While we sat thus conversing1, our boatmen went down along the beach, and around a little point that ran out into the lake, to bathe. They were jolly, but uncultivated men, given to rudeness and profanity of speech when out of our immediate2 presence, and by themselves, and we heard from them, while they were splashing and struggling in the water, expressions somewhat inelegant as well as profane3.
"I have often thought," said Spalding, as we listened to the rude and sometimes profane speech of our men, "how vast the influence which circumstances or accident, over which men have no control, have upon their conduct and destiny in this world, if not in the next. The poet has well said,
'Full many a gem4 of purest ray serene5
The dark unfathomed caves of Ocean bear;
And many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.'
"These rude men are but testifying to the great truth, that man is the creature, in a greater or less degree, of circumstances; that he is great or small, polished or rude, wise or simple, according to the accident of his birth, or the surroundings in the midst of which his journey of life lays. True, there are intellects that will work themselves into position, men who will hew6 their way upward in spite of the difficulties which beset7 them, as there are others who will plunge8 down to degradation9 and dishonor, in defiance10 of tender rearing, of education, of association, and all the allurements11 to an upward career that can be presented to the human understanding. But these are so rare, that they may be properly regarded as exceptions to the general rule; so rare, indeed, as to prove its truth. You and I can look around us, and from among our acquaintances select many men and women, whose genius and solid understanding, and whose virtues12 too, have remained undeveloped, and probably will do so till they die, from lack of opportunity for their exercise. Accident seems to have stricken them from their legitimate14 sphere. Circumstances, for which they were not responsible, and over which they could exercise no control, have barred them out from their seeming true position in the world, and the genius which was intended for the daylight and the eagle's flight towards the sun, is left to skim in darkness along the ground, like the course of the mousing owl15. We have all seen another thing, which baffles our philosophy, while it proves the truth of the theory of which I am speaking. We have seen men, and see them every day, who, from no quality of heart or mind seem fitted to rise in the world, occupying commanding positions to which accident has lifted them; whose genius commands no admiration16, whose virtues are of a doubtful character, and who possess no one quality which entitles them to our respect or the respect of the world. As the former are the victims of circumstance, these latter are its creatures. Both are the sport of fortune; the one class its victims, and the other its favorites. How is all this to be accounted for? And where rests the responsibility of failure, and where the credit of success? Are there accidents floating about among the paths marked out on the chart of life by the Deity19, which jostle his creatures from the destiny intended for them? Or were men thrown loose upon the currents of life, to take their chances of good and evil, to be virtuous20 or vile21, according to the influences among which they were floating, to be fortunate or otherwise, as the means of advancing themselves drifted within their reach? If so, where rests the responsibility, I ask again, of failure, and where the credit of success? Children are born into the world under strangely different influences. One first sees the light in the haunts of vice22 and crime, amidst the corruptions23 which fester away down in the depths of a great city. The influences which surround it are only and always evil. They are such in infancy24, in childhood, in youth, and in manhood. Another is cradled under the influence of intelligences, piety25, virtue13; having around it always the safeguards of refined and Christian26 civilization. What is the difference in the degree of responsibility attached to the future of these antipode beginnings? Can you tell me where, and how these wide, terribly wide distinctions are to be reconciled? When and where the career of these germs of being, starting from points so wide asunder27, are to meet, and how the balances of good and evil, of suffering and enjoyment28 of sinning and retribution, are to be adjusted at last? I have been asking myself, too, while listening to the speech of these men, so thoughtlessly uttered, where these profane epithets29, these impious expressions, are to rest at last? Who can tell whether they do not go jarring through the universe, marring the music of the spheres, throwing discord30 into the anthems31 of the morning stars when they sing together, a wail32 among the glad voices of the sons of God, when they shout for joy? In this world, and to the dulness of human perception, when the sound of the impious words has died away, or a smile comes back to the face clouded by the angry thought, the effect seems to have ceased; but it may not be so. The word or the thought may be wandering for ages, vibrating still, away off among the outer creations of God. The angel that bore them at the beginning from the lips or the heart, may be flying still, and generations and centuries may have passed, before his journeying with them shall have ceased.
"It is a fanciful idea, that whatever we say or think, is immortal33; that every word we utter goes ringing through the universe forever; that every thought of the heart becomes a creation, a thing of vitality34 in some shape, starting forward among the things of some sort of life, never to die! I have sometimes, in my dreamy hours, speculated upon the truth of such a theory, and reasoned with myself in favor of its reality. All I can say in its favor, however, is that I cannot disprove it. It may be true, or it may not. There are other mysteries quite as incomprehensible, the results of which we can see, without being able to penetrate35 the darkness in which they dwell. But assuming its truth, and appreciating the consequences which would follow, we should rule the tongue with a sterner sway, and guard the heart with a more watchful36 care than is our wont37. Think of the obscene word becoming a living entity38, the profane oath a thing of life; the filthy39 or impure40 thought, assuming form and vitality, all starting forward to exist forever among the creations of infinite purity. Who would own one of these ogres in comparison with the beautiful things of God? Who would say of the obscene word, the profane oath, or the filthy or impious thought, 'this is mine. I made it. I am the author of its being—its creator!' And yet it may be so. If it is, there are few of us who have not thrown into life much, very much to mar18 the harmonies of nature, to throw discord among the spheres."
