For the present I will confine myself to this last form of his madness. If one only listens to him, he places liberty above all the good things of the world. If Adam has lost the earthly paradise, it is because he did not know how to tolerate the yoke7 of a divine prohibition8; if man has spattered his planet with blood, it is because he preferred the hard bread of the free citizen to the golden chains of despotism; if he has raised monuments to Spartacus, Bahilla, Garibaldi, and Washington, it is because his first glory is to be free; but the monuments forgotten, [Pg 3] the tyrants9 killed, he raises new ones on his own account; perhaps for the pleasure of destroying them hereafter. If he does not seek some innocent and pleasant occupation, what can he do after having slept and loved and eaten?
Numbers must take the first place among the early tyrants of our own making.
When God made the world, he entirely11 forgot to make numbers, and we have corrected this fault of creation by making them ourselves. God had not numbered the stars in heaven, or the drops of water in the sea, the leaves on the trees or the ants on the ground. Infinity12 above, infinity below, the ineffable13 and immeasurable everywhere.
[Pg 4]
Instead, we have repaired this great forgetfulness of the Creator, by placing numbers above everything else, and making them our masters in the world of living things and dead; we allow them to tyrannize over us in every act of our humble14 daily life, as well as in the pages of history and in dogmas of philosophy. If there have been sanguinary revolutions in order to obtain the liberty of the press, why as yet has no one rebelled against the tyranny of numbers?
Quien sabe?
Whoever would think of buying eleven or thirteen eggs?
No one, for 10 and 12 are our small tyrants.
Who would make a present of nine or ninety-nine francs to his own son?
[Pg 5]
No one, for 10 is a great tyrant10, and 100 greater than 10.
Who has never felt the yoke of numbers one thousand and one hundred thousand? who is never in subjection to the tyranny of the million, both in language and mode of life?
And centuries, too, which are only so many figures, what a number of theories they have evoked15 from the depths of history; how many false names have they not written in the anagraphs of time; how many revolutions have they not postponed16; how many others have they aroused, merely on account of the tyranny of a number?
For some years we have had before our eyes one of the most deplorably humiliating examples of our view of [Pg 6] this arithmetical incubus17, the decline of the nineteenth century to make room for the twentieth.
Six years are still wanting till this numerical cataclysm18. Who knows how many books will be written on the century dying out, how many prophecies on the century following it; what torrents19 of philosophy and ink to discuss the passing of the number 19 to that of 20?
Yet centuries only exist on paper, and after having made them ourselves, we adore and freely elect them to be our tyrants; only to deride20 the poor savages21 who, like us, make their own gods of wood and stone, fall on their knees before them and fear them.
And we fear numbers—only another idol22 of thought, made for our use [Pg 7] and necessity, and in the similitude of our wretchedness and intellectual weakness.
For my part I only see around me an infinite continuity of things and of time, nor do I allow myself to be overawed by the cabal23 of numbers, with which we ought to amuse ourselves as with a pack of cards, esteeming24 them for what they are worth; a poor example of a thing yet poorer!
The dying century, fin6 de siècle, and all such sensational25 phrases, which are intended to express a great deal, because they mean nothing—these exclamations26, the eloquence27 of the non-eloquent, move me little, if at all. I look back and see a yesterday; I look around and see a to-day; forward and I see a to-morrow; the three tenses [Pg 8] of the to become, which have no numbers, nor will ever have. For they succeed each other unceasingly, following the mighty28 strides of our journey, not with the figures of a century, but with a regret that becomes a hope, and will be a faith; to be succeeded again and forever by regret, hope, and faith—unceasingly.
I wished to write this in the first pages of my book to let you know that if I attempt to delineate marriage in modern society I renounce30 the dying century, the fin de siècle, and all such effective phrases, which would give me, based on numbers, so many resources of rhetoric31 and sentimentality. I have hated and always shall hate all forms of tyranny, including that of numbers. I look around and [Pg 9] say, this is the way men marry to-day. They do so because they are sons of a yesterday, which is the father of to-day; then I look forward and hope that to-morrow will be better than yesterday or to-day, and I endeavour to promote the good as quickly as possible and with a minimum of pain, by my pen, my experience, and my studies, cito tute et jucunde, as Celsus has it.
