This system need not detain us long, or unnerve us at all. Lord Julius had spoken figuratively of it as the Pursuit of Happiness; perhaps that remains7 its best definition.
Like other systems, it was capable of explanation by means of formulas; but the most lucid8 and painstaking9 presentation of these could not hope to convey complete meaning to the mind. Stated in words, Emanuel’s plan hardly appealed to the imagination. Save for a few innovations, not of primary importance, it proceeded by arguments entirely10 familiar to everybody, and which indeed none disputes. Most of its propositions were the commonplaces of human speech and thought. The value of purity, of cheerfulness, of loyalty11, of mercy—this is not gainsaid12 by any one. The conception of duty as the mainspring of human action is very old indeed. For this reason, doubtless, Emanuel’s efforts to expound13 his System by means of books had failed to rivet14 public attention. He could only insist afresh upon what was universally conceded, and Mr. Tupper before him had done enough of this to last several generations.
Viewed in operation, however, the System was another matter. Our immemorial platitudes15, once clothed in flesh and blood, informed with life, and set in motion under the sympathetic control of a master mind, became unrecognizable.
Emanuel as a lad had thought much of the fact that he was of the blood of the Spinozas. When he learned Latin in his early boyhood, the task was sweetened and ennobled to his mind by the knowledge that it would bring him into communion with the actual words of the great man, his kinsman16. Later, when he approached with veneration17 the study of these words, the discovery that they meant little or nothing to him was almost crushing in its effects. Eventually it dawned upon his brain that the philosopher’s abstractions and speculations19 were as froth on the top of the water; the great fact was the man himself—the serene20, lofty, beautiful character which shines out at us from its squalid setting like a flawless gem21. To be like Spinoza, but to give his mind to the real rather than the unreal, shaped itself as the goal of his ambitions.
It was at this period that he became impressed by the thought that he was also of the blood of the Torrs. On the one side the poor lens-grinder with the soul of an archangel; on the other the line of dull-browed, heavy-handed dukes, with a soul of any sort discoverable among them nowhere. Slowly the significance of the conjunction revealed itself to him. To take up the long-neglected burden of responsibilities and possibilities of the Torrs, with the courage and pure spirit of a Spinoza—there lay the duty of his life, plainly marked before him.
Ensuing years of reading, travel and reflection gave him the frame, so to speak, in which to put this picture. He had from his childhood been greatly attracted by the glimpses which his father’s library gave him of what is called the Mediaeval period. As he grew older, this taste became a passion. Where predilection22 ended and persuasion23 began, it would be hard to say, but when he had arrived at man’s estate, and stood upon the threshold of his life-work, it was with the deeply rooted conviction that the feudal24 stage had offered mankind its greatest opportunities for happiness and the higher life. That the opportunities had been misunderstood, wasted, thrown away, proved nothing against the soundness of his theory. He had masses of statistics as to wages, rent-rolls, endowments and the like at his fingers’ ends, to show that even on its reverse side, the medieval shield was not so black as it was painted. As for the other side—it was the age of the cathedrals, of the Book of Kells, of the great mendicant25 orders, of the saintly and knightly26 ideals. It was in its flowering time that craftsmanship27 attained28 its highest point, and the great artisan guilds29, proud of their talents and afraid of nothing but the reproach of work ill-done, gave the world its magnificent possessions among the applied31 arts. Sovereigns and princes vied with one another to do honor to the noblest forms of art, and to bow to the intellect of an Erasmus, who had not even the name of a father to bear. Class caste was the rule of the earth, yet the son of a peasant like Luther could force himself to the top, and compel emperors to listen to him, more readily then than now. The bishop33-princes of feudal England were as often as not the sons of swineherds or starveling clerks, whereas now no such thing could conceivably happen to the hierarchy34. Above all things, it was the age of human character. Men like Thomas More, with their bewildering circle of attainments35 and their extraordinary individual force, were familiar products. In a thousand other directions, Emanuel saw convincing proofs that mankind then and there had come closest to the possibilities of a golden age. True, it had wandered off miserably36 again, into all manner of blind lanes and morasses37, until it floundered now in a veritable Dismal38 Swamp of individualism, menaced on the one side by the millionaire slave-hunter, on the other by the spectral39 anarchist40, and still the fools in its ranks cried out ceaselessly for further progress. Oh, blind leaders of the blind!