"Your statement," remarked Smith, "that accident has much to do with making or marring the fortunes of men, is doubtless true. Men are destroyed by accident, and their lives are sometimes saved by it. And if you'll put away metaphysics, come out of the cloud in which you have hid yourself in your dreamy speculations41, I will furnish you with a case in point, showing that a man may get into a very unpleasant predicament, where he runs a great risk and gets some hard knocks, and yet be able to thank God for it, in perfect earnestness of spirit. A case of the kind came under my own observation, and while there was not much philosophy, or abstract speculation42 about it, there was a great deal of hard practical fact. It happened when I was a boy, at the old homestead, in the valley that stretches to the southwest from the head of Crooked43 Lake. That valley is hemmed44 in by high and steep hills, and at the tune17 of which I speak, was much more beautiful in my view than it is now. There was no village there then, and the farms which stretched from hill to hill were greatly less valuable than they are now; but the woods and pastures, and meadows, lay exactly in the right places, and had among them partridges, and squirrels, and pigeons, and cattle, and sheep enough to make things pleasant; besides, there were plenty of trout45 in those days, in the stream that flows along through the valley midway between the hills. On the north side, coming down through a gorge46, or 'the gulf,' as we used to call it, was a stream which, in the dry season of the year, was a little brook47, trickling48 over the rocks, but which, in the spring freshets, or when the clouds emptied themselves on the mountain, was a wild, foaming49, roaring, and resistless torrent50. In following this stream into 'the gulf,' you walked on a level plain between walls of rock, rising two or three hundred feet on either hand, and a dozen or more rods apart, until you came to 'the falls,' down which the stream rushed with a plunge and a roar, when its back was up, or over which, in the dry season, it quietly rippled51. These 'falls' were not perpendicular52, but steep as the roof of a Dutch barn, and it was a great feat53 to climb them when the stream was low. Ascending54 about fifty feet, you came to a broad flat rock, large and smooth as a parlor55 floor, and which in the summer season was dry. Well, one day, in company with a boy who was visiting me, I went up to the 'falls,' and we concluded to climb the shelving rocks to the 'table;' and taking off our shoes and stockings, entered upon the perilous56 ascent57—for such to some extent it was. Hands and feet, fingers and toes, were all put in requisition. My friend began the ascent before I did, and was half way up when I started. I ought to have said, that at the foot of the 'falls,' was a basin, worn away by the torrent, and in which the water, clear and cold, then stood to the depth of three or four feet. We were toiling58 painfully up, when I heard a rush above, and in an instant my friend came like an arrow past me, sliding down the shelving rocks on his back, or rather in a half-sitting posture59, his rear to the rocks. I won't undertake to say that the fire flew as he went by me, for the rocks were slate60, and therefore such a phenomenon was not likely to occur, but the entire absence of the seat of my friend's pantaloons, and the blood that trickled61 down to his toes, showed that the friction62 was considerable. As he passed me, I heard him exclaim, 'thank God,' and the next instant he plunged63 into the cold water at the base of the falls. What there was to be thankful for in such a descent over the rocks, I could not at the time comprehend, as the chances were in favor of a broken back, or neck, or some other consummation equally out of the range of gratitude64, in an ordinary way. He came up out of the water blowing and snorting like a porpoise65 with a cold in his head, and waded66 to the shore. 'Come down,' he shouted, which I did, not quite so far or fast as he did, but fast enough to make an involuntary plunge, head foremost, into the pool at the bottom. The occasion of his catastrophe67 was this: he had ascended68 so near the table rock, that his hands were upon it, and was lifting himself up, when, as his eyes came above the surface, the edge upon which his hands with most of his weight rested, gave way, and he started for the basin below. But he had a view of what satisfied him that to this accident he owed his life, and it was a sense of gratitude for his escape, that prompted the exclamation69 I heard as he went bumping past me. Coiled on the rock above, and within reach of his face, were several large rattlesnakes, and he always insisted that one made a spring at him, as his hands gave way, and he put out for the basin into which he plunged. He was a good deal bruised70, but his escape from the poisonous reptiles71 reconciled him to that."
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1
conversing
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的现在分词 ) | |
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2
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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3
profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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4
gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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5
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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6
hew
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| v.砍；伐；削 | |
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7
beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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8
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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9
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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10
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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11
allurements
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| n.诱惑( allurement的名词复数 )；吸引；诱惑物；有诱惑力的事物 | |
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12
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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13
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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14
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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15
owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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16
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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17
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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18
mar
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| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
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19
deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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20
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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21
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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22
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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23
corruptions
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| n.堕落( corruption的名词复数 )；腐化；腐败；贿赂 | |
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24
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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25
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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26
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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27
asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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28
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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29
epithets
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| n.（表示性质、特征等的）词语( epithet的名词复数 ) | |
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30
discord
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| n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐 | |
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31
anthems
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| n.赞美诗( anthem的名词复数 )；圣歌；赞歌；颂歌 | |
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32
wail
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| vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸 | |
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33
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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34
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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35
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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36
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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37
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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38
entity
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| n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物 | |
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39
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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40
impure
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| adj.不纯净的，不洁的；不道德的，下流的 | |
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41
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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42
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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43
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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44
hemmed
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| 缝…的褶边( hem的过去式和过去分词 )； 包围 | |
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45
trout
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| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
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46
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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47
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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48
trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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49
foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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50
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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51
rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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52
perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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53
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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54
ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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55
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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56
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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57
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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58
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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59
posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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60
slate
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| n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订 | |
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61
trickled
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| v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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62
friction
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| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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63
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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64
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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65
porpoise
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| n.鼠海豚 | |
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66
waded
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67
catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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68
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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69
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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70
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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71
reptiles
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| n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
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