A Lecture read before the Society in Amory Hall, on Sunday, 3 March, 1844
Whoever has had opportunity of acquaintance with society in New England, during the last twenty-five years, with those middle and with those leading sections that may constitute any just representation of the character and aim of the community, will have been struck with the great activity of thought and experimenting. His attention must be commanded by the signs that the Church, or religious party, is falling from the church nominal3, and is appearing in temperance and non-resistance societies, in movements of abolitionists and of socialists4, and in very significant assemblies, called Sabbath and Bible Conventions, — composed of ultraists, of seekers, of all the soul of the soldiery of dissent5, and meeting to call in question the authority of the Sabbath, of the priesthood, and of the church. In these movements, nothing was more remarkable6 than the discontent they begot7 in the movers. The spirit of protest and of detachment, drove the members of these Conventions to bear testimony8 against the church, and immediately afterward9, to declare their discontent with these Conventions, their independence of their colleagues, and their impatience10 of the methods whereby they were working. They defied each other, like a congress of kings, each of whom had a realm to rule, and a way of his own that made concert unprofitable. What a fertility of projects for the salvation11 of the world! One apostle thought all men should go to farming; and another, that no man should buy or sell: that the use of money was the cardinal12 evil; another, that the mischief13 was in our diet, that we eat and drink damnation. These made unleavened bread, and were foes14 to the death to fermentation. It was in vain urged by the housewife, that God made yeast16, as well as dough17, and loves fermentation just as dearly as he loves vegetation; that fermentation develops the saccharine18 element in the grain, and makes it more palatable19 and more digestible. No; they wish the pure wheat, and will die but it shall not ferment15. Stop, dear nature, these incessant20 advances of thine; let us scotch21 these ever-rolling wheels! Others attacked the system of agriculture, the use of animal manures in farming; and the tyranny of man over brute22 nature; these abuses polluted his food. The ox must be taken from the plough, and the horse from the cart, the hundred acres of the farm must be spaded, and the man must walk wherever boats and locomotives will not carry him. Even the insect world was to be defended, — that had been too long neglected, and a society for the protection of ground-worms, slugs, and mosquitos was to be incorporated without delay. With these appeared the adepts23 of homoeopathy, of hydropathy, of mesmerism, of phrenology, and their wonderful theories of the Christian24 miracles! Others assailed25 particular vocations26, as that of the lawyer, that of the merchant, of the manufacturer, of the clergyman, of the scholar. Others attacked the institution of marriage, as the fountain of social evils. Others devoted27 themselves to the worrying of churches and meetings for public worship; and the fertile forms of antinomianism among the elder puritans, seemed to have their match in the plenty of the new harvest of reform.
With this din2 of opinion and debate, there was a keener scrutiny28 of institutions and domestic life than any we had known, there was sincere protesting against existing evils, and there were changes of employment dictated29 by conscience. No doubt, there was plentiful31 vaporing32, and cases of backsliding might occur. But in each of these movements emerged a good result, a tendency to the adoption33 of simpler methods, and an assertion of the sufficiency of the private man. Thus it was directly in the spirit and genius of the age, what happened in one instance, when a church censured34 and threatened to excommunicate one of its members, on account of the somewhat hostile part to the church, which his conscience led him to take in the anti-slavery business; the threatened individual immediately excommunicated the church in a public and formal process. This has been several times repeated: it was excellent when it was done the first time, but, of course, loses all value when it is copied. Every project in the history of reform, no matter how violent and surprising, is good, when it is the dictate30 of a man’s genius and constitution, but very dull and suspicious when adopted from another. It is right and beautiful in any man to say, ‘I will take this coat, or this book, or this measure of corn of yours,’ — in whom we see the act to be original, and to flow from the whole spirit and faith of him; for then that taking will have a giving as free and divine: but we are very easily disposed to resist the same generosity36 of speech, when we miss originality37 and truth to character in it.
