I
I have heard many evangelists preach on such texts as: ‘The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.’ It was necessary, of course, that they should explain to their audiences what they meant by this lost condition. Wisely enough, they have usually had recourse to illustration. The child lost in a London crowd; the ship lost on a trackless sea; the sheep lost among the lonely hills; the traveller lost in the endless bush,—all these have been exploited again and again. From literature, one of the best illustrations is the moving story of Enoch Arden. When poor Enoch returns 186from his long sojourn18 on the desolate19 island, he finds that his wife, giving him up for dead, has married Philip, and that his children worship their new father. It is the garrulous20 old woman at the inn who tells him, never dreaming that she is speaking to Enoch. Says she:
‘Enoch, poor man, was cast away and lost!’
He, shaking his grey head pathetically,
Repeated, muttering, ‘Cast away and lost!’
Again in deeper inward whispers, ‘Lost!’
But none of these illustrations are as good as Dante’s. He opens by describing the emotions with which, at the age of thirty-five, his soul awoke. He was lost!
In the midway of this our mortal life,
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray,
Gone from the path direct: and e’en to tell
It were no easy task, how savage21 wild
That forest, how robust22 and rough its growth,
Which to remember only, my dismay
Renews, in bitterness not far from death.
Neither Bunyan’s pilgrim in his City of Destruction, nor his City of Mansoul beleaguered23 by fierce foes24, is quite so human or quite so convincing as this weird25 scene in the forest. The gloom, the loneliness, the silence, and the absence of all hints as to a 187way out of his misery26; these make up a scene that combines all the elements of adventure with all the elements of reality. Dante was lost, and knew it.
II
The poet cannot tell us by what processes he became entangled27 in this jungle. ‘How first I entered it I scarce can say.’ But it does not very much matter. The way by which he escaped is the thing that concerns us; and to this theme he bravely addresses himself. In his description of his earliest sensations in the dark forest, several things are significant. He clearly regarded it as a very great gain, for example, to have discovered that he was lost. ‘I found me,’ he says, ‘I found me in a gloomy wood, astray.’ Those three words, ‘I found me,’ remind us of nothing so much as the record of the prodigal28, ‘And he came to himself.’ I am pleased to notice that it is of the incomparable story of the prodigal that Dante’s opening confession30 reminds most of his expositors. Thus, Mr. A. G. Ferress Howell, in his valuable little monograph31 on Dante, observes that this finding of himself ‘shows that he has got to the point reached by the prodigal son when he said, “I will arise and go to my father.” He found, that is to say, that he had altogether missed the true object of life. The 188wild and trackless wood,’ Mr. Howell goes on to observe, ‘represents the world as it was in 1300. Why was it wild and trackless? Because the guides appointed to lead men to temporal felicity in accordance with the teachings of Philosophy, and to eternal felicity in accordance with the teachings of Revelation—the Emperor and the Pope—were both of them false to their trust.’ So here was poor Dante, only knowing that he was hopelessly lost; and unable to discover among the undergrowth about him any suggestion of a way to safety.
III
Suddenly the Vision Beautiful breaks upon him. He stumbles blindly through the forest until he arrives at the base of a sunlit mountain:
... a mountain’s foot I reached, where closed
The valley that had pierced my heart with dread32.
I looked aloft, and saw his shoulders broad
Already vested with that planet’s beam
Who leads all wanderers safe through every way.
The hill is, of course, the life he fain would live—steep and difficult, but free from the mists of the valley and the entanglements33 of the wood. And is it not illumined by the Sun of Righteousness—‘Who leads all wanderers safe through every 189way’? He stepped out from the valley and cheerfully commenced the ascent34. And then his troubles began. One after the other, wild beasts barred his way and dared him to persist. His path was beset35 with the most terrible difficulties. Now here, if anywhere, the poet betrays that spiritual insight, that flash of genuine mysticism, that entitles him to rank with the great masters. For whilst he wandered in the murky36 wood no ravenous37 beasts assailed38 him. There, life, however unsatisfying, was at least free from conflict. But as soon as he essayed to climb the sunlit hill his way was challenged. It is a very ancient problem. The psalmist marvelled40 that, whilst the wicked around him enjoyed a most profound and unruffled tranquillity41, his life was so full of perplexity and trouble. John Bunyan was arrested by the same inscrutable mystery. Why should he, in his pilgrim progress, be so storm-beaten and persecuted42, whilst the people who abandoned themselves to folly43 enjoyed unbroken ease? I have often thought of the problem when out shooting. The dog invariably ignores the dead birds and devotes all his energy to the fluttering things that are struggling to escape. In the stress of the experience itself, however, such comfortable thoughts do not occur to us, and it seems passing strange that, whilst our days in the wood were undisturbed by hungry eyes or gleaming 190fangs, our attempt to climb the sunlit hill should bring about us a host of unexpected enemies. Many a young and eager convert, fancying that the Christian45 life meant nothing but rapture46, has been startled by the discovery of the beasts of prey47 awaiting him.