?
In our civilized32 society, marriage is the least evil of all the different modes of union between man and woman for the preservation33 of the race. It is the result of many historic evolutions, many sensual, moral, religious, and legislative34 elements, which have come into conflict with each other in the course of time.
[Pg 10]
Remote atavism of the ravishment of the female, holy words of inspired prophets, imperiousness of feudatories, avarice35 of usurers, transports of love and heroism36 of hearts, have all left something of their own upon the altar of matrimony. But before the sacrament was finished and the priest sent up the fumes37 of his incense38, animal man came leering and saying:
“This is my affair. I am the sole and true priest of this rite29. I am the only minister of this religion.” And mixing the divine and human vows39 on the altar with his hairy hands—perhaps, too, with his tail—he formed a chaos40 of things most opposite, from the highest to the lowest, from the most sublime41 to the most ignoble42. And this, then, is marriage.
[Pg 11]
To curse this love sanctified by vows is useless, to suppress it is impossible, to substitute something better is absurd (at least for the present), and nothing remains43 but to accept it as the least evil of sexual unions, and to ameliorate it gradually, prudently44, and wisely.
By free choice on both sides, enlightened by reason.
By the guarantee of divorce.
?
Neither the prince nor the proletariate needs this book of mine. The first marries worse than any citizen in his kingdom, for dynastic reasons, without love or sympathy. With him it is first the throne, then the family; first the alliance of his colours, and then [Pg 12] if there is room, the kisses of love. It is true he may console himself with the vulgar and easily won embraces of a pandering45 Venus; he may also take advantage of one of the most ridiculous remnants of the Middle Ages, the morganatic marriage. In all cases the ministers, deputies, nay46, even journalists provide him with a wife. The art of taking a wife is for him, therefore, nonsense.
The proletariate, more fortunate than the prince, may choose the woman it loves, and in its choice may take advantage of the counsels of those who have loved and sinned much. But it does not read books, for they cost too much; and when by law its individuality is cancelled from the statistics of the illiterate47, it has no [Pg 13] time to read, for the tyranny of bread oppresses it.
Therefore I write for neither prince nor proletariate, but for all that human multitude who live and move between the extreme poles of modern society and who constitute the true nerve of the nation.
In what way do all these millions of males and females combine?
In different ways, but amongst them marriage is the only legal foundation of the family permitted by morality and approved by religion. All others are contraband48, moving on cross-roads either alone or in company, but all, in one way or the other, defrauding49 nature, with an eternal envy for those who have honestly paid custom dues on entering the city.
[Pg 14]
Without fear of going far wrong, one may say that in whatever society there are the greatest number of married people, there one will find more morality and decorum, and consequently the number of those who love and nourish their love by seduction, whether it be with the armed hand on the public road, or clandestinely50 under the form of domestic robbery, will be less.
Besides this, our modern society is suffering from gold fever; a disease which is as old as man himself and has taken the form and course of a real epidemic52; this contributes more than any other element to corrupt53 the roots of marriage.
Diffused54 instruction and the many social exigencies55 have increased our [Pg 15] needs beyond measure; more especially those which are more costly56, that is, those of the intellect and the higher ?sthetic emotions, without in any way enlarging the sources of production.
From birth to death, the balance of home life oppresses us, torments57 us; its arithmetic pierces through the skin with the acute points of its figures, reaches our very viscera and, alas58, our hearts also; poisoning every pleasure, spoiling all the holy and happy poetry of life. Invited as all are to the genial59 table of modern civilization which offers us so many new delights, we are like the poor government official, who, for appearance’s sake, allows himself to be carried off to a ball, and between the [Pg 16] bars of music and the full glasses, feels his pocket anxiously, wondering how and when he will be able to pay the score.
With what difficulty some of the money is drawn60 from the poor purse of a middle-class man! How many pangs61 has it not caused before it sees the light of day, accompanied by the last caress62 of the convulsive fingers! How unequal the comparison between those who live on an income of one thousand and three thousand francs! And, from the ever increasing fever of desires, the gnawing63 of all vanities, and the vanity of the classes, how these figures increase daily until they reach to ten, twenty, or thirty thousand francs!