No. Emanuel saw clearly that humanity could right itself by retracing41 its steps, and going back to the scene of its mistaken choice of roads. It had taken the wrong turning when it forsook42 the path of coherent and interdependent organization—that marvelously intricate yet perfectly43 logical system called feudalism, in which everybody from king to serf had service to render and service to receive, and mutual44 duty was the law of the entire mechanism45.
Though Christian heard much more than this, enough has been said to indicate the spirit in which Emanuel had embarked46 upon the realization47 of his plan. The results, as Christian wonderingly observed them, were remarkable48.
The estate over which the System reigned49 was compact in shape, and enjoyed the advantage of natural boundaries, either of waste moorland or estuaries50, which shut it off from the outside world, and simplified the problem of developing its individual character. In area it comprised nearly fifteen square miles, and upon it, as has been said, lived some two thousand people. About half of these were employed in, or dependent upon, the industrial occupations Emanuel had introduced; the others were more directly connected with the soil. Whether artisans or farmers, however, they lived almost without exception in some one of the six little villages on the property.
In each of these hamlets there were conserved51 one or more old timbered houses; the newer cottages had been built, not in servile imitation of these, but after equally old models, no two quite alike. As the “Fortnightly Review” article said, if the System had done nothing else it had “gathered for the instruction and delight of the intelligent observer almost a complete collection of examples of early English domestic architecture of the humbler sort.” The numerous roads upon the estate were kept in perfect order, and were for the most part lined with trees; where they passed through the villages they were of great width, with broad expanses of turf, shaded by big oaks or elms, some of which had been moved from other spots only a few years before, to the admiring surprise of the neighborhood. Each village had a small church edifice52 of its own, quaintly53 towered and beautiful in form, and either possessing or simulating skillfully the graces of antiquity55 as well. Beside the church was a building presenting some one or another type of the tolsey-house of old English towns, devoted56 to the communal57 uses of the villagers. About the church and the tolsey was the public garden and common, with a playground with swings and bars for the children at the back—and there was no grave or tombstone in sight anywhere. A hospitable58, ivy-clad, low-gabled inn, with its long side to the street, was a conspicuous59 feature on each village green.
Christian retained a vivid recollection of entering one of these taverns61 with Emanuel, very early in his tour of observation. Above the broad, open door, as they went in, swung the cumbrous, brightly painted sign of “The Torr Arms.” Two or three laborers63 in corduroys were seated on benches at the table, with tankards before them; they dragged their heavily shod feet together on the sanded floor, and stood up, when they saw Emanuel, touching65 their hats with an air of affectionate humility66 as he smiled and nodded to them. There was a seemingly intelligent and capable landlady67 in the bar, who drew the two glasses of beer which Emanuel asked for, and answered cheerfully the questions he put to her. Two brightfaced young women, very neatly68 dressed, were seated sewing in this commodious69 bar, and they joined in the conversation which Emanuel raised. Christian gathered from what he heard and saw that his cousin took an active interest in the fortunes of this tavern60 and of both its inmates70 and its patrons, and that the interest and liking71 were warmly reciprocated72. The discovery gave him a more genial4 conception of Emanuel’s character than he had hitherto entertained.
“That is one of my most satisfactory enterprises,” Emanuel had said when they came out. “We brew73 our own beer, as well as the few cordials which take the place of spirits, and I really feel sure it’s the best beer obtainable in England. I am very proud of it—but I am proud of these taverns of ours too. That was one of the hardest problems to be solved—but the solution satisfies me better, perhaps, than anything else I have done. Nobody ever dreams of getting drunk in these ‘pubs’ of ours. Nobody dreams of being ashamed to be seen going into them or coming out. The women and children enter them just as freely, if they have occasion to do so, as they would a dairy or grocer’s shop. They are the village clubs, so to speak, and they are constantly open to the whole village, as much as the church or the tolsey. But here is one of my parsons. I want you to take note of him—and I will tell you about his part in the System afterward74. He is as interesting a figure in it as my publican.”