IV
And such beasts! Trouble seemed to succeed trouble; difficulty followed on the heels of difficulty; peril48 came hard upon peril.
Scarce the ascent
Began, when, lo! a panther, nimble, light,
And covered with a speckled skin, appeared,
Nor when it saw me, vanished, rather strove
To check my onward49 going; that ofttimes
With purpose to retrace50 my steps I turned.
He had scarcely recovered from the shock, and driven this peril from his path, when
... a new dread succeeded, for in view
A lion came, ’gainst me, as it appeared,
With his head held aloft and hunger-mad.
That e’en the air was fear-struck. A she-wolf
Was at his heels, who in her leanness seemed
Full of all wants, and many a land hath made
Disconsolate51 ere now. She with such fear
O’erwhelmed me, at the sight of her appalled52,
That of the height all hope I lost.
191The panther, the lion, and the wolf; that is very suggestive, and we must look into this striking symbolism a little more closely.
V
The three fierce creatures that challenged Dante’s ascent of the sunlit hill represent evils of various kinds and characters. If a man cannot be deterred53 by one form of temptation, another will speedily present itself. It is, as the old prophet said, ‘as if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.’ If one form of evil is unsuccessful, another instantly replaces it. If the panther is driven off, the lion appears; and if the lion is vanquished54, the lean wolf takes its place. But there is more than this hidden in the poet’s parable29. Did Dante intend to set forth55 no subtle secret by placing the three beasts in that order? Most of his expositors agree that he meant the panther to represent Lust17, the lion to represent Pride, and the wolf to represent Avarice56. Lust is the besetting57 temptation of youth, and therefore the panther comes first. Pride is the sin to which we succumb58 most easily in the full vigour59 of life. We have won our spurs, made a way for ourselves in the world, and the glamour60 of our triumph is too much for us. And Avarice comes, not exactly 192in age, but just after the zenith has been passed. The beasts were not equidistant. The lion came some time after the panther had vanished; but the wolf crept at the lion’s heels. What a world of meaning is crowded into that masterly piece of imagery! Assuming that this interpretation61 be sound, two other suggestions immediately confront us; and we must lend an ear to each of them in turn.
VI
The three creatures differed in character. The panther was beautiful; the lion was terrible; the wolf was horrible. Although the poet knew full well the cruelty and deadliness of the crouching62 panther’s spring, he was compelled to admire the creature’s exquisite beauty. ‘The hour,’ he says,
The hour was morning’s prime, and on his way.
Aloft the sun ascended63 with those stars
That with him rose, when Love divine first moved
Those its fair works; so that with joyous64 hope
All things conspire65 to fill me, the gay skin
Of that swift animal, the matin dawn.
And the sweet season.
The lion, on the other hand, is the symbol of majesty66 and terror. But the lean she-wolf was positively67 193horrible. Her hungry eyes, her gleaming fangs44, her panting sides, filled the beholder68 with loathing69. ‘Her leanness seemed full of all wants.’ The poet says that the very sight of her o’erwhelmed and appalled him. Dante himself confessed that, of the three, he regarded the last as by far the worst of these three brutal70 foes. Now I fancy that, in the temptations that respectively assail39 youth, maturity71, and decline, I have noticed these same characteristics. As a rule, the sins of youth are beautiful sins. The appeals to youthful vice72 are invariably defended on aesthetic73 grounds. The boundary-line that divides high art from indecency is a very difficult one to define. And it is so difficult to define because the blandishments to which youth succumbs74 are for the most part the blandishments of beauty. Like the panther, vice is cruel and pitiless; yet the glamour of it is so fair that it ‘blends with the matin dawn and the sweet season.’ The sins that bring down the strong man, on the other hand, are not so much beautiful as terrible. The man in his prime goes down before those terrific onslaughts that the forces of evil know so well how to organize and muster75. They are not lovely; they are leonine. And is it not true that the temptations that work havoc76 in later life are as a rule unalluring, hideous77, and difficult to understand? The world is thunderstruck. It seems so incomprehensible that, after having 194survived his struggle with the beauteous panther and the terrible lion, a man of such mettle78 should yield to a lean and ugly wolf!
