Love, being the most powerful agitator3 of human elements that was ever known, stirs the slime which is always found even in the noblest natures; while in men whose souls have been kneaded with sludge it becomes the greatest coefficient of vice4 and crime. Love, like all other sentiments, has a pathology of its own, a superior pathology, because it so widens its sphere of action as to enclose a larger field and has more prepotent needs to satisfy. A man incapable5 of a base deed even though dying of hunger, even though about to lose all that he holds most dear, may compromise with his conscience when a question of love arises, and many, many blemishes6 stain the texture7 of the noblest and loftiest natures. Love wants to possess us bound hands and feet, and this is an inexhaustible source of disgrace, guilt8, mean cowardice9 and great crimes.
The degradations of love are as numberless as the grains of sand in the sea, as many as love's own delights; they are of every size and adapt themselves to the infinite degrees of human baseness. It seems to me, however, that in a general study of physiology10 they can be reduced to two principal forms, that is to say, impotency and prostitution.
Impotency is not only a disease that should receive the care of the physician or the hygienist; it is not only a case which requires the attention of the legislator: but it is a moral shame that must be thoroughly11 studied by the psychologist who endeavors to outline the natural story of love.
In the very simplest organism of inferior animals every desire of love ceases when age, disease or a wound has exhausted12 the energy of the genital organs. In man, instead,[Pg 199] the most irresistible13 and bestial14 needs are so teeming15 with psychical16 elements of the moral and the intellectual world as to survive the disease of the organ. An innocent man loves even without being aware of his manhood, and a woman can die of love although knowing nothing of the existence of the womb. True it is, no amorous17 note arises in the eunuch, or if the phantoms18 of a strange lasciviousness19 are noticed wandering here and there, they are specters that belong to the limbo20 of the most transcendent pathology. These poor pariahs21 of nature are, however, very rare; while our rachitic civilization makes by hundreds the semi-eunuchs who fill with cuckoldly ornaments22 the sanctuary23 of the family and the low world of wandering loves. Statistics, fortunately, cannot obtain the exact number of these "half-men" and consign24 them to their inexorable files; be it enough for us to know that they are many, very many, much more numerous than feminine virtue25 and patience could tolerate.
Nature's whole love, true love, nude26 but innocent love, is not all sentiment or thought, but also a function of reproductive life, a need of the senses. Martyrs28 and saints could mutilate themselves and die in the beatitude of their mutilations; but the majority of men does not consist of saints or martyrs. Every mutilation of love is a shame and the most fecund29 generator30 of many other minor31 shames. In the chaste32 and cool dawn of early youth, more than one woman consented unwittingly to an infamous33 compact by which a man offered her a great name and great wealth in exchange for a "yes." The wretched man loved her, desired her, but could not possess her as nature commanded man to possess woman; he wished to own the temple and feel the emotion of owning it without having the right to enter it. Sometimes the eunuch was not an abject34 being and did confess his shame before his betrayal, but the innocent maiden35 did not understand and accepted the compact. And who does not believe himself a hero or a martyr27 at that age? And the eunuch embraced his precious prey36, inundated37 her with sterile38 kisses, and endeavored to warm her with his impotent caresses39; and the marmoreal statue of adolescent virginity[Pg 200] trembled with new and, to her, incomprehensible emotions. Later on, the virgin40 realized that she was a woman, that in vain she was a woman, and love attacked and seized virtue, and felled it despairing and imploring41, and the covenant42 sworn in good faith was broken by the most powerful of affections. How many domestic misfortunes, what a fruitful stream of bastards43, how many brigands44 spring from this contaminated source!
O you, real eunuchs, half-eunuchs, quarter-eunuchs, do not hope to be loved by a woman on whom you have imposed an infamous contract! No virtue, no oath can resist the sacred laws of love; nobody is stronger than nature. And if you have found a heroine, why make a martyr of her? Do you want to be the executioner of her whom you say you love?