A tall, fresh-faced, fair young man approached them as Emanuel spoke6, and was presented to the stranger as Father William. Christian observed him narrowly, as he had been bidden, but beyond the fact that he was clad in a somewhat outlandish fashion, and seemed a merry-hearted fellow, there was nothing noteworthy in the impression he produced. He stood talking for a few minutes, and then, with affable adieux, passed on.
“That is wholly my invention,” commented Emanuel, as they resumed their walk. “There is one of them in each of the six villages, and a seventh who has a kind of general function—and really I have been extraordinarily76 fortunate with them all. They come from my college at Oxford77—Swithin’s—and when you think that twenty years ago it was the most bigoted78 hole in England, the change is most miraculous79. These young men fell in with my ideas like magic. I don’t suppose you know much about the Church of England. Well, it drives with an extremely loose rein80. You can do almost anything you like inside it, if you go about the thing decorously. I didn’t even have the trouble with the bishop which might have been expected. These young men—my curates, we may call them—have among themselves a kind of guild30 or confraternity. They are called Father William, or Father Alfred; they wear the sort of habit you have seen; they are quite agreed upon an irreducible minimum of dogmatic theology, and an artistic81 elaboration of the ritual, and, above all, upon an active life consecrated82 to good works. They have their own central chapter-house, where they live when they choose and feel like enjoying one another’s society, but each has his own village, for the moral and intellectual health of which he feels responsible. Without their constant and very capable oversight83, the System would have a good many ragged64 edges, I’m afraid. But what they do is wonderful. They have made a study of all the different temperaments85 and natures among the people. They know just how to smooth away possible friction86 here, to encourage dormant87 energy there, to keep the whole thing tight and clean and sound. They specially88 watch the development of the children, and make careful notes of their qualities and capacities. They decide which are to be fully54 educated, and which are to be taught only to read and do sums.”
“I am not sure that I understand,” put in Christian. “Is not universal education a part of your plan?”
Emanuel smiled indulgently. “There was never grosser nonsense talked in this world,” he said, with the placid89 air of one long since familiar with the highest truths, “or more mischievous90 rubbish into the bargain, than this babble91 about universal education. The thing we call modern civilization is wrong at so many points that it is hard to say where it sins most, but often I think this is its worst offense92. The race has gone fairly mad over this craze for stuffing unfit brains with encumbering93 and harmful twaddle. In the Middle Ages they knew better. The monks94 of a locality picked out the children whose minds would repay cultivation95, and they taught these as much as it was useful for them to know. If the system was in honest operation, it mattered nothing whether these children belonged to the lord of the manor96 or the poorest peasant. Assume, for example, that there was a nobleman and one of his lowest dependents, and that each of them had a clever son and a dull one. The monks would take the two clever ones, and educate them side by side—and if in the end the base born boy had the finer mind of the two, and the stronger character, he would become the bishop or the abbot or the judge in preference to his noble school-fellow. On the other hand, the two dull boys were not wearied by schooling97 from which they could get no profit. The thick-headed young-noble, very often without even learning his alphabet, was put on a horse, and given a suit of armor and a sword; the heavy-witted young churl98 was given a leathern shirt and a pike or a bow, and bidden to follow behind that horse’s tail—and off the two happy dunces went, to fulfill99 in a healthful and intelligent fashion their manifest destiny. Those were the rational days when human institutions were made to fit human beings—instead of this modern lunacy of either shaving down and mangling100 the human being, or else blowing him up like a bladder, to make him appear to fit the institutions. Of course, you must understand, I don’t say that this medieval system worked uniformly, or perfectly, even at its best—and, of course, for a variety of reasons, it eventually failed to work altogether. But its principle, its spirit, was the right one—and it is only by getting back to it, and making another start with the light of experience to guide us this time, that we can achieve real progress. Fortunately, my parsons entered fully, and quite joyfully101, into my feelings on this point. They couldn’t have labored102 harder, or better, to make the System a success if it had been of their own invention.”
“I have seen English parsons often,” said Christian, vaguely103. “They are always married, n’est ce pas?”