VII
The other thing is this: there is a distinction in method, a difference in approach, distinguishing these three beasts. The panther crouches79, springs suddenly upon its unsuspecting prey, and relies on the advantage of surprise. Such are the sins of youth. ‘Alas80,’ as George Macdonald so tersely81 says,
Alas, how easily things go wrong!
A sigh too deep, or a kiss too long,
There follows a mist and a weeping rain.
And life is never the same again.
The lion meets you in the open, and relies upon his strength. The wolf simply persists. He follows your trail day after day. You see his wicked eyes, like fireflies, stabbing the darkness of the night. He relies not upon surprise or strength, but on wearing you down at the last. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth—having beaten off the panther—beware of the lion and the wolf. And, still more imperatively82, let him that thinketh he standeth—having vanquished both the panther and the lion—take heed83 lest he fall at last to the grim 195and frightful84 persistence85 of the lean she-wolf. It is just six hundred and fifty years to-day since Dante was born; but, as my pen has been whispering these things to me, the centuries have fallen away like a curtain that is drawn86. I have saluted87 across the ages a man of like passions with myself, and his brave spirit has called upon mine to climb the sunlit hill in spite of everything.
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chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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3
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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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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6
fascinations
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| n.魅力( fascination的名词复数 )；有魅力的东西；迷恋；陶醉 | |
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7
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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9
busts
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| 半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 )； 妇女的胸部； 胸围； 突击搜捕 | |
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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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autobiography
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| n.自传 | |
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inferno
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| n.火海；地狱般的场所 | |
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pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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15
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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16
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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17
lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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18
sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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19
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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20
garrulous
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| adj.唠叨的，多话的 | |
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21
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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22
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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23
beleaguered
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| adj.受到围困[围攻]的；包围的v.围攻( beleaguer的过去式和过去分词)；困扰；骚扰 | |
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24
foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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25
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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26
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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27
entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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28
prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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29
parable
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| n.寓言，比喻 | |
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30
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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31
monograph
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| n.专题文章，专题著作 | |
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32
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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33
entanglements
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| n.瓜葛( entanglement的名词复数 )；牵连；纠缠；缠住 | |
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34
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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35
beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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36
murky
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| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
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37
ravenous
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| adj.极饿的，贪婪的 | |
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38
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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39
assail
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| v.猛烈攻击，抨击，痛斥 | |
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40
marvelled
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| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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42
persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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43
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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44
fangs
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| n.（尤指狗和狼的）长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 )；（蛇的）毒牙；罐座 | |
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45
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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46
rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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47
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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48
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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49
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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50
retrace
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| v.折回；追溯，探源 | |
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51
disconsolate
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| adj.忧郁的，不快的 | |
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52
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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53
deterred
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| v.阻止，制止( deter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vanquished
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| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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56
avarice
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| n.贪婪；贪心 | |
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57
besetting
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| adj.不断攻击的v.困扰( beset的现在分词 )；不断围攻；镶；嵌 | |
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58
succumb
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| v.屈服，屈从；死 | |
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59
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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60
glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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61
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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conspire
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| v.密谋，（事件等）巧合，共同导致 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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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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beholder
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| n.观看者，旁观者 | |
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69
loathing
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| n.厌恶，憎恨v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的现在分词)；极不喜欢 | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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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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72
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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73
aesthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的，有美感 | |
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74
succumbs
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| 不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的第三人称单数 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死 | |
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75
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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76
havoc
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| n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱 | |
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77
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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mettle
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| n.勇气，精神 | |
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79
crouches
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| n.蹲着的姿势( crouch的名词复数 )v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的第三人称单数 ) | |
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80
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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81
tersely
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| adv. 简捷地, 简要地 | |
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82
imperatively
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| adv.命令式地 | |
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83
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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84
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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85
persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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86
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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