There was in all the practical activities of New England, for the last quarter of a century, a gradual withdrawal38 of tender consciences from the social organizations. There is observable throughout, the contest between mechanical and spiritual methods, but with a steady tendency of the thoughtful and virtuous39 to a deeper belief and reliance on spiritual facts. In politics, for example, it is easy to see the progress of dissent. The country is full of rebellion; the country is full of kings. Hands off! let there be no control and no interference in the administration of the affairs of this kingdom of me. Hence the growth of the doctrine41 and of the party of Free Trade, and the willingness to try that experiment, in the face of what appear incontestable facts. I confess, the motto of the Globe newspaper is so attractive to me, that I can seldom find much appetite to read what is below it in its columns, “The world is governed too much.” So the country is frequently affording solitary42 examples of resistance to the government, solitary nullifiers, who throw themselves on their reserved rights; nay43, who have reserved all their rights; who reply to the assessor, and to the clerk of court, that they do not know the State; and embarrass the courts of law, by non-juring, and the commander-in-chief of the militia44, by non-resistance.
The same disposition45 to scrutiny and dissent appeared in civil, festive46, neighborly, and domestic society. A restless, prying47, conscientious48 criticism broke out in unexpected quarters. Who gave me the money with which I bought my coat? Why should professional labor49 and that of the counting-house be paid so disproportionately to the labor of the porter, and woodsawyer? This whole business of Trade gives me to pause and think, as it constitutes false relations between men; inasmuch as I am prone50 to count myself relieved of any responsibility to behave well and nobly to that person whom I pay with money, whereas if I had not that commodity, I should be put on my good behavior in all companies, and man would be a benefactor51 to man, as being himself his only certificate that he had a right to those aids and services which each asked of the other. Am I not too protected a person? is there not a wide disparity between the lot of me and the lot of thee, my poor brother, my poor sister? Am I not defrauded52 of my best culture in the loss of those gymnastics which manual labor and the emergencies of poverty constitute? I find nothing healthful or exalting53 in the smooth conventions of society; I do not like the close air of saloons. I begin to suspect myself to be a prisoner, though treated with all this courtesy and luxury. I pay a destructive tax in my conformity54.
The same insatiable criticism may be traced in the efforts for the reform of Education. The popular education has been taxed with a want of truth and nature. It was complained that an education to things was not given. We are students of words: we are shut up in schools, and colleges, and recitation-rooms, for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bag of wind, a memory of words, and do not know a thing. We cannot use our hands, or our legs, or our eyes, or our arms. We do not know an edible55 root in the woods, we cannot tell our course by the stars, nor the hour of the day by the sun. It is well if we can swim and skate. We are afraid of a horse, of a cow, of a dog, of a snake, of a spider. The Roman rule was, to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing56. The old English rule was, ‘All summer in the field, and all winter in the study.’ And it seems as if a man should learn to plant, or to fish, or to hunt, that he might secure his subsistence at all events, and not be painful to his friends and fellow men. The lessons of science should be experimental also. The sight of the planet through a telescope, is worth all the course on astronomy: the shock of the electric spark in the elbow, out-values all the theories; the taste of the nitrous oxide57, the firing of an artificial volcano, are better than volumes of chemistry.
One of the traits of the new spirit, is the inquisition it fixed58 on our scholastic59 devotion to the dead languages. The ancient languages, with great beauty of structure, contain wonderful remains60 of genius, which draw, and always will draw, certain likeminded men, — Greek men, and Roman men, in all countries, to their study; but by a wonderful drowsiness61 of usage, they had exacted the study of all men. Once (say two centuries ago), Latin and Greek had a strict relation to all the science and culture there was in Europe, and the Mathematics had a momentary62 importance at some era of activity in physical science. These things became stereotyped63 as education, as the manner of men is. But the Good Spirit never cared for the colleges, and though all men and boys were now drilled in Latin, Greek, and Mathematics, it had quite left these shells high and dry on the beach, and was now creating and feeding other matters at other ends of the world. But in a hundred high schools and colleges, this warfare64 against common sense still goes on. Four, or six, or ten years, the pupil is parsing65 Greek and Latin, and as soon as he leaves the University, as it is ludicrously called, he shuts those books for the last time. Some thousands of young men are graduated at our colleges in this country every year, and the persons who, at forty years, still read Greek, can all be counted on your hand. I never met with ten. Four or five persons I have seen who read Plato.