“Oh, no—no!” answered Emanuel, with impatient emphasis. “That would never do here. It is difficult enough to find men fit to carry on the task we have undertaken. It would be asking too much of the miracle to expect also unique women who would bring help rather than confusion to such men. Oh, no—we take no risks of that sort. Celibacy104 is the very basis of their guild. It is very lucky that their own tastes run in that direction—because in any case it would have had to be insisted upon.”
Christian wondered if he ought to put into words the comment which rose in his mind. “But you, and your father,” he ventured—“you personally—”
“Ah,” interposed Emanuel, with a rapt softening105 of expression in face and tone, “when women like my mother and my wife appear—that lifts us away from the earth and things earthly, altogether. But they are as rare as a great poem—or a comet. If they were plentiful106 there would be no need of any System. The human race would never have fallen into the mud. We should all be angels.”
After a little pause he added: “The woman question here has been a very hard nut to crack. We have made some progress with it—but it is still one of the embarrassments107. Of course there are others. The restless young men who leave the estate, for example, and having made a failure of it elsewhere, come back to make mischief108 here: That is an awkward subject to deal with. The whole problem of our relations to outsiders is full of perplexities. To prevent intercourse109 with them is out of the question. They come and go as they like—and of course my own people are equally free. I can’t see my way to any restrictions110 which wouldn’t do more harm than good—if indeed they could be enforced at all. I have to rely entirely upon the good sense and good feeling of my people, to show them how much better off they are in every way than any other community they know of, and how important it is for them to keep themselves to themselves, and continue to benefit by their good fortune. If they fail to understand this, I am quite powerless to coerce111 them. And that is where the women give us trouble. It is the rarest thing for us to have any difficulty with the men. They comprehend their advantages, they take a warm interest in their work, and we have developed among them a really fine communal spirit. They are proud of the System, and fond of it, and I can trust them to defend it and stand by it. But this isn’t true of all the women. You have always the depressing consciousness that there are treacherous112 malcontents among them, who smile to your face but are planning disturbance113 behind your back. It is not so much a matter of evil natures as of inferior brains. Let a soldier in a red coat come along, for example—an utterly114 ignorant and vulgar clown from heaven knows what gutter115 or pigsty—and we have girls here who would secretly value his knowledge of the world, and his advice upon things in general, above mine! How can you deal with that sort of mind?”
Christian smiled drolly116, and disclaimed117 responsibility with a playful outward gesture of his hands. “It is not my subject,” he declared.
“But it has to be faced,” insisted Emanuel. “My wife has devoted incredible labor62 and pains to it—and on the surface of things she has succeeded wonderfully. I say the surface, because that is the sinister118 peculiarity119 of the affair; you can never be sure what is underneath120. When you go up to London, you must do as I have done since I was a youth: take a walk of a bright afternoon along Regent Street and Oxford Street, where the great millinery and drapers’ and jewelers’ shops are, and study the faces of the thousands of well-dressed and well-connected women whom you will see passing from one show-window to another. There will be many beautiful faces, and many more which are deeply interesting. But one note you will catch in them all—or at least in the vast majority—the note of furtiveness121. Once you learn to recognize it you will find it everywhere—the suggestion of something hidden, something artfully wrapped up out of sight. God knows, I don’t suggest they all have guilty secrets—or for that matter secrets of any sort. But they have the trained facial capacity for concealment123; it is their commonest accomplishment124; their mothers’ fingers have been busy kneading their features into this mask of pretense125 from their earliest girlhood.”
“Would you not find it also on the men’s faces?” demanded Christian, with a dissolving mental vision of sly masculine visages before him as he spoke. “That is to say, when once you had learned to detect the male variation of the mask? And even if it is so, then is not the reason of it this—that men have long been their own masters, making their own laws, doing freely what they choose, and there is no one before whom they must dissemble?”
Emanuel had not the temperament84 which is attracted by contradiction. He listened to his cousin’s eager words, seemed to ponder them for a space, and then began talking of something else.