And you, generous women, noble women, who can elevate to the highest regions even the lowest passion, do not accept any compact involving a mutilation of love. You, teachers of every kind of sacrifice, you think that you will make happy an outcast of nature, you impose upon yourselves, smiling perhaps, the sublime45 mission of redeeming46 a desperate man: but I assure you that neither virtue nor sacrifice nor heroism47 can stifle48 that formidable cry of the universe of the living that wants you to be wives and mothers. While the martyr, with the palm of sacrifice tightly pressed to her bosom49, will try to smile, a cruel, deep, painful stab in her heart will warn her: "You, Eve and daughter of Eve, will become a mother only through a crime, will enter the sanctuary of sanctuaries50, the tabernacle of maternity51, only through the door of domestic treason."
No; love is not all senses and all lust52. Sentiment can be such a great part of it as to conceal53 voluptuousness54 in the most secluded55 recess56 of a hidden region. No; woman can be happy even without voluptuousness if she only feels herself loved: but she wishes to love, and should love, "a man." I appeal to all the daughters of Eve, and, to be spared blushing, they may reply with a nod of the head and without moving their lips: Is it not true that you would prefer a[Pg 201] hundred times to be loved by a "real man," even with a vow57 of chastity, rather than to be profaned58 and satiated with lust at the hands of a eunuch? Is it not true that above all you want to have for support that firm column called "an honorable man"? And certainly he is not an honorable man who claims the possession of a woman and demands to be loved by her when he is not a man.
The half-men who at forty, at fifty years of age aspire59 to have a family, after having dragged their half-virility through the lasciviousness of prostitution and the dainties of the erotic kitchen, should never suppose that lechery60 can take the place of true love in a woman. They can prostitute their spouse61, but they can never make her love them earnestly and deeply. They are foredoomed by the inexorable laws of nature to figure largely in the population of cuckoldom.
When impotency falls like a thunderbolt on the head of two happy lovers, it is only a disease, a misfortune that concerns the physician and the pharmacist; but when it precedes love, it is cowardice, degradation1, infamy62. The honest man should never attempt to conceal it from himself or justify63 it; he should either courageously64 renounce65 love, a thing that does not concern him, or expose the sore and ask the armed hand of the surgeon to cut and cauterize66 it. Let him become a man again, and then see if he can aspire to the delights of sentiment. Before becoming a farmer, he should possess a farm.
The complicated mechanism67 of our social organism, in the same manner as it offers to the thirst of ardent68 youth voluptuousness without love, imposes on many lovers, with a more cruel amputation69, love without voluptuousness. Here we have the two chief sources of the thousand sorrows which human society prepares for those who love: "Voluptuousness without love," that is, all the degradations and shames of prostitution; "Love without voluptuousness," that is, all the tortures of enforced chastity. Between these two hells the enamored youth remains70 a long time suspended, until, to avoid death, he takes lechery and imagination into a somber71 old boat and flees away with them to hide in the reedy[Pg 202] marshes72 and among the miasmas73 of self-abuse—the lowest of the degradations of love, and one which occupies a proper place between impotency and prostitution. Yes; as man enjoys all the Olympus of love, he must also submit to all its degradations.
In the book which I will dedicate to the hygiene74 of love this problem will be thoroughly studied. Here I shall refer to it only so far as it concerns the physiology of sentiment. It is painful to admit it, but it is true: our modern society has rendered love so difficult to many unhappy creatures as to make them pass under the Caudine Forks of this cruel dilemma75: either to buy voluptuousness and counterfeit76 love with it, or dream of love in the mire77 of solitary78 lasciviousness. In one way or the other, we are forced to become counterfeiters and to blush for ourselves at the manner in which we satisfy the most powerful of human needs.
Solitary love is not only a sin against hygiene, and one which kills health and vigor79, but it is also an offense80 against morals, a poison of happiness. He who repeatedly falls into the crime and is frequently obliged to blush, tarnishes81 more every day the limpid82 purity of his own dignity, weakens the strong spring of virile83 resolutions and becomes a greater coward in all the battles of life. While he blushes for himself and curses himself and the love that condemns84 him to a continuous debasement, he blushes more than ever in the presence of the woman of whom he does not feel worthy85 and of whom he becomes less worthy at each fall. He poisons the wave of love at its very first source and, even when he later succeeds in loving, has spoiled the purity of his tastes and his aspirations86 and in the arms of a woman who loves him complains of the solitary twinges of a morbid87 voluptuousness, like one who, having burned his mouth with the pungent88 tastes of pipe and brandy, can no longer relish89 the flavors of pineapple and strawberry.