But is not this absurd, that the whole liberal talent of this country should be directed in its best years on studies which lead to nothing? What was the consequence? Some intelligent persons said or thought; ‘Is that Greek and Latin some spell to conjure66 with, and not words of reason? If the physician, the lawyer, the divine, never use it to come at their ends, I need never learn it to come at mine. Conjuring67 is gone out of fashion, and I will omit this conjugating68, and go straight to affairs.’ So they jumped the Greek and Latin, and read law, medicine, or sermons, without it. To the astonishment69 of all, the self-made men took even ground at once with the oldest of the regular graduates, and in a few months the most conservative circles of Boston and New York had quite forgotten who of their gownsmen was college-bred, and who was not.
One tendency appears alike in the philosophical70 speculation71, and in the rudest democratical movements, through all the petulance72 and all the puerility73, the wish, namely, to cast aside the superfluous74, and arrive at short methods, urged, as I suppose, by an intuition that the human spirit is equal to all emergencies, alone, and that man is more often injured than helped by the means he uses.
I conceive this gradual casting off of material aids, and the indication of growing trust in the private, self-supplied powers of the individual, to be the affirmative principle of the recent philosophy: and that it is feeling its own profound truth, and is reaching forward at this very hour to the happiest conclusions. I readily concede that in this, as in every period of intellectual activity, there has been a noise of denial and protest; much was to be resisted, much was to be got rid of by those who were reared in the old, before they could begin to affirm and to construct. Many a reformer perishes in his removal of rubbish, — and that makes the offensiveness of the class. They are partial; they are not equal to the work they pretend. They lose their way; in the assault on the kingdom of darkness, they expend75 all their energy on some accidental evil, and lose their sanity76 and power of benefit. It is of little moment that one or two, or twenty errors of our social system be corrected, but of much that the man be in his senses.
The criticism and attack on institutions which we have witnessed, has made one thing plain, that society gains nothing whilst a man, not himself renovated77, attempts to renovate78 things around him: he has become tediously good in some particular, but negligent79 or narrow in the rest; and hypocrisy80 and vanity are often the disgusting result.
It is handsomer to remain in the establishment better than the establishment, and conduct that in the best manner, than to make a sally against evil by some single improvement, without supporting it by a total regeneration. Do not be so vain of your one objection. Do you think there is only one? Alas81! my good friend, there is no part of society or of life better than any other part. All our things are right and wrong together. The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike. Do you complain of our Marriage? Our marriage is no worse than our education, our diet, our trade, our social customs. Do you complain of the laws of Property? It is a pedantry82 to give such importance to them. Can we not play the game of life with these counters, as well as with those; in the institution of property, as well as out of it. Let into it the new and renewing principle of love, and property will be universality. No one gives the impression of superiority to the institution, which he must give who will reform it. It makes no difference what you say: you must make me feel that you are aloof83 from it; by your natural and super-natural advantages, do easily see to the end of it, — do see how man can do without it. Now all men are on one side. No man deserves to be heard against property. Only Love, only an Idea, is against property, as we hold it.
I cannot afford to be irritable84 and captious85, nor to waste all my time in attacks. If I should go out of church whenever I hear a false sentiment, I could never stay there five minutes. But why come out? the street is as false as the church, and when I get to my house, or to my manners, or to my speech, I have not got away from the lie. When we see an eager assailant of one of these wrongs, a special reformer, we feel like asking him, What right have you, sir, to your one virtue86? Is virtue piecemeal87? This is a jewel amidst the rags of a beggar.
In another way the right will be vindicated88. In the midst of abuses, in the heart of cities, in the aisles89 of false churches, alike in one place and in another, — wherever, namely, a just and heroic soul finds itself, there it will do what is next at hand, and by the new quality of character it shall put forth90, it shall abrogate91 that old condition, law or school in which it stands, before the law of its own mind.
If partiality was one fault of the movement party, the other defect was their reliance on Association. Doubts such as those I have intimated, drove many good persons to agitate92 the questions of social reform. But the revolt against the spirit of commerce, the spirit of aristocracy, and the inveterate93 abuses of cities, did not appear possible to individuals; and to do battle against numbers, they armed themselves with numbers, and against concert, they relied on new concert.