Those whom Emanuel called “his people” were for the most part descendants of families who had been on the soil for centuries—since before the Torrs came into possession of it. In a few cases, their stock had been transplanted from the Shropshire estates of the same house. Emanuel had discerned it to be an essential part of the System that its benefits should be reaped by those to whom his family had historic responsibilities. The reflection that the Torrs in Somerset only went back at the farthest to Henry VIII.‘s time, and became large landlords there so recently as Charles II.‘s reign32, saddened him when he dwelt upon it. He would have given much to have been able to establish the System at Caermere instead, where the relations between lord and retainer had subsisted126 from the dawn of tribal127 history. He dwelt a good deal upon this aspect of the matter in his talks with Christian. “If you take up the idea,” he would say, “you will have the enormous advantage of really ancient ties between you and your people. Here in Somerset we are, relatively128 speaking, new-comers—merely lucky bridegrooms or confiscating129 interlopers of a few generations’ standing130. I have had to create my feudal spirit here out of whole cloth. But you at Caermere—you will find it ready-made to your hand.”
Emanuel had created much more besides.
The villages hummed with the exotic industries he had brought into being. The estate produced most of its raw material—food, wool, hides, peat for domestic fuel, stone in several varieties for building, and numerous products of the sea. It drew coal, wood and iron across the channel from the Caermere properties. The effort of the System had been from the outset to expand its self-sufficiency. Christian saw now the remarkable results of this effort on both sides. One village had its leather workers, beginning with the tanners at one end and finishing with the most skillful artificers—glovers, saddlers and shoemakers—at the other. A second village possessed its colony of builders—masons and carpenters alike—and with them guiding architects and designers of furniture and carving131. Here also were the coopers, who served not only the brewery132, but the butter-makers. These latter formed in turn a link with the great dairy establishment, which had for its flank the farming lands. The gardens, nurseries, orchards133 and long glasshouses were nearest to Emanuel’s residence, and their workers made up the largest of the hamlets. This was in other senses the metropolis134 of the state, for here were the printing-press, the bindery, the chemical laboratory, the electric-light plant, the photographic and drawing departments, the clergy135 house and the estate office. The smallest of the villages was in the center of the stock farm, where scientific breeding and experimental acclimatization had attained results of which the staid “Field” spoke in almost excited terms.
But to Christian’s mind by far the most interesting village was that nestled on the sea-shore, under the protection of the cliffs. When he had once seen this place, his cousin found if difficult to get him away from it, or to enlist136 his attention for other branches of the System. There was a small but sufficient wharf137 here, to which colliers of a fair burden could have access; shelter was secured for the home-built fishing craft in the little harbor by means of a breakwater. The red-roofed, gray-stone cottages clustered along the winding138 roadway which climbed the cliff made a picture fascinating to the young man’s eye, but his greater delight was in something not at first visible. Around a bend in the cove18, out of sight of the village, was a factory for the manufacture of glass, and beyond this were pointed139 out to him other buildings, near the water’s edge, which he was told were used for curing, pickling and otherwise preserving fish. “We make our own glass for the gardens and forcing houses, ‘and for all the dwellings140 on the estate,” Emanuel had told him, “and for another use as well.”
The statement had not aroused his curiosity at the moment, but a little later, when he confronted the embodiment of its meaning, he murmured aloud in his astonishment141. He found himself walking in a spacious142 corridor, beneath a roof of semi-opaque, greenish glass, and between walls that seemed of solid crystal, stretching onward143 as far as the eye could reach. A bar of sunlight, striking through aslant144 from somewhere outside, painted a central glowing prismatic patch of color, which reflected itself in countless145 wavering gleams of orange and purple all about him. A curious moving glitter, as of fountains noiselessly at play, traversed the upper surface of these glass walls, and flashed confusion at his first scrutiny146. Then he gave a schoolboy’s shout of joy and rushed forward to the nearest side. He was in a giant aquarium—and these were actual fishes of the sea swimming placidly147 before him! Even as he stared in bewildered pleasure, with his nose flattened148 against the glass, there lounged toward him, across the domed149 back of a king-crab, the biggest conger he had ever imagined to himself. He put up a hand instinctively150 to ward75 off the advance of the impassive eel—then laughed aloud for glee.
“Oh, this is worth all the rest!” he cried to Emanuel.