Love is the greatest of conquests, the sweetest of delights, the joy of joys; to renounce it in order to replace it with degradation is worse than a crime, it is an infamy. Better a hundred times chastity with its sublime tortures, [Pg 203]prostitution with its filth90. True and complete love is a splendid banquet under the fragrant91 trees of a garden, amidst the glittering of the chalices92, the harmonies of music and the witty93 jests of friends; solitary love is a furtive94 meal with a bone picked up in the fetidness of a dunghill and gnawed95 in the dark.
Prostitution is, after solitary abuse, the greatest degradation of love, and, what is worse,—it should be said at once,—a necessary one in modern society. Tibullus hurls96 at it a splendid malediction97:
"Jam tua qui Venerem docuisti vendere primus
Quisquis es, infelix urgeat ossa lapis!"
("Whoever thou art who first hast taught to sell the pleasures of love, may an ill-boding stone crush thy bones!")
This imprecation, repeated by all moralists of every succeeding age, could not prevent for one day the sale of love, and universal experience demonstrates that St. Augustine was a sounder philosopher when he wrote:
"Aufer meretrices de rebus99 humanis, turbaveris omnia libidinibus; constitue matronarum loco, labe ac dedecore dehonestaveris."
("Take the prostitutes out of human things, and you will disturb the whole world with lust; put them in the place of wives, and you will defile100 home with disease and dishonor.")
If St. Augustine had written but this sentence, I would proclaim him a great psychologist; in a few words he has shown all the sides of the tremendous problem, given a lesson of toleration to the intolerant, of social science to economists101, and today, after so many centuries, his words are as true, profound, inexorable as when he addressed them to a world so different from ours.
Difficult problems are not solved by fleeing from or by[Pg 204] concealing102 them; and yet many physicians, many philosophers attempt to solve the most burning questions of modern society after the manner of a child who by closing his eyes believes that he is fleeing from the dog that threatens him. To Dr. Monlau in Spain and Dr. Bergeret in France, who thought that they would be able to save society by abolishing prostitution, I replied in a few words which I wish to save from the shipwreck103 of the newspapers in order to gather them in the shadow of this book:
"I have never wondered at finding philosophers who study man in Fichte or in Kant without having ever touched his palpitating body, or examined any of his fibers104 with the microscope; who advise the legislator to destroy in the social organism, with iron and fire, that livid and cancerous spot called prostitution; neither have I given the alarm or extolled105 it as a miracle when I heard the auto-da-fé invoked106 against the houses of ill fame by moralists who have had the rare fortune of having been born without the sixth sense, or the still rarer merit of smothering107 it with the extinguisher of an iron will. But when I hear these intolerant cries from the mouth of a physician, I shake my head diffidently, and with a compassionate108 voice I ask myself: 'Is he really a physician? Has this moralist actually seen a man in convulsive delirium110 and cut into his cold and rigid111 flesh on the chilly112 marble slab113 of the anatomical cabinet? He who hurls the anathema114 at prostitution, is he really the physician who should act as a kind link between the legislator, who in man sees only a defendant115 to punish, and the philanthropist, who in him considers only an unhappy creature to heal and help?'
"These and other questions I addressed to the illustrious Spanish physician Monlau when he proposed to his government the absolute suppression of the houses of ill fame; and then I had the pleasure of seeing my poor words printed in the progressive Spanish medical journals. Now I make the same reproach to Dr. Bergeret, who, in[Pg 205] one of his memoirs116 on prostitution in the country places and small towns of France, went so far as to fling the anathema against that caustic117 wound which civilization has opened in the diseased flesh of the modern social organism; and I, with a sad air, repeat to the French physician a melancholy118: 'Tu quoque, fili mi?'
"Bergeret lost much of his time and ink in narrating119 lurid120 stories of what occurred in some villages of France. And who does not know similar stories? We have them in Italy, in Germany; we can find them in every country where humanity loves and suffers, gets drunk and prostitutes itself; wherever the eyes of the authorities cannot penetrate121 into the most secret fissures123 of the social edifice124 where lie concealed125 the lurid parasites126 that sting and devour127 us. But between deploring128 the evils that are the results of clandestine129 prostitution and destroying all toleration on this ground there is an abyss over which the physician and the legislator should not pass on the waxen wings of an Arcadian flight, but which should be crossed over the solid bridge of a wise criticism.