And this is the reason that whilst [Pg 17] love alone should prompt to marriage, it is nearly always the last party in the contract, in which money judges and directs according to the need of it, with all the imperiousness of one who knows himself to be unconquerable.
Money, money, always money! It is the first and supreme64 arbiter65 of the greater number of marriages.
To take a wife means to become poor, if the wife does not help to build the new family nest; it means to walk with open eyes into a bottomless and dark abyss; it signifies condemning66 one’s self to the daily torture of poverty, and to dedicate the children yet unborn to the same struggle.
Our dignity would demand that the [Pg 18] wife’s dowry should not enter into our choice at all. The true ideal would be the ability to offer to our companion riches, or, at least, a competency with our heart and hand, so that we could say:
“See, beloved; all that is mine is thine. However much I give you, I shall always be your debtor67, for you have given me your love.” All this is noble and grand, and every man who is conscious of the power of his own moral and physical manhood would wish to say so. But how many really can?
Exceedingly few; hardly any.
And then the young man who would seek to love in the way of the Lord is discouraged and renounces68 marriage, in which he only sees the [Pg 19] door to misery69 or cowardice70. He renounces it frankly71 and forever. Are celibates72 more honest, and how far does their honesty extend?
With the most honest, virtue73 extends to an unwillingness74 to betray the purity of the maiden75, or the faithfulness of other men’s wives; extends or rather descends76, to making the service of love a question of periodical hygiene77 regulated by the rubric of the calendar and by that most imperative78 one of the lunar month. Poor love, poor translation of the most epic79 poem of life! It is as though one were to translate Homer into some Australian dialect!
These bachelor hygienists are however a small minority. Others pretend to something more and [Pg 20] better, and make love in the houses of others, and live by abject80 and cowardly seduction, and perhaps usury81.
This is the most sordid82 and cancerous sore in our modern marriage; this is the gangrene of our society, which spreads an asphyxiating83 fetor of domestic treachery, of moral infection, which contaminates and infests84 everything. Woe85 to us if in every family the newly born could proclaim aloud the name of their father! How many false, living bills of exchange would be protested, what long faces amongst biologists who ingeniously study the law of heredity; what a terrible picture of treachery and dissembling! human and civilized society would appear [Pg 21] all at once like a band of false coiners, and the woman’s womb nothing but a mint of false money.
But the newly born can only weep—the first salutation to life—and the wombs of women are silent, and continue their business of false coinage.
And yet I do not blame the woman more than the man, in this galley86 of treachery, this wide-spread and clandestine51 manufactory of bastards87. If man assails88 the woman, and plots against her virtue, he avails himself of the rights of life. If society does not permit him to take a wife, why should he not share the bread of him who has too much to eat? Do not the workmen of Europe declare daily, that one of the first rights is that of work? And [Pg 22] is not the right of loving perhaps more sacred; the work of works; that for which nature sacrifices the individual, and to which it consecrates89 the best of its energies? Husbands defend these rights, we attack them. If they are conquered—tant pis pour eux!
And the poor wives, why should they not brighten the ennui90 of the nuptial91 bed with some little love affair? Were they not bound forever to a man they had never loved, whom they had perhaps seen only once? Were they not sold by their parents, guardians92, and matrons, like merchandise? Was not their dowry rated at the weight of a coat of arms? and have not they also the right to love? And all the others [Pg 23] who have had the good fortune to love the man who has given them his name, and have thrown themselves into his arms, giving him their whole hearts, happy to be able to transform themselves in him and for him; who dreamt of making marriage a synonym93 of love, and who instead found the husband in a few months in the arms of an old love; have not all these women the right of vengeance94? This is matrimony as it is daily represented in the many small theaters which we call men’s houses.
In these theaters, however (one must be just and not exaggerate), there are more farces95 played than comedies, more comedies than dramas. Tragedies are rare. For [Pg 24] this high form of dramatic art heroes are required, and they are very scarce in modern society. We have made our houses, statues, pictures, and gardens smaller, and have been compelled to reduce our feelings also.
