, in the process of time, become a constellation19 among the stars of ichthyological science. What charitable female had lent him the mould in which this son was cast, no one pretended to know; and, as he never dropped the most distant allusion20 to Aquarius’s mother, some of the wags of London maintained that he had received the favours of a mermaid, and that the scientific perquisitions which kept him always prowling about the sea-shore, were directed by the less philosophical21 motive22 of regaining23 his lost love.
Mr Asterias perlustrated the sea-coast for several days, and reaped disappointment, but not despair. One night, shortly after his arrival, he was sitting in one of the windows of the library, looking towards the sea, when his attention was attracted by a figure which was moving near the edge of the surf, and which was dimly visible through the moonless summer night. Its motions were irregular, like those of a person in a state of indecision. It had extremely long hair, which floated in the wind. Whatever else it might be, it certainly was not a fisherman. It might be a lady; but it was neither Mrs Hilary nor Miss O’Carroll, for they were both in the library. It might be one of the female servants; but it had too much grace, and too striking an air of habitual24 liberty, to render it probable. Besides, what should one of the female servants be doing there at this hour, moving to and fro, as it seemed, without any visible purpose? It could scarcely be a stranger; for Claydyke, the nearest village, was ten miles distant; and what female would come ten miles across the fens26, for no purpose but to hover27 over the surf under the walls of Nightmare Abbey? Might it not be a mermaid? It was possibly a mermaid. It was probably a mermaid. It was very probably a mermaid. Nay28, what else could it be but a mermaid? It certainly was a mermaid. Mr Asterias stole out of the library on tiptoe, with his finger on his lips, having beckoned29 Aquarius to follow him.
The rest of the party was in great surprise at Mr Asterias’s movement, and some of them approached the window to see if the locality would tend to elucidate30 the mystery. Presently they saw him and Aquarius cautiously stealing along on the other side of the moat, but they saw nothing more; and Mr Asterias returning, told them, with accents of great disappointment, that he had had a glimpse of a mermaid, but she had eluded31 him in the darkness, and was gone, he presumed, to sup with some enamoured triton, in a submarine grotto32.
‘But, seriously, Mr Asterias,’ said the Honourable33 Mr Listless, ‘do you positively34 believe there are such things as mermaids35?’
MR ASTERIAS Most assuredly; and tritons too.
THE HONOURABLE MR LISTLESS What! things that are half human and half fish?
MR ASTERIAS Precisely36. They are the oran-outangs of the sea. But I am persuaded that there are also complete sea men, differing in no respect from us, but that they are stupid, and covered with scales; for, though our organisation37 seems to exclude us essentially38 from the class of amphibious animals, yet anatomists well know that the foramen ovale may remain open in an adult, and that respiration39 is, in that case, not necessary to life: and how can it be otherwise explained that the Indian divers40, employed in the pearl fishery, pass whole hours under the water; and that the famous Swedish gardener of Troningholm lived a day and a half under the ice without being drowned? A nereid, or mermaid, was taken in the year 1403 in a Dutch lake, and was in every respect like a French woman, except that she did not speak. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, an English ship, a hundred and fifty leagues from land, in the Greenland seas, discovered a flotilla of sixty or seventy little skiffs, in each of which was a triton, or sea man: at the approach of the English vessel41 the whole of them, seized with simultaneous fear, disappeared, skiffs and all, under the water, as if they had been a human variety of the nautilus. The illustrious Don Feijoo has preserved an authentic42 and well-attested story of a young Spaniard, named Francis de la Vega, who, bathing with some of his friends in June, 1674, suddenly dived under the sea and rose no more. His friends thought him drowned; they were plebeians43 and pious44 Catholics; but a philosopher might very legitimately45 have drawn46 the same conclusion.
THE REVEREND MR LARYNX Nothing could be more logical.
MR ASTERIAS Five years afterwards, some fishermen near Cadiz found in their nets a triton, or sea man; they spoke47 to him in several languages —
THE REVEREND MR LARYNX They were very learned fishermen.
