To the thinker who is no mere4 egotist the meaner excitations of life must inevitably5 seem as dust on the highway of progress. No man who realizes the dignity of manhood can be deeply discouraged by an ill-fitting coat, a lost seat on a municipal bench, or a spoiled dinner. Materialism is merely a symptom of psychical6 sterility7. Those great with the instinct towards God touch the soil only with their sandals; their eyes are turned to the sky; their foreheads sweep the stars.
Struggle and suffering beget8 thought and true thought begets9 the consciousness of God. So had it been with Gabriel. Trouble had chastened him, had touched his eyes and given diviner vision. The ragged10 inanities11 of a mundane12 existence were falling like the threads of a rotten cloak. A deep loathing13 of minute nothings increased forcefully within him as day followed day. The things that men hold of value grew of less and less account to his soul. The numberless petty interests of a narrow social scheme had become peculiarly ridiculous and diminutive16 in his eyes. He was but working out in his own being the evolution of all history, moving through primitive17 phases, epicurean egotism, to that universality of the spirit that looks only to the future and embraces the supreme18 good of humanity as the active word of God.
He saw Joan often that month of May. The misgivings19 that had haunted him often had died to an infrequent whisper, and the fascination20 of the girl’s soul held him as in an Elysian dream. The hills and woods beyond Rilchester were solitary21 as Eden, and humanity rarely vexed22 them by intruding23 on this Arcady. Gabriel in his visionary state had put all mundane prudence24 from his ken25. When near to Joan he felt that he had no foe26 in the wide world, that he hated no man, envied none. All was peace and a great calm as of beautiful purity and enduring love. For days he existed like a prophet in a desert, filled with a species of spiritual exaltation. It was an excellent mood enough, but one hardly suited to the cynicism of Saltire society. Such sentiments as inspired Gabriel’s brain spelled madness, or worse, to the discriminating27 glance of the multitude. It is unwise to go star-gazing amid the gutters28 of an unclean town.
With a simplicity29 that was even pathetic, these two children formulated30 the creed31 that was to stand to them for the governance of the future. Their favorite haunt that spring was the old Roman amphitheatre on the hills, an emerald hollow clasped in the shadows of antique trees. Hollies32 grew there, lustrous33 and luxuriant; pines and beeches34 and solemn yews35. On one green slope a wild cherry showered snow upon the grass. Wood violets stare azure-eyed from banks that shone with gold. Where the eastern gate had once stood a great pine towered like an Eastern minaret36, prayerful on the hills.
One morning Gabriel had received the letter he had long expected, a letter from Ophelia warning him of her early return to The Friary. It was a curt37, cold document, much in contrast to the erotic vaporings he had received of yore. The same morning he had spread the letter before Joan in the Roman amphitheatre, and out of the largeness of her love she had found power to strengthen him for the months to come. It is no light task for a woman to advise a man against her own heart; yet it is a task in which heroic women have ever excelled.
“You believe in yourself once more,” she said to him, as he sat at her feet on the turf bank under the shadow of the trees.
“Perhaps,” he answered her; “you have reinspired me. I am prepared to face fate with greater equanimity38, be it hard and unlovely.”
“Yet the gleam from afar, the divine aim, these are everywhere.”
“Yes, even in a diseased home.”
Joan had sat a long while in thought with that strange solemnity upon her face that made her womanliness so divine. Her eyes were like the eyes of one who has looked long at a picture afar off. There were pathetic lines about her mouth. She had spoken with Gabriel of his wife and home, spoken like the great-hearted woman that she was, strong words for others to the annihilation of self.
“When she comes back to you, dear—”
The man turned and looked at the face purposeful and pale in the deep shadows.
“Yes.”
“You will be yourself to her.”
“I will try.”
“She must love you,” said the girl, and was silent a moment as though communing with the deep cry of her own heart; “you must live your lives together for the best. As for me, I only want to help you to be happy.”
The man bent39 his head as though half shamed. His heart was less sacrificial than the girl’s. He had little hope in life outside the green circle of those dusky trees.
“I cannot stand between you, dear.”
“You will stand above us,” he said, hastily.
She sighed and was silent.
“Above us—ever. You have a great soul. God knows I shall need the thought of you to help me to play my part.”
“I may see you—sometimes?”