“Yes, good idea, isn’t it?” said the other. “It was my wife who suggested it. We had started making our own glass—and really this was a most intelligent way of using it. In time I think it will be of great value, too. We have some clever men down here, from time to time, to study the specimens151. I’m sorry no one is here for the moment. I thought at first of building a residence for them, and putting it all at their disposal in a regular way as a kind of marine152 observatory153, like that at Naples. But after all, it would hardly be fair to the system. My first duty is to my own people, and we’ve got some young men of our own who are making good use of it. There are a hundred or more of these tanks, and we are fitting up electrical machinery154 to get automatic control of the water supply, and to regulate the temperature more exactly. But beyond the spectacle of the fishes themselves—our people make holiday excursions here every fortnight or so—and certain things we learn about food and fecundation and so on, I don’t know that there’s much to be said for the practical utility of this department. Further on you will see the oyster155 and mussel beds, and the lobsters156 and crabs157. I attach much more importance to the experiments we are making out there. There seems almost no limit to what can be done in those fields, now that we have learned how to go to work. It is as simple a matter to rear lobsters as it is to rear chickens.”
“But it is all wonderful!” cried Christian, once more. “But tell me—this costs a great sum of money. I am afraid to think how much. Is it your hope—shall you ever get a profit from it?”
Emanuel smiled. “There is no question of profits,” he explained, gently. “The System as a whole supports itself—or rather is entirely capable of doing so. The capital that I have spent in putting the System upon its feet, so to speak, I count as nothing. It belonged to the people who had been with us all these centuries and I have merely restored it to them. In the eyes of the law it is all mine, and from that point of view I am a much richer man than I was before the System began. But in practice it belongs to all my people. I take enough to live as befits my station; each of the others has enough to maintain him in his station, comfortably and honorably. Whatever the surplus may be, that is devoted to the objects which we all have in common. You see it is simplicity158 itself.”
“But that is like my brother Salvator’s doctrine,” said Christian. “It is socialism, is it not?” Emanuel’s fine brows drew together in an impatient frown. “Please do not use that word,” he said, with a shade of annoyance159 in his tone. “The very sound of it affronts160 my ears. Nothing vexes161 me more than to have my work unthinkingly coupled with that monstrous162 imposture163. If you will think of it, I am more opposed to what is called socialism than anybody else on earth. I have elaborated the one satisfactory system, on lines absolutely opposed to it. I furnish the best weapon for fighting and slaying164 that pernicious delusion165 that the whole world offers. So you see, I have a right to protest when people confuse me with my bitterest antagonist166.”
“Pardon!” said Christian, with humility. “I am so badly informed upon all these matters!”
“Ah, well, you will understand them perfectly, all in good time,” his cousin reassured167 him in a kindly168 way.
Christian drew a furtive122 sigh as they moved along. To his fancy the large fishes in the tanks regarded him with a sympathetic eye.
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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genially
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| adv.亲切地，和蔼地；快活地 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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lucid
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| adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的 | |
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painstaking
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| adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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gainsaid
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| v.否认，反驳( gainsay的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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expound
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| v.详述；解释；阐述 | |
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rivet
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| n.铆钉；vt.铆接，铆牢；集中(目光或注意力) | |
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platitudes
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| n.平常的话，老生常谈，陈词滥调( platitude的名词复数 )；滥套子 | |
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kinsman
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veneration
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cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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speculations
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| n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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predilection
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| n.偏好 | |
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persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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feudal
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| adj.封建的，封地的，领地的 | |
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25
mendicant
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| n.乞丐；adj.行乞的 | |
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26
knightly
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| adj. 骑士般的 adv. 骑士般地 | |
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27
craftsmanship
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| n.手艺 | |
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28
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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29
guilds
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| 行会，同业公会，协会( guild的名词复数 ) | |
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30
guild
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| n.行会，同业公会，协会 | |
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31
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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32
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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33
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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34
hierarchy
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| n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层 | |
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35
attainments
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| 成就，造诣； 获得( attainment的名词复数 )； 达到； 造诣； 成就 | |
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36
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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37
morasses
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| n.缠作一团( morass的名词复数 )；困境；沼泽；陷阱 | |
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38
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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39
spectral
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| adj.幽灵的，鬼魂的 | |
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40
anarchist
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| n.无政府主义者 | |
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41
retracing
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| v.折回( retrace的现在分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
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42
forsook
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| forsake的过去式 | |
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43
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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44
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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45
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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46
embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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47
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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48
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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49
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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50
estuaries
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| （江河入海的）河口，河口湾( estuary的名词复数 ) | |
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51
conserved
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| v.保护，保藏，保存( conserve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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53
quaintly
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| adv.古怪离奇地 | |
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54
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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55
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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56
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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57
communal
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| adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的 | |
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58
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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59
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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60
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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61
taverns
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| n.小旅馆，客栈，酒馆( tavern的名词复数 ) | |
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62
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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63
laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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64
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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65
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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66
humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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67
landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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68
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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69
commodious
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| adj.宽敞的；使用方便的 | |
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70
inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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71
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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72
reciprocated
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| v.报答，酬答( reciprocate的过去式和过去分词 )；（机器的部件）直线往复运动 | |
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73
brew
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| v.酿造，调制 | |
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74
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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75
ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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76
extraordinarily
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|
| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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77
Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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78
bigoted
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| adj.固执己见的，心胸狭窄的 | |