MR HILARY They had the gift of tongues by especial favour of their brother fisherman, Saint Peter.
THE HONOURABLE MR LISTLESS Is Saint Peter the tutelar saint of Cadiz?
(None of the company could answer this question, and MR ASTERIAS proceeded.) They spoke to him in several languages, but he was as mute as a fish. They handed him over to some holy friars, who exorcised him; but the devil was mute too. After some days he pronounced the name Lierganes. A monk48 took him to that village. His mother and brothers recognised and embraced him; but he was as insensible to their caresses49 as any other fish would have been. He had some scales on his body, which dropped off by degrees; but his skin was as hard and rough as shagreen. He stayed at home nine years, without recovering his speech or his reason: he then disappeared again; and one of his old acquaintance, some years after, saw him pop his head out of the water near the coast of the Asturias. These facts were certified50 by his brothers, and by Don Gaspardo de la Riba Aguero, Knight51 of Saint James, who lived near Lierganes, and often had the pleasure of our triton’s company to dinner. — Pliny mentions an embassy of the Olyssiponians to Tiberius, to give him intelligence of a triton which had been heard playing on its shell in a certain cave; with several other authenticated52 facts on the subject of tritons and nereids.
THE HONOURABLE MR LISTLESS You astonish me. I have been much on the sea-shore, in the season, but I do not think I ever saw a mermaid. (He rang, and summoned Fatout, who made his appearance half-seas-over.) Fatout! did I ever see a mermaid?
FATOUT Mermaid! mer-r-m-m-aid! Ah! merry maid! Oui, monsieur! Yes, sir, very many. I vish dere vas von or two here in de kitchen — ma foi! Dey be all as melancholic53 as so many tombstone.
THE HONOURABLE MR LISTLESS I mean, Fatout, an odd kind of human fish.
FATOUT De odd fish! Ah, oui! I understand de phrase: ve have seen nothing else since ve left town — ma foi!
THE HONOURABLE MR LISTLESS You seem to have a cup too much, sir.
FATOUT Non, monsieur: de cup too little. De fen25 be very unwholesome, and I drink-a-de ponch vid Raven54 de butler, to keep out de bad air.
THE HONOURABLE MR LISTLESS Fatout! I insist on your being sober.
FATOUT Oui, monsieur; I vil be as sober as de révérendissime père Jean. I should be ver glad of de merry maid; but de butler be de odd fish, and he swim in de bowl de ponch. Ah! ah! I do recollect55 de leetle-a song:—‘About fair maids, and about fair maids, and about my merry maids all.’ (Fatout reeled out, singing.)
THE HONOURABLE MR LISTLESS I am overwhelmed: I never saw the rascal56 in such a condition before. But will you allow me, Mr Asterias, to inquire into the cui bono of all the pains and expense you have incurred57 to discover a mermaid? The cui bono, sir, is the question I always take the liberty to ask when I see any one taking much trouble for any object. I am myself a sort of Signor Pococurante, and should like to know if there be any thing better or pleasanter, than the state of existing and doing nothing?
MR ASTERIAS I have made many voyages, Mr Listless, to remote and barren shores: I have travelled over desert and inhospitable lands: I have defied danger — I have endured fatigue58 — I have submitted to privation. In the midst of these I have experienced pleasures which I would not at any time have exchanged for that of existing and doing nothing. I have known many evils, but I have never known the worst of all, which, as it seems to me, are those which are comprehended in the inexhaustible varieties of ennui59: spleen, chagrin60, vapours, blue devils, time-killing61, discontent, misanthropy, and all their interminable train of fretfulness, querulousness, suspicions, jealousies62, and fears, which have alike infected society, and the literature of society; and which would make an arctic ocean of the human mind, if the more humane63 pursuits of philosophy and science did not keep alive the better feelings and more valuable energies of our nature.
