“Do you think,” queried12 Monsieur Goubin, “that France will derive13 any profit from this huge Exhibition?”
“She may reap great advantages from it,” replied Monsieur Bergeret, “provided it does not fill her with a barren and hostile pride. All this is only the decoration and envelope, it is the study of what it contains that will give us the opportunity of considering more minutely the exchange and circulation of products, their consumption at fair prices, the increase of work and wages and the emancipation14 of the worker. And do you not admire, Monsieur Goubin, one of the first kind offices of the Universal Exhibition, in scaring away Jean Coq and Jean Mouton? Where are they now? You neither see nor hear them nowadays, and formerly15 one saw nothing else. Jean Coq led the way, with his head high, his calves16 prominent. Jean Mouton followed him, fat and curly-headed. The whole city re-echoed to the sound of their cock-a-doodle-doo and baa-baa-baa, for they were eloquent17. One day this winter I overheard Jean Coq say, ‘We must have a war. This Government has made it inevitable18 by its cowardice19!’ And Jean Mouton replied: ‘I’d rather have a naval21 war.’ ‘Of course,’ said Jean Coq, ‘a sea-fight would be consistent with the enthusiasm of the Nationalists. But why not have war on land as well as on sea? Who’s to stop us?’ ‘No one,’ replied Jean Coq. ‘I should like to see anyone try to stop us! But we must first exterminate22 all traitors23 and spies, all Jews and Freemasons. That is essential.’ ‘That’s just what I think,’ replied Jean Mouton. ‘And I will not go to war until our land has been cleared of all her enemies.’
“Jean Coq is hot-headed, Jean Mouton mild and peaceful, but they both know only too well how to whet24 the national energies not to attempt by every means in their power to assure to their country the benefits of war at home and abroad.
“Jean Coq and Jean Mouton are Republicans. Jean Coq votes at every election for the Imperialist candidate, and Jean Mouton for the Royalist, but they are both of them Republican Plebiscitarians, and can imagine nothing better for the consolidation25 of their chosen Government than to deliver it over to the hazards of an obscure and disorderly suffrage26; in which they show themselves to be clever fellows. For it is, of course, a profitable thing, if you have a house, to stake it at dice20 against a truss of hay, because by so doing you run the chance of winning your own house, which of course would be a great advantage.
“Jean Coq is not pious27, neither is Jean Mouton a clerical, although he is no Freethinker, but they venerate28 and cherish the monks29 who grow rich by the sale of miracles and who publish seditious, insulting and slanderous30 newspapers. And you know as well as I do how such people abound31 in this country of ours and how they prey32 upon it.
“Jean Coq and Jean Mouton are patriots33. You think you, too, are a patriot34, and I know that you are attached to your country by the tender and invincible35 ties of sentiment and reason. You are mistaken, however, and if it be your wish to live at peace with the world you are in league with the enemy. Jean Coq and Jean Mouton will prove that by falling upon you with their cudgels to the war-cry of ‘France for the French!’ ‘France for the French!’ is the slogan of Jean Coq and Jean Mouton, and as it is evident that these words exactly describe the position of a great nation in the midst of other nations, and express the necessary conditions of life, the universal law of exchange, the commerce of ideas and of products, just as they contain a great economical doctrine36 and a profound philosophy, Jean Coq and Jean Mouton have made up their minds to shut out all foreigners in order to keep France for the French, thus, by a stroke of genius, extending to human beings the system which Monsieur Méline applied38 only to the products of agriculture and industry, for the greater profit of a small number of landed proprietors39. And this idea of Jean Coq’s, of closing the country to men of other nations, enforces, by its modest beauty, the admiration40 of quite a host of small middle-class people and coffee-house keepers.
“Jean Coq and Jean Mouton are not evil; they are only the innocent enemies of the human species. Jean Coq is the more ardent41, Jean Mouton the more melancholy42, but they are simple fellows both, and believe what their newspapers tell them. This throws a dazzling light upon their innocence43, for it is not easy to believe what their newspapers tell them. I take you all to witness, all you famous impostors, you forgers of all time; you egregious44 liars45, distinguished46 tricksters, notorious creators of fictitious47 errors and illusions; you whose time-honoured frauds have enriched literature, sacred and profane48, by so many dubious49 volumes; authors of apocryphal50 Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syrian and Chaldean writings which have so long deceived learned and ignorant alike; you, false Pythagoras, false Hermes-Trismegistus, false Sanchoniathon, fallacious editors of the Orphic poems and the Sibylline51 books; false Enoch, false Esdras, pseudo-Clement and pseudo-Timothy; and you lord abbots who, to assure yourselves of the possession of your lands and privileges, forged in the reign37 of Louis IX the charters of Clotaire and Dagobert; and you, doctors of canon law, who based the pretensions52 of the Holy See on a heap of sacred decretals composed by yourselves; and you, wholesale53 manufacturers of historical memoirs54: Soulavie, Courchamps, Touchard-Lafosse, lying Weber, lying Bourrienne; you, sham55 executioners and sham police-agents, who wrote the sordid56 memoirs of Samson and Monsieur Claude; and you, Vrain-Lucas, who with your own hand traced a letter said to be written by Mary Magdalene, and a note from the hand of Vercingetorix, I call you all to witness; and you whose whole life was a work of simulation; lying Smerdis, lying Neros, lying Maids of Orleans, who would have deceived the very brothers of Joan of Arc; lying Martin Guerre, lying Demetrius and fictitious Dukes of Normandy; I call you to witness, workers of spells, makers57 of miracles that seduced58 the mob: Simon the Magician, Apollonius of Tyana, Cagliostro, Comte de Saint-Germain; I call you to witness, travellers returning from far-off countries, who had every facility for lying and took full advantage of it; you who beheld59 the Cyclopes and the L?strygones, the Magnetic Mountain, the Roc and the Fish-Bishop; and you, Sir John Maundeville, who saw in Asia devils vomiting60 fire; and you, makers of stories and fables61 and tales—Mother Goose, Tyl Eulenspiegel, Baron62 Munchausen!—and you, chivalrous63 and picturesque64 Spaniards, most notable babblers, I call you to witness! Bear witness, all of you! You have not accumulated, in the long course of the centuries, so many lies as Jean Coq and Jean Mouton read in their newspapers in a single day! And after that, how can we be surprised that they have so many bogies in their heads!”