Following, or advancing beyond the ideas of St. Simon, of Fourier, and of Owen, three communities have already been formed in Massachusetts on kindred plans, and many more in the country at large. They aim to give every member a share in the manual labor, to give an equal reward to labor and to talent, and to unite a liberal culture with an education to labor. The scheme offers, by the economies of associated labor and expense, to make every member rich, on the same amount of property, that, in separate families, would leave every member poor. These new associations are composed of men and women of superior talents and sentiments: yet it may easily be questioned, whether such a community will draw, except in its beginnings, the able and the good; whether those who have energy, will not prefer their chance of superiority and power in the world, to the humble94 certainties of the association; whether such a retreat does not promise to become an assylum to those who have tried and failed, rather than a field to the strong; and whether the members will not necessarily be fractions of men, because each finds that he cannot enter it, without some compromise. Friendship and association are very fine things, and a grand phalanx of the best of the human race, banded for some catholic object: yes, excellent; but remember that no society can ever be so large as one man. He in his friendship, in his natural and momentary associations, doubles or multiplies himself; but in the hour in which he mortgages himself to two or ten or twenty, he dwarfs95 himself below the stature96 of one.
But the men of less faith could not thus believe, and to such, concert appears the sole specific of strength. I have failed, and you have failed, but perhaps together we shall not fail. Our housekeeping is not satisfactory to us, but perhaps a phalanx, a community, might be. Many of us have differed in opinion, and we could find no man who could make the truth plain, but possibly a college, or an ecclesiastical council might. I have not been able either to persuade my brother or to prevail on myself, to disuse the traffic or the potation of brandy, but perhaps a pledge of total abstinence might effectually restrain us. The candidate my party votes for is not to be trusted with a dollar, but he will be honest in the Senate, for we can bring public opinion to bear on him. Thus concert was the specific in all cases. But concert is neither better nor worse, neither more nor less potent97 than individual force. All the men in the world cannot make a statue walk and speak, cannot make a drop of blood, or a blade of grass, any more than one man can. But let there be one man, let there be truth in two men, in ten men, then is concert for the first time possible, because the force which moves the world is a new quality, and can never be furnished by adding whatever quantities of a different kind. What is the use of the concert of the false and the disunited? There can be no concert in two, where there is no concert in one. When the individual is not individual, but is dual35; when his thoughts look one way, and his actions another; when his faith is traversed by his habits; when his will, enlightened by reason, is warped99 by his sense; when with one hand he rows, and with the other backs water, what concert can be? I do not wonder at the interest these projects inspire. The world is awaking to the idea of union, and these experiments show what it is thinking of. It is and will be magic. Men will live and communicate, and plough, and reap, and govern, as by added ethereal power, when once they are united; as in a celebrated100 experiment, by expiration101 and respiration102 exactly together, four persons lift a heavy man from the ground by the little finger only, and without sense of weight. But this union must be inward, and not one of covenants103, and is to be reached by a reverse of the methods they use. The union is only perfect, when all the uniters are isolated104. It is the union of friends who live in different streets or towns. Each man, if he attempts to join himself to others, is on all sides cramped105 and diminished of his proportion; and the stricter the union, the smaller and the more pitiful he is. But leave him alone, to recognize in every hour and place the secret soul, he will go up and down doing the works of a true member, and, to the astonishment of all, the work will be done with concert, though no man spoke106. Government will be adamantine without any governor. The union must be ideal in actual individualism.
I pass to the indication in some particulars of that faith in man, which the heart is preaching to us in these days, and which engages the more regard, from the consideration, that the speculations107 of one generation are the history of the next following.
In alluding108 just now to our system of education, I spoke of the deadness of its details. But it is open to graver criticism than the palsy of its members: it is a system of despair. The disease with which the human mind now labors109, is want of faith. Men do not believe in a power of education. We do not think we can speak to divine sentiments in man, and we do not try. We renounce110 all high aims. We believe that the defects of so many perverse111 and so many frivolous112 people, who make up society, are organic, and society is a hospital of incurables113. A man of good sense but of little faith, whose compassion114 seemed to lead him to church as often as he went there, said to me; “that he liked to have concerts, and fairs, and churches, and other public amusements go on.” I am afraid the remark is too honest, and comes from the same origin as the maxim115 of the tyrant116, “If you would rule the world quietly, you must keep it amused.” I notice too, that the ground on which eminent117 public servants urge the claims of popular education is fear: ‘This country is filling up with thousands and millions of voters, and you must educate them to keep them from our throats.’ We do not believe that any education, any system of philosophy, any influence of genius, will ever give depth of insight to a superficial mind. Having settled ourselves into this infidelity, our skill is expended119 to procure120 alleviations, diversion, opiates. We adorn121 the victim with manual skill, his tongue with languages, his body with inoffensive and comely122 manners. So have we cunningly hid the tragedy of limitation and inner death we cannot avert124. Is it strange that society should be devoured125 by a secret melancholy126, which breaks through all its smiles, and all its gayety and games?