THE HONOURABLE MR LISTLESS You are pleased to be severe upon our fashionable belles64 lettres.
MR ASTERIAS Surely not without reason, when pirates, highwaymen, and other varieties of the extensive genus Marauder, are the only beau idéal of the active, as splenetic and railing misanthropy is of the speculative65 energy. A gloomy brow and a tragical66 voice seem to have been of late the characteristics of fashionable manners: and a morbid67, withering68, deadly, antisocial sirocco, loaded with moral and political despair, breathes through all the groves69 and valleys of the modern Parnassus; while science moves on in the calm dignity of its course, affording to youth delights equally pure and vivid — to maturity70, calm and grateful occupation — to old age, the most pleasing recollections and inexhaustible materials of agreeable and salutary reflection; and, while its votary71 enjoys the disinterested72 pleasure of enlarging the intellect and increasing the comforts of society, he is himself independent of the caprices of human intercourse73 and the accidents of human fortune. Nature is his great and inexhaustible treasure. His days are always too short for his enjoyment74: ennui, is a stranger to his door. At peace with the world and with his own mind, he suffices to himself, makes all around him happy, and the close of his pleasing and beneficial existence is the evening of a beautiful day.6
THE HONOURABLE MR LISTLESS Really I should like very well to lead such a life myself, but the exertion75 would be too much for me. Besides, I have been at college. I contrive76 to get through my day by sinking the morning in bed, and killing the evening in company; dressing77 and dining in the intermediate space, and stopping the chinks and crevices78 of the few vacant moments that remain with a little easy reading. And that amiable79 discontent and antisociality which you reprobate80 in our present drawing-room-table literature, I find, I do assure you, a very fine mental tonic81, which reconciles me to my favourite pursuit of doing nothing, by showing me that nobody is worth doing any thing for.
MARIONETTA But is there not in such compositions a kind of unconscious self-detection, which seems to carry their own antidote82 with them? For surely no one who cordially and truly either hates or despises the world will publish a volume every three months to say so.
MR FLOSKY There is a secret in all this, which I will elucidate with a dusky remark. According to Berkeley, the esse of things is percipi. They exist as they are perceived. But, leaving for the present, as far as relates to the material world, the materialists, hyloists, and antihyloists, to settle this point among them, which is indeed
A subtle question, raised among
Those out o’ their wits, and those i’ the wrong:
for only we transcendentalists are in the right: we may very safely assert that the esse of happiness is percipi. It exists as it is perceived. ‘It is the mind that maketh well or ill.’ The elements of pleasure and pain are every where. The degree of happiness that any circumstances or objects can confer on us depends on the mental disposition83 with which we approach them. If you consider what is meant by the common phrases, a happy disposition and a discontented temper, you will perceive that the truth for which I am contending is universally admitted.
(Mr Flosky suddenly stopped: he found himself unintentionally trespassing84 within the limits of common sense.)
MR HILARY It is very true; a happy disposition finds materials of enjoyment every where. In the city, or the country — in society, or in solitude85 — in the theatre, or the forest — in the hum of the multitude, or in the silence of the mountains, are alike materials of reflection and elements of pleasure. It is one mode of pleasure to listen to the music of ‘Don Giovanni,’ in a theatre glittering with light, and crowded with elegance86 and beauty: it is another to glide87 at sunset over the bosom88 of a lonely lake, where no sound disturbs the silence but the motion of the boat through the waters. A happy disposition derives89 pleasure from both, a discontented temper from neither, but is always busy in detecting deficiencies, and feeding dissatisfaction with comparisons. The one gathers all the flowers, the other all the nettles90, in its path. The one has the faculty91 of enjoying every thing, the other of enjoying nothing. The one realises all the pleasure of the present good; the other converts it into pain, by pining after something better, which is only better because it is not present, and which, if it were present, would not be enjoyed. These morbid spirits are in life what professed92 critics are in literature; they see nothing but faults, because they are predetermined to shut their eyes to beauties. The critic does his utmost to blight93 genius in its infancy94; that which rises in spite of him he will not see; and then he complains of the decline of literature. In like manner, these cankers of society complain of human nature and society, when they have wilfully95 debarred themselves from all the good they contain, and done their utmost to blight their own happiness and that of all around them. Misanthropy is sometimes the product of disappointed benevolence96; but it is more frequently the offspring of overweening and mortified97 vanity, quarrelling with the world for not being better treated than it deserves.