点击收听单词发音
1 disciple | |
n.信徒,门徒,追随者 | |
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2 domes | |
n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 );像圆屋顶一样的东西;圆顶体育场 | |
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3 minarets | |
n.(清真寺旁由报告祈祷时刻的人使用的)光塔( minaret的名词复数 ) | |
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4 spires | |
n.(教堂的) 塔尖,尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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5 thatch | |
vt.用茅草覆盖…的顶部;n.茅草(屋) | |
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6 slate | |
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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7 earthenware | |
n.土器,陶器 | |
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8 moorish | |
adj.沼地的,荒野的,生[住]在沼地的 | |
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9 pagodas | |
塔,宝塔( pagoda的名词复数 ) | |
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10 marvels | |
n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 );令人惊奇的事物(或事例);不平凡的成果;成就v.惊奇,对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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11 prodigious | |
adj.惊人的,奇妙的;异常的;巨大的;庞大的 | |
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12 queried | |
v.质疑,对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 );询问 | |
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13 derive | |
v.取得;导出;引申;来自;源自;出自 | |
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14 emancipation | |
n.(从束缚、支配下)解放 | |
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15 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
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16 calves | |
n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子,腓;腿肚子( calf的名词复数 );牛犊;腓;小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 );(冰川)崩解;生(小牛等),产(犊);使(冰川)崩解 | |
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17 eloquent | |
adj.雄辩的,口才流利的;明白显示出的 | |
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18 inevitable | |
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的 | |
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19 cowardice | |
n.胆小,怯懦 | |
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20 dice | |
n.骰子;vt.把(食物)切成小方块,冒险 | |
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21 naval | |
adj.海军的,军舰的,船的 | |
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22 exterminate | |
v.扑灭,消灭,根绝 | |
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23 traitors | |
卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 ); 叛徒; 背叛者; 背信弃义的人 | |
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24 whet | |
v.磨快,刺激 | |
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25 consolidation | |
n.合并,巩固 | |
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26 suffrage | |
n.投票,选举权,参政权 | |
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27 pious | |
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
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28 venerate | |
v.尊敬,崇敬,崇拜 | |
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29 monks | |
n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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30 slanderous | |
adj.诽谤的,中伤的 | |
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31 abound | |
vi.大量存在;(in,with)充满,富于 | |
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32 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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33 patriots | |
爱国者,爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 ) | |
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34 patriot | |
n.爱国者,爱国主义者 | |
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35 invincible | |
adj.不可征服的,难以制服的 | |
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36 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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37 reign | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势 | |
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38 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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39 proprietors | |
n.所有人,业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
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40 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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41 ardent | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,强烈的,烈性的 | |
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42 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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43 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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44 egregious | |
adj.非常的,过分的 | |
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45 liars | |
说谎者( liar的名词复数 ) | |
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46 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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47 fictitious | |
adj.虚构的,假设的;空头的 | |
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48 profane | |
adj.亵神的,亵渎的;vt.亵渎,玷污 | |
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49 dubious | |
adj.怀疑的,无把握的;有问题的,靠不住的 | |
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50 apocryphal | |
adj.假冒的,虚假的 | |
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51 sibylline | |
adj.预言的;神巫的 | |
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52 pretensions | |
自称( pretension的名词复数 ); 自命不凡; 要求; 权力 | |
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53 wholesale | |
n.批发;adv.以批发方式;vt.批发,成批出售 | |
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54 memoirs | |
n.回忆录;回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数) | |
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55 sham | |
n./adj.假冒(的),虚伪(的) | |
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56 sordid | |
adj.肮脏的,不干净的,卑鄙的,暗淡的 | |
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57 makers | |
n.制造者,制造商(maker的复数形式) | |
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58 seduced | |
诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 ); 勾引; 诱使堕落; 使入迷 | |
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59 beheld | |
v.看,注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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60 vomiting | |
吐 | |
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61 fables | |
n.寓言( fable的名词复数 );神话,传说 | |
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62 baron | |
n.男爵;(商业界等)巨头,大王 | |
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63 chivalrous | |
adj.武士精神的;对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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64 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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