"Then, my dear moralist, my dear theorist, you say that men learn vice in the houses of ill fame; but, then, without taverns130 would there be no assassins, without pharmacists would there be no poisoners, without manufacturers of gunpowder131 and bayonets would there be no wars? And who, pray, is the cause of the existence of houses of ill fame, taverns, daggers132, poisons, firearms, if not man himself, that man whom you ought to be able to understand if it is true that you also are made of the same dough133? Your morals are those of the inquisitor who burns the sinner whom he cannot convert; they are as false and coarse as those of the legislator who has only the prison and the scaffold for the education of the guilty; as those of the surgeon who barbarously amputates the member which, with a wiser and more merciful science, he should preserve. Modern civilization substitutes the school for the inquisitor's stake, has more faith in books than in prisons and halters, more in preservative134 medicine[Pg 206] than in the surgeon's knife. And as long as the social organism is diseased, as long as it is a poor creature imbued135 with evil humors, with many curious bones and many scrofulous tumors, we will kindly136 cauterize its flesh to keep it alive, to divert into more ignoble137 parts those acrid138 humors that would poison the sources of life, until we shall succeed with the tonic139 cure of education in renewing the blood in the veins140 of this old invalid141 and in pouring this new blood into his flesh, his bones and his nerves, to rebuild them.
"This is why we still preserve the cautery of prostitution, and we wish to guard it with the same jealous care with which a physician keeps a precious wound open to save the life of a diseased organism.
"And believe me, O egregious142 colleague of the country beyond the Alps, when life shall be no longer threatened and the organism shall have new blood, then we will close this wound, too, together with many other ones which are still bleeding. We will close the house of voluptuousness when every man will have his nest and love will not be considered a crime any longer."
There are some savage143 races among which prostitution is unknown, while no civilized144 nation is without prostitutes; on the contrary, every country, even the most moral, has the high prostitutes and the very high, the low and the very low. Not in all countries are prostitutes cynically145 named according to the price they ask for their favors, as in Persia, where they are termed "the fifty tomani," "the twenty tomani," etc.; but everywhere a tariff146 is the index of the hierarchy147 of vice and a scale of lechery. Alexander Severus did not want the money collected through taxes on houses of prostitution to be paid into the treasury148; and Ulpian, his minister, used it for the maintenance of the theaters and the public health. With Juvenalian sagacity, the government of Brazil devotes to the regulation of vice the money received from the sale of decorations and titles of nobility. We find everywhere women who sell themselves, but we also find,[Pg 207] to our honor, that society is everywhere ashamed of this stain, conceals149 and does not mention it, and a mysterious mephitic air hangs heavily over the simony of love.
A thousand muddy streamlets carry their tributes to prostitution; but at the first source the cause is one and powerful: in man an imperious appetite for voluptuousness, in woman an imperious want of bread or licentiousness150, or licentiousness and bread at the same time. Unfortunately woman can always sell five minutes of voluptuousness without love, without desire; she can sell herself with disgust in her heart and hatred151 on her lips. And the joy she sells is paid for according to the requirements of beauty, luxury, fashion, according to the infamous art with which she knows how to feign152 pleasure and counterfeit love. Procurers and procuresses hasten to the market of lechery to test the flesh of the precious victims, to fatten153 the lean and buy the plump for the higher bidder154; and panders155 and bawds, keeping within the shadow of the law, conceal in the lurid or gilded156 prisons of prostitution that quivering herd157 of youth and shame. And prisoners in the same gloomy atmosphere are martyrs of love and nymphomaniacs; victims of hunger and of ignorance; fallen angels and foul158 demons98; all the lowest strata159 of feminine society, all the bloody160 carrions of the great social battles.