The pistol and dagger96, too, figure in the chronicles of matrimony, but as phenomena98. In the home-theater, on the contrary, the punishment of retaliation99, the little basenesses, the stirring of conscience, under all forms and at all sorts of prices, are in common use. The ménages à trois (aye, even four) are pretty pictures in kind; and the hypocrisy100 of husbands who will not see, because they detest101 scenes, figure every day in the running account of modern matrimony.
[Pg 25]
Live and let live—to apply the noble modern institution of co-operative societies to the family; and raise aloft the banner of the association of forces. One for all, and all for one!
?
Infidelity and treachery are not the only moths102 which corrode103 marriage. We have all the domestic discords104 which spring from the inequality of the needs of intelligence, heart, and habits of thought; we have the partisans105 of the wife and those of the husband, who quarrel amongst themselves, complicating106 the problem, poisoning the wounds, opening with every touch the cicatrices which time and love were so pitifully healing.
If war is an exception in matrimony, [Pg 26] peace is still more rare; and one may safely say that in the greater number of cases it is an armed peace, an atmosphere which relaxes the strength, dries up the purest sources of tenderness, and destroys its happiness. In a word, as our society is constituted in the present day, hell is not common in the family circle, paradise exceedingly rare, but purgatory107 is almost universal.
And yet marriage is still the least evil amongst the unions of the man and woman; it can and ought to grow continually better and increase human happiness; which is for me the highest and truest end of progress.
What is the use of being able to run through space at the velocity108 of seventy kilometres an hour, or to go [Pg 27] round the world in seventy days; what the use of being able to talk through the telephone or see the clouds in the sky of Mars; what the use of so great a fecundity109 of books, of such a deluge110 of journals, if one is unable to increase the patrimony111 of human happiness by even a farthing?
At the present day marriage may be happy, just as one may become rich by playing in the lottery112, but whilst one door opens to the possibility of good, two open to that of evil. He who utters the fatal yes before the Syndic girded with the three national colors, lets a grain fall in the scale that holds our happiness and two in the scale that holds our misfortunes. It is his duty to do the opposite; it is the duty of society to defend matrimony [Pg 28] from the perils113 which threaten it, by wise laws not inspired by the arcadian tendency of the heart, nor by theocratical mysticism, but by a profound knowledge of man.
?
About twenty years ago I broke a lance in favour of divorce in my “Fisiologia dell’ amore,” and hoped at that time to have seen it by now included in the laws of my country.
Twenty years ago I wrote:
“Divorce ought to be included among our laws as soon as possible: happy couples solicit114 it to secure their dignity, wounded by a tyrannical tie; the unhappy implore115 it on their bended knees, those who by misfortune or fault are condemned116 [Pg 29] to the most supreme of human tortures: that of a slavery without redemption, of a yoke without rest, of a scourge117 without balm, of a grief without hope.”[1] Even to-day divorce is not made a law among us, but public opinion demands and will have it. No one in the present day dare defend it with the broken arms of the Church; but many defend it still in the name of the children and of the sanctity of the family.
[1] “Fisiologia dell’ amore,” Milano, 1873, p. 338.
There are too many innocent victims of matrimony for their voices not to be heard; and when the law-giver knows how to surround divorce with all the most delicate guarantees, he will increase the sanctity of the family and free the children from [Pg 30] the cruelly abject spectacle of their two parents living under the same roof hating each other, with homicide in their thoughts, bearing the chains of convicts, without the courage or the strength to break them.
?
Legislators must do this, the rest of the duty lies with those directors of the mind who are called writers, masters, and educators. They ought to teach the woman to know what love is, and what matrimony is, so that she should not give herself, bound hand and foot, to a contract which she knows by hearsay118 only, nor enter the dim future guided by paternal119, maternal120, or religious authority alone.
[Pg 31]
The possibilities of misfortune are a hundred times greater for the woman than for the man, for she is always more ignorant of things genital than we are, and goes to the altar or municipality ignorant of all, dragged like a lamb to the slaughter-house.