They looked in each other’s eyes with an involuntary tenderness that was pathetic in the extreme.
“Sometimes.”
“Oh yes; I could not bare to lose you always. You need not fear me, dear; I shall not weaken you. That which is in our hearts is not of earth but of heaven.”
“We have vowed40 our vow41!”
“Nor shall we break it. You must be true to her, Gabriel, for she is your wife. I was half tempted42 once, but now my love is greater than to plot for self. We shall be together in spirit.”
“Always.”
She bent forward very slightly and looked into the man’s eyes with a gracious self-consciousness that made her face more luminous43 under her splendid hair.
“I want to help you to realize your ideals,” she said. “Can I do that?”
“Who else?”
“For the good of those unhappy ones whom women pity. You will hold the red wine of joy to the lips of the feeble; you will point to the golden cleft44 in the heavens. I have learned so much from you that I am no longer a mere egotist. I am ambitious for you, dear. I believe you have great work in the years to come.”
Gabriel did not look into her eyes. He was loath14 to confess, even to himself, that his strength was as nothing without hers, that even she thought too well of him. Yet for her sake and her pride in him he could play the man to the strain of her ideals. Had not Beatrice made Dante Dante? To have quailed45 and doubted would have shamed the great love that this woman had set like a sun in the firmament46 of life.
“For the thought of you,” he said, “I will do my duty. God help me to be worthy47 of your pride in this life. And after death—”
Her face grew radiant like the face of a saint to whom visions of splendor48 are unveiled in the infinite.
“After life—immortality!”
It was not long that year before Gabriel saw the slimed track of the beast, grass flattened49 by the belly50 of a creeping thing, toad’s eyes glinting yellow in the dusk. The truth was gradual but none the less sure. The suspicion deepened as the days went by; nor was he left long in the shallow waters of doubt.
One morning he had fancied himself followed by a man in the dress of a game-keeper. For the moment he had thought nothing of the incident. More sinister51 convictions were only established as he wandered out with Joan from the amphitheatre with its fringe of trees. He had seen a bearded face disappear behind a bush, like the face of a savage52 scout53 watching the march of a hostile host. Yet another evening a laboring54 fellow had shouldered by them in a narrow path through the woods with a rude stare at the girl’s face. Yet again Gabriel had seen the figure of a man squirming like a lizard55 into the undergrowth fringing a thicket56 not far from Zeus Gildersedge’s house. These signs were sinister enough to arouse the cynic in the man and to set the world-wise part of him thinking. To be watched, and for what purpose! This was a moral that did not need the fabulous57 phraseology of ?sop58 to hide its nakedness.
The climax59 came one gray evening when Gabriel was trudging60 home alone from the Rilchester hills. In a muddy lane overhung by tangled61 hedges he passed two farm youths who had been out setting snares62 for rabbits. They had been at work in a ditch on the edge of a wood, a wood through which Joan and Gabriel had passed. Hearing his footsteps in the lane, they had turned and stood aside to stare at him as he went by in the dusk. He had caught the coarse mirth on their faces as they elbowed each other and sniggered like a couple of city louts.
Gabriel had not taken ten steps before their voices followed him in a bucolic63 satire64 that made him redden to the ears. He had hurried on, shuddering65 like a lonely girl at the sound of a drunken man’s voice. To have turned on them would but have meant the greater ignominy. Moreover, he had strange fear in him for the moment, not mere physical terror, but that spiritual panic that freezes the soul. He had stumbled on with a loud laugh following him like the sound that bursts from an ale-house or a brothel.
That night Gabriel was like a man in great pain or as one who is near taking his own life. The savor66 of fleshliness was in his nostrils67. He hated the world and was numb15 at heart.