There, in those dark haunts of licentiousness, man forgets how to love, loses the holy poetry of the heart and the mysterious quivers of sentiment, prostitutes the most gigantic forces of thought and affection. Without hunger, he partakes of savory161 food; thirstless, he becomes intoxicated162; without the necessity of overcoming modesty163, he obtains everything, and money levels all virtues164 and concedes the maddest polygamy; and there one sees the nude and chaste statue of Love dragged in the fetid bog165 by a frolicsome166 tipsy crowd. Such is the love that modern civilization offers to all those hundred thousand pariahs who cannot find the straw to weave the chaste nest of the family, to all those who cannot make a vow of chastity and do not wish to deceive an innocent maiden or steal another man's woman.
[Pg 208]
Our civilized society can really be proud of this; the philanthropists with their tearful dirges167, the economists with their wise reflections, the legislators with their elaborate codes, can join in a chorus to sing hosannas to this stupendous solution of the problem. Either a starving family or prostitution; either children cast into the depth of misery168 or faith betrayed in the house of a friend; proletariate or infamy; degradation or crime. Stupendous dilemmas169 that crown our society with numberless horns and sow deception170, hunger and corruption171 everywhere. If a thick bark of hypocrisy172 did not cover the rotten trunk of our modern civilization, what a horrible spectacle should we behold173! And when a sincere moralist or a true philosopher attempts to cut the bark away and show to us through a little fissure122 how deep the decay is, then we flee horrified174 and clamor against such impudence175, such sacrilege!
The government should, therefore, deal with prostitution as a malady176 to be treated, not because there is any hope of cure, but because society owes to every sick person a physician and a bed. It should not be permitted to grow, to spread, to parade its lurid sores, to cover itself with tinsel and paint; but it should be watched tenderly as in a hospital, so that in the passer-by it may awaken177 compassion109 rather than lechery.
And while the state keeps a good vigil, writers and teachers should raise the level of general culture and teach the elect the paradise of chastity, which contains a treasure of delights for the future of him who waits (this, alas178! the libertine179 will never be able to understand), and preserves for true love, which all may hope to attain180, the infinite joys of a virgin voluptuousness. The sale of love should neither be proclaimed as a feast of the human family, nor officially suppressed, because it then overflows181 and inundates182 all the paths of society; it should be tolerated and pitied, as we already tolerate and pity many other maladies of our social organism.
To reach this sublime goal, to hope at least to attain it, we must above all scrape off from modern love the hundred[Pg 209] coats of hypocrisy; we must not have our children learn love as a crime in the house of vice; but immediately, at the first dawn of youth, they should be taught that it is a sublime delight conceded to the good and the noble and is to be conquered in the same manner as glory and wealth. Not the chambermaid or the prostitute, but a modest and pure girl should be the first teacher of love; a woman who should teach us love before voluptuousness, to be chaste in our desires in order to possess her some day.
We conceal and believe that we are able with silence to suppress the passions and suffocate183 the desires; but we have concealed too much and have been silent too long. In the most puritanical184 country in the world, England, one of the most honest and wisest physicians of London published a book—that has already reached the ninth edition—in which he frankly185 dared assert that free love, without fecundation, is the only remedy against the proteiform corruption that invades modern society, because of the impossibility for most of the people of morally satisfying one of the most powerful needs. This book was a distressing186 surprise to me. When they can write such a book as this in England and devour nine editions, when an honest physician can calmly discuss preventive intercourse187, when Malthus finds such an eloquent188 and daring commentator189 who brings his theory from the field of economy into that of morality, of hygiene and even of religion, I believe it my duty to affirm that society is thoroughly diseased and (I say it loudly) should be cured.
Yes; modern society, infected with so much prostitution and adultery, and incessantly190 proclaiming itself monogamous while it is largely polygamous, demands a physician to cure its sores, to cleanse191 it from so much degradation, to concede loves virtuous192 and more free, or at least less soiled with filth and lies. And this physician must be a less hypercritical and less exacting193 morality, but at the same time more exalted194, because more human; a morality that should teach us never to separate voluptuousness from love, and that chastity is the most beautiful and holiest of joys and the most watchful195 guardian196 of love.
The elect never prostitute themselves, not even in these times, because they love, and because, having once entered the paradise of love, they feel too great repugnance197 to descend198 to the mire of the simony of voluptuousness. They should exert all their faculties199 with all their strength in order that the masses, too, may elevate themselves to the high spheres in which they dwell, and where they breathe a purer air and cull200 the most delicate and beautiful flowers.