SCYTHROP (to Marionetta) These remarks are rather uncharitable. There is great good in human nature, but it is at present ill-conditioned. Ardent98 spirits cannot but be dissatisfied with things as they are; and, according to their views of the probabilities of amelioration, they will rush into the extremes of either hope or despair — of which the first is enthusiasm, and the second misanthropy; but their sources in this case are the same, as the Severn and the Wye run in different directions, and both rise in Plinlimmon.
MARIONETTA ‘And there is salmon99 in both;’ for the resemblance is about as close as that between Macedon and Monmouth.
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1
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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octopus
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| n.章鱼 | |
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conjugal
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| adj.婚姻的，婚姻性的 | |
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victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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deities
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| n.神，女神( deity的名词复数 )；神祗；神灵；神明 | |
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mermaid
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| n.美人鱼 | |
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potently
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implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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synthetically
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| adv. 综合地，合成地 | |
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analytically
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| adv.有分析地，解析地 | |
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syllogistically
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| adv.三段论法式地，演绎式地 | |
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plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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alluring
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| adj.吸引人的，迷人的 | |
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constellation
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| n.星座n.灿烂的一群 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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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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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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regaining
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| 复得( regain的现在分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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fen
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| n.沼泽，沼池 | |
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fens
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| n.（尤指英格兰东部的）沼泽地带( fen的名词复数 ) | |
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hover
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| vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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elucidate
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| v.阐明，说明 | |
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eluded
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| v.（尤指机敏地）避开( elude的过去式和过去分词 )；逃避；躲避；使达不到 | |
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grotto
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| n.洞穴 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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mermaids
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| n.（传说中的）美人鱼( mermaid的名词复数 ) | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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respiration
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| n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用 | |
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divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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plebeians
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| n.平民( plebeian的名词复数 )；庶民；平民百姓；平庸粗俗的人 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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legitimately
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| ad.合法地；正当地，合理地 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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caresses
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| 爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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certified
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| a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的 | |
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knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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authenticated
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| v.证明是真实的、可靠的或有效的( authenticate的过去式和过去分词 )；鉴定，使生效 | |
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melancholic
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| 忧郁症患者 | |
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raven
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| n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的 | |
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recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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ennui
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| n.怠倦，无聊 | |
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chagrin
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| n.懊恼；气愤；委屈 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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jealousies
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| n.妒忌( jealousy的名词复数 )；妒羡 | |
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humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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belles
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| n.美女( belle的名词复数 )；最美的美女 | |
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speculative
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| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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tragical
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| adj. 悲剧的, 悲剧性的 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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withering
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| 使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的 | |
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groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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votary
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| n.崇拜者；爱好者；adj.誓约的，立誓任圣职的 | |
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disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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crevices
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| n.（尤指岩石的）裂缝，缺口( crevice的名词复数 ) | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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reprobate
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| n.无赖汉；堕落的人 | |
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81
tonic
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| n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的 | |
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antidote
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| n.解毒药，解毒剂 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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trespassing
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| [法]非法入侵 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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elegance
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| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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glide
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| n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝 | |
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88
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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derives
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| v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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nettles
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| n.荨麻( nettle的名词复数 ) | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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wilfully
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| adv.任性固执地；蓄意地 | |
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benevolence
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| n.慈悲，捐助 | |
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mortified
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| v.使受辱( mortify的过去式和过去分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等） | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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