At the present day, under the customs to which our society conforms, the only profession of woman is that of wife and mother; and to this calling she is instructed from infancy121, not to be an exemplary wife or perfect mother, but, if possible, to find a husband, and that an ideal one, one who is handsome, young, and above all rich. She is secretly and cleverly instructed in the art of hunting that rare game, a good husband; not in [Pg 32] order to make him or herself happy, but to increase her income and to rise a step or two in the social scale. If in comfortable circumstances, she must become rich; if rich, a millionaire; if civilian122, a countess; if countess, marchioness or princess. This is what she is to aim at; all her education has been directed to this end. Now, marriage should rise from its lower position of a business transaction to the higher one of a union of hearts and thoughts, and neither of the two companions ought to be able to look at each other with anger and think:
You bought me.
I sold myself.
Nothing can cleanse123 us from this original sin, which contaminates matrimony. [Pg 33] In vain do the comforts of riches, the pride of a high position, the excitements of domestic sensuality, throw flowers over the wound to hide it. At the least quibble, the least cloud that covers the heaven of the double life, one hears the fatal words:
You bought me,
I sold myself,
arising from the depths of the troubled conscience like a voice evoked by some evil spirit.
And when neither riches, sensuality, nor vanity have a rag wherewith to cover the cancerous sore, the naked and dreadful spectre of an unsuccessful speculation124, of unsuccessful business—then bitterness is added to [Pg 34] bitterness, and the domestic warfare125 which has become permanent, angry, and poisonous, developes into a chronic97 despair, the most heart-rending form of human pain. Even this is not all; as in an attack of neuralgia the deep-seated and continual pains become sharper and more intolerable at certain moments, taking on a piercing and stab-like character, so it is with the deep-seated and dumb despair of those two unfortunate beings. Every now and then the inexorable cry sounds, and thus it goes on until the last breath.
Let divorce come then, and quickly, to set all these slaves free; let there be a wiser and more liberal education, to teach girls what they do not [Pg 35] know or know indifferently; so that they, like ourselves, can freely say their yes before the altar or the magistrate126 with perfect knowledge and understanding.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
paradoxes
|
|
| n.似非而是的隽语，看似矛盾而实际却可能正确的说法( paradox的名词复数 )；用于语言文学中的上述隽语；有矛盾特点的人[事物，情况] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
revels
|
|
| n.作乐( revel的名词复数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉v.作乐( revel的第三人称单数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
humiliates
|
|
| 使蒙羞，羞辱，使丢脸( humiliate的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
generosity
|
|
| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
contriver
|
|
| 发明者，创制者，筹划者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
6
fin
|
|
| n.鳍；(飞机的)安定翼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
yoke
|
|
| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
prohibition
|
|
| n.禁止；禁令，禁律 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
tyrants
|
|
| 专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 )； 暴君似的人； （古希腊的）僭主； 严酷的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
tyrant
|
|
| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
infinity
|
|
| n.无限，无穷，大量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
ineffable
|
|
| adj.无法表达的，不可言喻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
humble
|
|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
evoked
|
|
| [医]诱发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
postponed
|
|
| vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
incubus
|
|
| n.负担；恶梦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
cataclysm
|
|
| n.洪水，剧变，大灾难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
torrents
|
|
| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
deride
|
|
| v.嘲弄，愚弄 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
savages
|
|
| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
idol
|
|
| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
cabal
|
|
| n.政治阴谋小集团 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
esteeming
|
|
| v.尊敬( esteem的现在分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
25
sensational
|
|
| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
exclamations
|
|
| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
eloquence
|
|
| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
rite
|
|
| n.典礼，惯例，习俗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
renounce
|
|
| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
rhetoric
|
|
| n.修辞学，浮夸之言语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
civilized
|
|
| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
preservation
|
|
| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
legislative
|
|
| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
avarice
|
|
| n.贪婪；贪心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
heroism
|
|
| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
fumes
|
|
| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
incense
|
|
| v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
vows
|
|
| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
chaos
|
|
| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
sublime
|
|
| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
ignoble
|
|
| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
prudently
|
|
| adv. 谨慎地，慎重地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
pandering
|
|
| v.迎合（他人的低级趣味或淫欲）( pander的现在分词 )；纵容某人；迁就某事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
nay
|
|
| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
illiterate
|
|
| adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
contraband
|
|