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79
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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80
rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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81
artistic
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|
| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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82
consecrated
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|
| adj.神圣的，被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 )；奉献 | |
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83
oversight
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|
| n.勘漏，失察，疏忽 | |
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84
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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85
temperaments
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| 性格( temperament的名词复数 )； （人或动物的）气质； 易冲动； （性情）暴躁 | |
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86
friction
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|
| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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87
dormant
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|
| adj.暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的 | |
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88
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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89
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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90
mischievous
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|
| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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91
babble
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| v.含糊不清地说，胡言乱语地说，儿语 | |
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92
offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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93
encumbering
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，拖累( encumber的现在分词 ) | |
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94
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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95
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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96
manor
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| n.庄园，领地 | |
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97
schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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98
churl
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| n.吝啬之人；粗鄙之人 | |
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99
fulfill
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| vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意 | |
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100
mangling
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| 重整 | |
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101
joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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102
labored
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|
| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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103
vaguely
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|
| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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104
celibacy
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| n.独身(主义) | |
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105
softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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106
plentiful
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|
| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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107
embarrassments
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| n.尴尬( embarrassment的名词复数 )；难堪；局促不安；令人难堪或耻辱的事 | |
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108
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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109
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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110
restrictions
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| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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111
coerce
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| v.强迫，压制 | |
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112
treacherous
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|
| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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113
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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114
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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115
gutter
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| n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟 | |
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116
drolly
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| adv.古里古怪地；滑稽地；幽默地；诙谐地 | |
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117
disclaimed
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| v.否认( disclaim的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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118
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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119
peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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120
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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121
furtiveness
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| 偷偷摸摸，鬼鬼祟祟 | |
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122
furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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123
concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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124
accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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125
pretense
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| n.矫饰，做作，借口 | |
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126
subsisted
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| v.（靠很少的钱或食物）维持生活，生存下去( subsist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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127
tribal
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| adj.部族的，种族的 | |
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128
relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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129
confiscating
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| 没收（confiscate的现在分词形式） | |
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130
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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131
carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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132
brewery
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| n.啤酒厂 | |
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133
orchards
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| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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134
metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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135
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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136
enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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137
wharf
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| n.码头，停泊处 | |
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138
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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139
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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140
dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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141
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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142
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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143
onward
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|
| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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144
aslant
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| adv.倾斜地；adj.斜的 | |
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145
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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146
scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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147
placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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148
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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149
domed
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|
| adj. 圆屋顶的, 半球形的, 拱曲的 动词dome的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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150
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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151
specimens
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|
| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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152
marine
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| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
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153
observatory
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| n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台 | |
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154
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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155
oyster
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| n.牡蛎；沉默寡言的人 | |
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156
lobsters
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| 龙虾( lobster的名词复数 )； 龙虾肉 | |
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157
crabs
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| n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 ) | |
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158
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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159
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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160
affronts
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| n.（当众）侮辱，（故意）冒犯( affront的名词复数 )v.勇敢地面对( affront的第三人称单数 )；相遇 | |
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161
vexes
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| v.使烦恼( vex的第三人称单数 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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162
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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163
imposture
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| n.冒名顶替，欺骗 | |
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164
slaying
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| 杀戮。 | |
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165
delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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166
antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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167
reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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168
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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