点击收听单词发音
1 oratorical | |
adj.演说的,雄辩的 | |
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2 materialism | |
n.[哲]唯物主义,唯物论;物质至上 | |
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3 saturnine | |
adj.忧郁的,沉默寡言的,阴沉的,感染铅毒的 | |
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4 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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5 inevitably | |
adv.不可避免地;必然发生地 | |
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6 psychical | |
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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7 sterility | |
n.不生育,不结果,贫瘠,消毒,无菌 | |
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8 beget | |
v.引起;产生 | |
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9 begets | |
v.为…之生父( beget的第三人称单数 );产生,引起 | |
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10 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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11 inanities | |
n.空洞( inanity的名词复数 );浅薄;愚蠢;空洞的言行 | |
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12 mundane | |
adj.平凡的;尘世的;宇宙的 | |
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13 loathing | |
n.厌恶,憎恨v.憎恨,厌恶( loathe的现在分词);极不喜欢 | |
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14 loath | |
adj.不愿意的;勉强的 | |
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15 numb | |
adj.麻木的,失去感觉的;v.使麻木 | |
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16 diminutive | |
adj.小巧可爱的,小的 | |
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17 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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18 supreme | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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19 misgivings | |
n.疑虑,担忧,害怕;疑虑,担心,恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 );疑惧 | |
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20 fascination | |
n.令人着迷的事物,魅力,迷恋 | |
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21 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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22 vexed | |
adj.争论不休的;(指问题等)棘手的;争论不休的问题;烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 );使苦恼;使生气;详细讨论 | |
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23 intruding | |
v.侵入,侵扰,打扰( intrude的现在分词);把…强加于 | |
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24 prudence | |
n.谨慎,精明,节俭 | |
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25 ken | |
n.视野,知识领域 | |
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26 foe | |
n.敌人,仇敌 | |
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27 discriminating | |
a.有辨别能力的 | |
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28 gutters | |
(路边)排水沟( gutter的名词复数 ); 阴沟; (屋顶的)天沟; 贫贱的境地 | |
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29 simplicity | |
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯 | |
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30 formulated | |
v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 );规划;确切地阐述;用公式表示 | |
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31 creed | |
n.信条;信念,纲领 | |
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32 hollies | |
n.冬青(常绿灌木,叶尖而硬,有光泽,冬季结红色浆果)( holly的名词复数 );(用作圣诞节饰物的)冬青树枝 | |
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33 lustrous | |
adj.有光泽的;光辉的 | |
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34 beeches | |
n.山毛榉( beech的名词复数 );山毛榉木材 | |
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35 yews | |
n.紫杉( yew的名词复数 ) | |
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36 minaret | |
n.(回教寺院的)尖塔 | |
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37 curt | |
adj.简短的,草率的 | |
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38 equanimity | |
n.沉着,镇定 | |
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39 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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40 vowed | |
起誓,发誓(vow的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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41 vow | |
n.誓(言),誓约;v.起誓,立誓 | |
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42 tempted | |
v.怂恿(某人)干不正当的事;冒…的险(tempt的过去分词) | |
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43 luminous | |
adj.发光的,发亮的;光明的;明白易懂的;有启发的 | |
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44 cleft | |
n.裂缝;adj.裂开的 | |
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45 quailed | |
害怕,发抖,畏缩( quail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46 firmament | |
n.苍穹;最高层 | |
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47 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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48 splendor | |
n.光彩;壮丽,华丽;显赫,辉煌 | |
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49 flattened | |
[医](水)平扁的,弄平的 | |
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50 belly | |
n.肚子,腹部;(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分,膛 | |
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51 sinister | |
adj.不吉利的,凶恶的,左边的 | |
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52 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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53 scout | |
n.童子军,侦察员;v.侦察,搜索 | |
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54 laboring | |
n.劳动,操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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55 lizard | |
n.蜥蜴,壁虎 | |
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56 thicket | |
n.灌木丛,树林 | |
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57 fabulous | |
adj.极好的;极为巨大的;寓言中的,传说中的 | |
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58 sop | |
n.湿透的东西,懦夫;v.浸,泡,浸湿 | |
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59 climax | |
n.顶点;高潮;v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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60 trudging | |
vt.& vi.跋涉,吃力地走(trudge的现在分词形式) | |
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61 tangled | |
adj. 纠缠的,紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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62 snares | |
n.陷阱( snare的名词复数 );圈套;诱人遭受失败(丢脸、损失等)的东西;诱惑物v.用罗网捕捉,诱陷,陷害( snare的第三人称单数 ) | |
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63 bucolic | |
adj.乡村的;牧羊的 | |
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64 satire | |
n.讽刺,讽刺文学,讽刺作品 | |
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65 shuddering | |
v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动 | |
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66 savor | |
vt.品尝,欣赏;n.味道,风味;情趣,趣味 | |
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67 nostrils | |
鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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