| n.违禁品，走私品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
defrauding
|
|
| v.诈取，骗取( defraud的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
clandestinely
|
|
| adv.秘密地，暗中地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
clandestine
|
|
| adj.秘密的，暗中从事的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
epidemic
|
|
| n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
corrupt
|
|
| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
diffused
|
|
| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
exigencies
|
|
| n.急切需要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
costly
|
|
| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
torments
|
|
| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
alas
|
|
| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
genial
|
|
| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
pangs
|
|
| 突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
caress
|
|
| vt./n.爱抚，抚摸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
gnawing
|
|
| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
supreme
|
|
| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
arbiter
|
|
| n.仲裁人，公断人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
condemning
|
|
| v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
debtor
|
|
| n.借方，债务人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
renounces
|
|
| v.声明放弃( renounce的第三人称单数 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
misery
|
|
| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
cowardice
|
|
| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
frankly
|
|
| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
celibates
|
|
| n.独身者( celibate的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
virtue
|
|
| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
unwillingness
|
|
| n. 不愿意，不情愿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
maiden
|
|
| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
descends
|
|
| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
hygiene
|
|
| n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
imperative
|
|
| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
epic
|
|
| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
abject
|
|
| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
usury
|
|
| n.高利贷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
sordid
|
|
| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
asphyxiating
|
|
| v.渴望的，有抱负的，追求名誉或地位的( aspirant的现在分词 )；有志向或渴望获得…的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
84
infests
|
|
| n.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的名词复数 )；遍布于v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的第三人称单数 )；遍布于 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
woe
|
|
| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
galley
|
|
| n.（飞机或船上的）厨房单层甲板大帆船；军舰舰长用的大划艇； | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
bastards
|
|
| 私生子( bastard的名词复数 )； 坏蛋； 讨厌的事物； 麻烦事 （认为别人走运或不幸时说）家伙 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
assails
|
|
| v.攻击( assail的第三人称单数 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
consecrates
|
|
| n.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的名词复数 )；奉献v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的第三人称单数 )；奉献 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
ennui
|
|
| n.怠倦，无聊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
nuptial
|
|
| adj.婚姻的，婚礼的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
guardians
|
|
| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
synonym
|
|
| n.同义词，换喻词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
vengeance
|
|
| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
farces
|
|
| n.笑剧( farce的名词复数 )；闹剧；笑剧剧目；作假的可笑场面 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
dagger
|
|
| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
chronic
|
|
| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
phenomena
|
|
| n.现象 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
retaliation
|
|
| n.报复，反击 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
hypocrisy
|
|
| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
detest
|
|
| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
moths
|
|
| n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
corrode
|
|
| v.使腐蚀，侵蚀，破害；v.腐蚀，被侵蚀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
discords
|
|
| 不和（discord的复数形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
partisans
|
|
| 游击队员( partisan的名词复数 )； 党人； 党羽； 帮伙 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
complicating
|
|
| 使复杂化( complicate的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
purgatory
|
|
| n.炼狱；苦难；adj.净化的，清洗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
velocity
|
|
| n.速度，速率 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
fecundity
|
|
| n.生产力；丰富 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
deluge
|
|
| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
patrimony
|
|
| n.世袭财产，继承物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
lottery
|
|
| n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
perils
|
|
| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
solicit
|
|
| vi.勾引；乞求；vt.请求，乞求；招揽(生意) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
implore
|
|
| vt.乞求，恳求，哀求 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
condemned
|
|
| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
scourge
|
|
| n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
hearsay
|
|
| n.谣传，风闻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
paternal
|
|
| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
maternal
|
|
| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
infancy
|
|
| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
civilian
|
|
| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
cleanse
|
|
| vt.使清洁，使纯洁，清洗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
speculation
|
|
| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
warfare
|
|
| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
magistrate
|
|
| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |