I cannot help thinking, that a young man of fortune may spend a few years to advantage, in travelling through some of the principal countries of Europe, provided the tour be well-timed, and well-conducted;[485] and, without these, what part of education can be of use?
In a former letter, I gave my reasons for preferring the plan of education at the public schools of England, to any other now in use at home or abroad. After the young person has acquired the fundamental parts of learning, which are taught at schools, he will naturally be removed to some university. One of the most elegant and most ingenious writers of the present age has, in his Inquiry13 into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations, pointed14 out many deficiencies in those seminaries. What that gentleman has said on this subject, may possibly have some effect in bringing about an improvement. But, with all their deficiencies, it must be acknowledged, that no universities have produced a greater number of men distinguished for polite literature, and eminent for science, than those of England. If a young man has, previously15, acquired the habit of application,[486] and a taste for learning, he will certainly find the means of improvement there; and, without these, I know not where he will make any progress in literature. But whatever plan is adopted, whether the young man studies at the university, or at home with private teachers, while he is studying with diligence and alacrity16, it would be doing him a most essential injury, to interrupt him by a premature17 expedition to the Continent, from an idea of his acquiring the graces, elegance18 of manner, or any of the accomplishments19 which travelling is supposed to give. Literature is preferable to all other accomplishments, and the men of rank who possess it, have a superiority over those who do not, let their graces be what they may, which the latter feel and envy, while they affect to despise.
According to this plan, a youth, properly educated, will seldom begin his foreign tour before the age of twenty; if[487] it is a year or two later, there will be no harm.
This is the age, it may be said, when young men of fortune endeavour to get into Parliament: it is so; but if they should remain out of Parliament till they are a few years older, the affairs of the nation might possibly go on as well.
It may also be said, if the tour is deferred20 till the age of twenty, the youth will not, after that period of life, attain21 the modern languages in perfection. Nor will he acquire that easy manner, and fine address, which are only caught by an early acquaintance with courts, and the assemblies of the gay and elegant. This is true to a certain degree; but the answer is, that by remaining at home, and applying to the pursuits of literature, he will make more valuable attainments22.
I am at a loss what to say about those same graces; it is certainly desirable to[488] possess them, but they must come, as it were, spontaneously, or they will not come at all. They sometimes appear as volunteers, but cannot be pressed into any service; and those who shew the greatest anxiety about them, are the least likely to attain them. I should be cautious, therefore, of advising a young man to study them either at home or abroad with much solicitude23. Students of the graces are, generally, the most abominably24 affected25 fellows in the world. I have seen one of them make a whole company squeamish.
Though the pert familiarity of French children would not become an English boy, yet it merits the earliest and the utmost attention to prevent or conquer that aukward timidity which so often oppresses the latter when he comes into company. The timidity I speak of, is entirely26 different from modesty27. I have seen the most impudent28 boys I ever knew, almost convulsed with constraint29 in the presence of strangers, or when they were required to pronounce[489] a single sentence of civility. But it was only on such occasions they were bashful. Among their companions or inferiors, they were saucy30, rude, and boisterous31.
If boys of this description only were liable to bashfulness, it would be a pity to remove it. But although this quality is distinct from modesty, it is not incompatible32 with it. Boys of the most modest and most amiable33 disposition34 are often overwhelmed with it; from them it ought to be removed, if it can be done, without endangering that modesty which is so great an ornament35 to youth, and indeed to every period of life. This, surely, may be done in England, as well as in any other country; but it is too much neglected: many consider it as a matter of no importance, or that it will wear off by time. We see it, however, often annihilate36, and always impair37 the effect of the greatest and most useful talents. After the care of forming the heart by the principles of benevolence38 and[490] integrity, perhaps one of the most important parts of education is, to habituate a boy to behave with modesty, but without restraint, and to retain the full possession of all his faculties39 in any company.
To attain, betimes, that ease and elegance of manner, which travelling is supposed to bestow40, and that the young gentleman may become perfectly41 master of the modern languages, some have thought of mixing the two plans; and, instead of allowing him to prosecute42 his studies at home, sending him abroad, immediately on his coming from school, on the supposition that, with the assistance of a tutor and foreign professors, he will proceed in the study of philosophy, and other branches of literature, during the three or four years which are employed in the usual tour. It will not be denied, that a young man who has made good use of his time at school and at the university, who has acquired such a taste for science as to consider[491] its pursuits as a pleasure, and not a task, may, even during his travels, mix the study of men with that of books, and continue to make progress in the latter, when the greater part of his time is dedicated43 to the former. But that such a taste will, for the first time, spring up in the breast of a boy of sixteen or seventeen, amidst the dissipation of theatres, reviews, processions, balls, and assemblies, is of all things the least probable.
Others, who think lightly of the importance of what is usually called science to a young man of rank and fortune, still contend, that a knowledge of history, which they admit may be of some use even to men of fortune, can certainly be acquired during the years of travelling. But what sort of a knowledge will it be which a boy, in such a situation, will acquire? Not that which Lord Bolingbroke calls philosophy, teaching by examples, a proper conduct in the various situations of public and private[492] life, but merely a succession of reigns45, of battles, and sieges, stored up in the memory without reflection or application. I remember a young gentleman, whom a strong and retentive46 memory of such events often set a prating47 very mal-à-propos; one of his companions expressed much surprise at his knowledge, and wondered how he had laid up such a store. “Why, truly,” replied he, with frankness, “it is all owing to my bungling48 blockhead of a valet, who takes up such an unconscionable time in dressing49 my hair, that I am glad to read to keep me from fretting50; and as there are no newspapers, or magazines, to be had in this country, I have been driven to history, which answers nearly as well.”
But it sometimes happens, that young men who are far behind their contemporaries in every kind of literature, are wonderfully advanced in the knowledge of the town, so as to vie with the oldest professors[493] in London, and endanger their own health by the ardour of their application. The sooner such premature youths are separated from the connections they have formed in the metropolis, the better; and as it will not be easy to persuade them to live in any other part of Great Britain, it will be necessary to send them abroad. But, instead of being carried to courts and capitals, the best plan for them will be, to fix them in some provincial51 town of France or Switzerland, where they may have a chance of improving, not so much by new attainments, as by unlearning or forgetting what they have already acquired.
After a young man has employed his time to advantage at a public school, and has continued his application to various branches of science till the age of twenty, you ask, what are the advantages he is likely to reap from a tour abroad?
He will see mankind more at large, and in numberless situations and points of view,[494] in which they cannot appear in Great Britain, or any one country. By comparing the various customs and usages, and hearing the received opinions of different countries, his mind will be enlarged. He will be enabled to correct the theoretical notions he may have formed of human nature, by the practical knowledge of men. By contemplating52 their various religions, laws, and government, in action, as it were, and observing the effects they produce on the minds and characters of the people, he will be able to form a juster estimate of their value than otherwise he could have done. He will see the natives of other countries, not as he sees them in England, mere44 idle spectators, but busily employed in their various characters, as actors on their own proper stage. He will gradually improve in the knowledge of character, not of Englishmen only, but of men in general; he will cease to be deceived either by the varnish53 with which men are apt to heighten their own actions, or the dark colours in[495] which they, too often, paint those of others. He will learn to distinguish the real from the ostensible54 motive55 of men’s words and behaviour. Finally, by being received with hospitality, conversing56 familiarly, and living in the reciprocal exchange of good offices with those whom he considered as enemies, or in some unfavourable point of view, the sphere of his benevolence and good-will to his brethren of mankind will gradually enlarge. His friendships extending beyond the limits, of his own country, will embrace characters congenial with his own in other nations. Seas, mountains, rivers, are geographical57 boundaries, but never limited the good-will or esteem58 of one liberal mind. As for his manner, though it will probably not be so janty as if he had been bred in France from his earliest youth, yet that also will in some degree be improved.
However persuaded he may be of the advantages enjoyed by the people of England,[496] he will see the harshness and impropriety of insulting the natives of other countries with an ostentatious enumeration59 of those advantages; he will perceive how odious60 those travellers make themselves, who laugh at the religion, ridicule61 the customs, and insult the police of the countries through which they pass, and who never fail to insinuate62 to the inhabitants that they are all slaves and bigots. Such bold Britons we have sometimes met with, fighting their way through Europe, who, by their continual broils63 and disputes, would lead one to imagine that the angel of the Lord had pronounced on each of them the same denunciation which he did on Ishmael the son of Abraham, by his handmaid Hagar. “And he will be a wild man, and his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him[12].” If the same unsocial disposition should creep into our politics, it might arm all the powers in Europe against[497] Great Britain, before she gets clear of her unhappy contest with America. A young man, whose mind has been formed as it ought, before he goes abroad, when he sees many individuals preserve personal dignity in spite of arbitrary government, an independent mind amidst poverty, liberal and philosophic64 sentiments amidst bigotry65 and superstition66; must naturally have the highest esteem for such characters, and allow them more merit than those even of his own country, who think and act in the same manner in less unfavourable circumstances.
Besides these advantages, a young man of fortune, by spending a few years abroad, will gratify a natural and laudable curiosity, and pass a certain portion of his life in an agreeable manner. He will form an acquaintance with that boasted nation, whose superior taste and politeness are universally acknowledged; whose fashions and language are adopted by all Europe; and who,[498] in science, power, and commerce, are the rivals of Great Britain. He will have opportunities of observing the political constitution of the German empire; that complex body, formed by a confederacy of princes, ecclesiastics67, and free cities, comprehending countries of vast extent, inhabited by a hardy68 race of men, distinguished for solid sense and integrity, who, without having equalled their sprightlier69 neighbours in works of taste or imagination, have shewn what prodigious70 efforts of application the human mind is capable of in the severest and least amusing studies, and whose armies exhibit at present the most perfect models of military discipline. In contemplating these, he will naturally consider, whether those armies tend most to the aggrandizement71 of the Monarch72, or to defend or preserve any thing to the people who maintain them, and the soldiers who compose them, equivalent to the vast expence of money, and the still greater quantity of misery73 which they occasion.
[499]
Viewing the remains74 of Roman taste and magnificence, he will feel a thousand emotions of the most interesting nature, while those whose minds are not, like his, stored with classical knowledge, gaze with tasteless wonder, or phlegmatic75 indifference76; and, exclusive of those monuments of antiquity77, he will naturally desire to be acquainted with the present inhabitants of a country, which at different periods has produced men who, by one means or another, have distinguished themselves so eminently78 from their contemporaries of other nations. At one period, having subdued79 the world by the wisdom and firmness of their councils, and the disciplined vigour80 of their armies, Rome became at once the seat of empire, learning, and the arts.
After the Northern barbarians81 had destroyed the overgrown fabric82 of Roman power, a new empire, of a more singular nature, gradually arose from its ruins, artfully extending its influence over the minds[500] of men, till the Princes of Europe were at length as much controlled by the bulls of the Vatican, as their ancestors had been by the decrees of the Senate.
Commerce also, which rapine and slaughter83 had frightened from Europe, returned, and joined with Superstition in drawing the riches of all the neighbouring nations to Italy. And, at a subsequent period, Learning, bursting through the clouds of ignorance which overshadowed mankind, again shone forth84 in the same country, bringing in her train, Poetry, Painting, Sculpture, and Music, all of which have been cultivated with the greatest success; and the three last brought, by the inhabitants of this country, to a degree of excellence85 unequalled by the natives of any other country of the world. When to these considerations we add, that there is reason to believe that this country had arrived at a great degree of perfection in the arts before the beginning of the[501] Roman republic, we are almost tempted6 to believe, that local and physical causes have a considerable influence in rendering86 the mind more acute in this country of Italy, than any where else; and that if the infinite political disadvantages under which it labours were removed, and the whole of this peninsula united in one State, it would again resume its superiority over other nations.
Lastly, by visiting other countries, a subject of Great Britain will acquire a greater esteem than ever for the constitution of his own. Freed from vulgar prejudices, he will perceive, that the blessings87 and advantages which his countrymen enjoy, do not flow from their superiority in wisdom, courage, or virtue88, over the other nations of the world, but, in some degree, from the peculiarity89 of their situation in an island; and, above all, from those just and equitable90 laws which secure property, that mild free government[502] which abhors91 tyranny, protects the meanest subject, and leaves the mind of man to its own exertions92, unrestrained by those arbitrary, capricious, and impolitic shackles93, which confine and weaken its noblest endeavours in almost every other country of the world. This animates94 industry, creates fertility, and scatters95 plenty over the boisterous island of Great Britain, with a profusion96 unknown in the neighbouring nations, who behold97 with astonishment98 such numbers of British subjects, of both sexes, and of all ages, roaming discontented through the lands of despotism, in search of that happiness, which, if satiety99 and the wanton restlessness of wealth would permit, they have a much better prospect100 of enjoying in their own country.
Quadrigis petimus bene vivere. Quod petis, hic est.
[12] Vide Genesis, chap. xvi. verse 12.
THE END.
点击收听单词发音
1 metropolis | |
n.首府;大城市 | |
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2 precisely | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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3 inclination | |
n.倾斜;点头;弯腰;斜坡;倾度;倾向;爱好 | |
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4 procured | |
v.(努力)取得, (设法)获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 );拉皮条 | |
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5 calumny | |
n.诽谤,污蔑,中伤 | |
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6 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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7 overthrow | |
v.推翻,打倒,颠覆;n.推翻,瓦解,颠覆 | |
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8 perusing | |
v.读(某篇文字)( peruse的现在分词 );(尤指)细阅;审阅;匆匆读或心不在焉地浏览(某篇文字) | |
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9 eminent | |
adj.显赫的,杰出的,有名的,优良的 | |
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10 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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11 solicitous | |
adj.热切的,挂念的 | |
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12 hesitation | |
n.犹豫,踌躇 | |
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13 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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14 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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15 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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16 alacrity | |
n.敏捷,轻快,乐意 | |
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17 premature | |
adj.比预期时间早的;不成熟的,仓促的 | |
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18 elegance | |
n.优雅;优美,雅致;精致,巧妙 | |
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19 accomplishments | |
n.造诣;完成( accomplishment的名词复数 );技能;成绩;成就 | |
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20 deferred | |
adj.延期的,缓召的v.拖延,延缓,推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 );服从某人的意愿,遵从 | |
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21 attain | |
vt.达到,获得,完成 | |
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22 attainments | |
成就,造诣; 获得( attainment的名词复数 ); 达到; 造诣; 成就 | |
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23 solicitude | |
n.焦虑 | |
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24 abominably | |
adv. 可恶地,可恨地,恶劣地 | |
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25 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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26 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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27 modesty | |
n.谦逊,虚心,端庄,稳重,羞怯,朴素 | |
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28 impudent | |
adj.鲁莽的,卑鄙的,厚颜无耻的 | |
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29 constraint | |
n.(on)约束,限制;限制(或约束)性的事物 | |
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30 saucy | |
adj.无礼的;俊俏的;活泼的 | |
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31 boisterous | |
adj.喧闹的,欢闹的 | |
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32 incompatible | |
adj.不相容的,不协调的,不相配的 | |
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33 amiable | |
adj.和蔼可亲的,友善的,亲切的 | |
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34 disposition | |
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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35 ornament | |
v.装饰,美化;n.装饰,装饰物 | |
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36 annihilate | |
v.使无效;毁灭;取消 | |
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37 impair | |
v.损害,损伤;削弱,减少 | |
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38 benevolence | |
n.慈悲,捐助 | |
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39 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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40 bestow | |
v.把…赠与,把…授予;花费 | |
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41 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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42 prosecute | |
vt.告发;进行;vi.告发,起诉,作检察官 | |
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43 dedicated | |
adj.一心一意的;献身的;热诚的 | |
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44 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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45 reigns | |
n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 );君主统治时期;任期;当政期 | |
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46 retentive | |
v.保留的,有记忆的;adv.有记性地,记性强地;n.保持力 | |
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47 prating | |
v.(古时用语)唠叨,啰唆( prate的现在分词 ) | |
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48 bungling | |
adj.笨拙的,粗劣的v.搞糟,完不成( bungle的现在分词 );笨手笨脚地做;失败;完不成 | |
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49 dressing | |
n.(食物)调料;包扎伤口的用品,敷料 | |
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50 fretting | |
n. 微振磨损 adj. 烦躁的, 焦虑的 | |
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51 provincial | |
adj.省的,地方的;n.外省人,乡下人 | |
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52 contemplating | |
深思,细想,仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 ); 注视,凝视; 考虑接受(发生某事的可能性); 深思熟虑,沉思,苦思冥想 | |
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53 varnish | |
n.清漆;v.上清漆;粉饰 | |
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54 ostensible | |
adj.(指理由)表面的,假装的 | |
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55 motive | |
n.动机,目的;adv.发动的,运动的 | |
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56 conversing | |
v.交谈,谈话( converse的现在分词 ) | |
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57 geographical | |
adj.地理的;地区(性)的 | |
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58 esteem | |
n.尊敬,尊重;vt.尊重,敬重;把…看作 | |
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59 enumeration | |
n.计数,列举;细目;详表;点查 | |
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60 odious | |
adj.可憎的,讨厌的 | |
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61 ridicule | |
v.讥讽,挖苦;n.嘲弄 | |
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62 insinuate | |
vt.含沙射影地说,暗示 | |
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63 broils | |
v.(用火)烤(焙、炙等)( broil的第三人称单数 );使卷入争吵;使混乱;被烤(或炙) | |
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64 philosophic | |
adj.哲学的,贤明的 | |
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65 bigotry | |
n.偏见,偏执,持偏见的行为[态度]等 | |
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66 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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67 ecclesiastics | |
n.神职者,教会,牧师( ecclesiastic的名词复数 ) | |
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68 hardy | |
adj.勇敢的,果断的,吃苦的;耐寒的 | |
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69 sprightlier | |
adj.生气勃勃的,活泼的( sprightly的比较级 ) | |
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70 prodigious | |
adj.惊人的,奇妙的;异常的;巨大的;庞大的 | |
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71 aggrandizement | |
n.增大,强化,扩大 | |
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72 monarch | |
n.帝王,君主,最高统治者 | |
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73 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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74 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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75 phlegmatic | |
adj.冷静的,冷淡的,冷漠的,无活力的 | |
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76 indifference | |
n.不感兴趣,不关心,冷淡,不在乎 | |
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77 antiquity | |
n.古老;高龄;古物,古迹 | |
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78 eminently | |
adv.突出地;显著地;不寻常地 | |
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79 subdued | |
adj. 屈服的,柔和的,减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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80 vigour | |
(=vigor)n.智力,体力,精力 | |
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81 barbarians | |
n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 );外国人;粗野的人;无教养的人 | |
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82 fabric | |
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织 | |
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83 slaughter | |
n.屠杀,屠宰;vt.屠杀,宰杀 | |
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84 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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85 excellence | |
n.优秀,杰出,(pl.)优点,美德 | |
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86 rendering | |
n.表现,描写 | |
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87 blessings | |
n.(上帝的)祝福( blessing的名词复数 );好事;福分;因祸得福 | |
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88 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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89 peculiarity | |
n.独特性,特色;特殊的东西;怪癖 | |
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90 equitable | |
adj.公平的;公正的 | |
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91 abhors | |
v.憎恶( abhor的第三人称单数 );(厌恶地)回避;拒绝;淘汰 | |
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92 exertions | |
n.努力( exertion的名词复数 );费力;(能力、权力等的)运用;行使 | |
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93 shackles | |
手铐( shackle的名词复数 ); 脚镣; 束缚; 羁绊 | |
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94 animates | |
v.使有生气( animate的第三人称单数 );驱动;使栩栩如生地动作;赋予…以生命 | |
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95 scatters | |
v.(使)散开, (使)分散,驱散( scatter的第三人称单数 );撒 | |
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96 profusion | |
n.挥霍;丰富 | |
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97 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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98 astonishment | |
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
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99 satiety | |
n.饱和;(市场的)充分供应 | |
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100 prospect | |
n.前景,前途;景色,视野 | |
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101 mare | |
n.母马,母驴 | |
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102 inertia | |
adj.惰性,惯性,懒惰,迟钝 | |
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