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1
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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degradations
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| 堕落( degradation的名词复数 )； 下降； 陵削； 毁坏 | |
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agitator
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| n.鼓动者；搅拌器 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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blemishes
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| n.（身体的）瘢点( blemish的名词复数 )；伤疤；瑕疵；污点 | |
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texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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cowardice
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| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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physiology
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| n.生理学，生理机能 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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bestial
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| adj.残忍的；野蛮的 | |
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teeming
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| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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psychical
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| adj.有关特异功能现象的；有关特异功能官能的；灵魂的；心灵的 | |
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amorous
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| adj.多情的；有关爱情的 | |
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phantoms
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| n.鬼怪，幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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lasciviousness
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limbo
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| n.地狱的边缘；监狱 | |
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pariahs
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| n.被社会遗弃者( pariah的名词复数 )；贱民 | |
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ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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consign
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| vt.寄售（货品），托运，交托，委托 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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nude
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| adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品 | |
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martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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martyrs
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| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
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fecund
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| adj.多产的，丰饶的，肥沃的 | |
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generator
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| n.发电机，发生器 | |
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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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chaste
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| adj.贞洁的；有道德的；善良的；简朴的 | |
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infamous
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| adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的 | |
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abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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36
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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37
inundated
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| v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付 | |
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38
sterile
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| adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的 | |
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39
caresses
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| 爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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40
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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41
imploring
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| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
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42
covenant
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| n.盟约，契约；v.订盟约 | |
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43
bastards
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| 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 | |
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44
brigands
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| n.土匪，强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
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45
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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46
redeeming
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| 补偿的，弥补的 | |
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47
heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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48
stifle
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| vt.使窒息；闷死；扼杀；抑止，阻止 | |
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49
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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50
sanctuaries
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| n.避难所( sanctuary的名词复数 )；庇护；圣所；庇护所 | |
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51
maternity
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| n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的 | |
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52
lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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53
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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54
voluptuousness
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| n.风骚，体态丰满 | |
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55
secluded
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| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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56
recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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57
vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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58
profaned
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| v.不敬( profane的过去式和过去分词 )；亵渎，玷污 | |
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59
aspire
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| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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60
lechery
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| n.好色；淫荡 | |
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61
spouse
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| n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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62
infamy
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| n.声名狼藉，出丑，恶行 | |
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63
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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64
courageously
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| ad.勇敢地，无畏地 | |
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65
renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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66
cauterize
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| v.烧灼；腐蚀 | |
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67
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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68
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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69
amputation
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| n.截肢 | |
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70
remains
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|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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71
somber
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| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
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72
marshes
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| n.沼泽，湿地( marsh的名词复数 ) | |
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73
miasmas
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| n.瘴气( miasma的名词复数 )；烟雾弥漫的空气；不良气氛或影响 | |
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74
hygiene
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| n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic） | |
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75
dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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76
counterfeit
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| vt.伪造，仿造；adj.伪造的，假冒的 | |
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77
mire
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| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
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78
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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79
vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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80
offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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81
tarnishes
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| 污点，瑕疵，无光泽( tarnish的名词复数 ) | |
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82
limpid
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| adj.清澈的，透明的 | |
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83
virile
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| adj.男性的；有男性生殖力的；有男子气概的；强有力的 | |
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84
condemns
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|
| v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的第三人称单数 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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85
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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86
aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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87
morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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88
pungent
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| adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的 | |
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89
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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90
filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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91
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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92
chalices
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| n.高脚酒杯( chalice的名词复数 )；圣餐杯；金杯毒酒；看似诱人实则令人讨厌的事物 | |
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93
witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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94
furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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95
gnawed
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| 咬( gnaw的过去式和过去分词 )； （长时间） 折磨某人； （使）苦恼； （长时间）危害某事物 | |
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96
hurls
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的第三人称单数 )；大声叫骂 | |
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97
malediction
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| n.诅咒 | |
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98
demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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99
rebus
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| n.谜,画谜 | |
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100
defile
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| v.弄污，弄脏；n.(山间)小道 | |
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101
economists
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| n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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102
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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103
shipwreck
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| n.船舶失事，海难 | |
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104
fibers
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| 光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质 | |
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105
extolled
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| v.赞颂，赞扬，赞美( extol的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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106
invoked
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| v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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107
smothering
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的现在分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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108
compassionate
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| adj.有同情心的，表示同情的 | |
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109
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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110
delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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111
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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112
chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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113
slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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114
anathema
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| n.诅咒；被诅咒的人(物)，十分讨厌的人(物) | |
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115
defendant
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| n.被告；adj.处于被告地位的 | |
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116
memoirs
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| n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数) | |
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117
caustic
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| adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的 | |
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118
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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119
narrating
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| v.故事( narrate的现在分词 ) | |
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120
lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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121
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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122
fissure
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| n.裂缝；裂伤 | |
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123
fissures
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| n.狭长裂缝或裂隙( fissure的名词复数 )；裂伤；分歧；分裂v.裂开( fissure的第三人称单数 ) | |
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124
edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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125
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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126
parasites
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| 寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫 | |
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127
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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128
deploring
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| v.悲叹，痛惜，强烈反对( deplore的现在分词 ) | |
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129
clandestine
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| adj.秘密的，暗中从事的 | |
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130
taverns
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| n.小旅馆，客栈，酒馆( tavern的名词复数 ) | |
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131
gunpowder
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| n.火药 | |
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132
daggers
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| 匕首，短剑( dagger的名词复数 ) | |
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133
dough
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| n.生面团；钱，现款 | |
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134
preservative
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| n.防腐剂；防腐料；保护料；预防药 | |
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135
imbued
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| v.使（某人/某事）充满或激起（感情等）( imbue的过去式和过去分词 )；使充满；灌输；激发（强烈感情或品质等） | |
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136
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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137
ignoble
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| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
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138
acrid
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| adj.辛辣的，尖刻的，刻薄的 | |
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139
tonic
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| n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的 | |
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140
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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141
invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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142
egregious
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| adj.非常的，过分的 | |
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143
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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144
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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145
cynically
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| adv.爱嘲笑地，冷笑地 | |
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146
tariff
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| n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表 | |
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147
hierarchy
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| n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层 | |
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148
treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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149
conceals
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的第三人称单数 ) | |
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150
licentiousness
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| n.放肆，无法无天 | |
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151
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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152
feign
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| vt.假装，佯作 | |
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153
fatten
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| v.使肥，变肥 | |
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154
bidder
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| n.(拍卖时的)出价人，报价人，投标人 | |
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155
panders
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| v.迎合（他人的低级趣味或淫欲）( pander的第三人称单数 )；纵容某人；迁就某事物 | |
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156
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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157
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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158
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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159
strata
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| n.地层（复数）；社会阶层 | |
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160
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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161
savory
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| adj.风味极佳的，可口的，味香的 | |
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162
intoxicated
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| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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163
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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164
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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165
bog
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| n.沼泽；室...陷入泥淖 | |
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166
frolicsome
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| adj.嬉戏的，闹着玩的 | |
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167
dirges
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| n.挽歌( dirge的名词复数 )；忧伤的歌，哀歌 | |
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168
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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169
dilemmas
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| n.左右为难( dilemma的名词复数 )；窘境，困境 | |
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170
deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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171
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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172
hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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173
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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174
horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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175
impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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176
malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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177
awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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178
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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179
libertine
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| n.淫荡者；adj.放荡的，自由思想的 | |
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180
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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181
overflows
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| v.溢出，淹没( overflow的第三人称单数 )；充满；挤满了人；扩展出界，过度延伸 | |
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182
inundates
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| v.淹没( inundate的第三人称单数 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付 | |
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183
suffocate
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| vt.使窒息，使缺氧，阻碍；vi.窒息，窒息而亡，阻碍发展 | |
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184
puritanical
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| adj.极端拘谨的；道德严格的 | |
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185
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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186
distressing
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| a.使人痛苦的 | |
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187
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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188
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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189
commentator
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| n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员 | |
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190
incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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191
cleanse
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| vt.使清洁，使纯洁，清洗 | |
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192
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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193
exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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194
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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195
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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196
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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197
repugnance
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| n.嫌恶 | |
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198
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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199
faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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200
cull
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| v.拣选；剔除；n.拣出的东西；剔除 | |
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