But even one step farther our infidelity has gone. It appears that some doubt is felt by good and wise men, whether really the happiness and probity127 of men is increased by the culture of the mind in those disciplines to which we give the name of education. Unhappily, too, the doubt comes from scholars, from persons who have tried these methods. In their experience, the scholar was not raised by the sacred thoughts amongst which he dwelt, but used them to selfish ends. He was a profane128 person, and became a showman, turning his gifts to a marketable use, and not to his own sustenance129 and growth. It was found that the intellect could be independently developed, that is, in separation from the man, as any single organ can be invigorated, and the result was monstrous131. A canine132 appetite for knowledge was generated, which must still be fed, but was never satisfied, and this knowledge not being directed on action, never took the character of substantial, humane133 truth, blessing134 those whom it entered. It gave the scholar certain powers of expression, the power of speech, the power of poetry, of literary art, but it did not bring him to peace, or to beneficence.
When the literary class betray a destitution135 of faith, it is not strange that society should be disheartened and sensualized by unbelief. What remedy? Life must be lived on a higher plane. We must go up to a higher platform, to which we are always invited to ascend136; there, the whole aspect of things changes. I resist the skepticism of our education, and of our educated men. I do not believe that the differences of opinion and character in men are organic.
I do not recognize, beside the class of the good and the wise, a permanent class of skeptics, or a class of conservatives, or of malignants, or of materialists. I do not believe in two classes. You remember the story of the poor woman who importuned137 King Philip of Macedon to grant her justice, which Philip refused: the woman exclaimed, “I appeal”: the king, astonished, asked to whom she appealed: the woman replied, “from Philip drunk to Philip sober.” The text will suit me very well. I believe not in two classes of men, but in man in two moods, in Philip drunk and Philip sober. I think, according to the good-hearted word of Plato, “Unwillingly the soul is deprived of truth.” Iron conservative, miser138, or thief, no man is, but by a supposed necessity, which he tolerates by shortness or torpidity139 of sight. The soul lets no man go without some visitations and holy-days of a diviner presence. It would be easy to show, by a narrow scanning of any man’s biography, that we are not so wedded140 to our paltry141 performances of every kind, but that every man has at intervals143 the grace to scorn his performances, in comparing them with his belief of what he should do, that he puts himself on the side of his enemies, listening gladly to what they say of him, and accusing himself of the same things.
What is it men love in Genius, but its infinite hope, which degrades all it has done? Genius counts all its miracles poor and short. Its own idea it never executed. The Iliad, the Hamlet, the Doric column, the Roman arch, the Gothic minster, the German anthem144, when they are ended, the master casts behind him. How sinks the song in the waves of melody which the universe pours over his soul! Before that gracious Infinite, out of which he drew these few strokes, how mean they look, though the praises of the world attend them. From the triumphs of his art, he turns with desire to this greater defeat. Let those admire who will. With silent joy he sees himself to be capable of a beauty that eclipses all which his hands have done, all which human hands have ever done.
Well, we are all the children of genius, the children of virtue, — and feel their inspirations in our happier hours. Is not every man sometimes a radical145 in politics? Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious146. They are conservatives after dinner, or before taking their rest; when they are sick, or aged123: in the morning, or when their intellect or their conscience have been aroused, when they hear music, or when they read poetry, they are radicals147. In the circle of the rankest tories that could be collected in England, Old or New, let a powerful and stimulating148 intellect, a man of great heart and mind, act on them, and very quickly these frozen conservators will yield to the friendly influence, these hopeless will begin to hope, these haters will begin to love, these immovable statues will begin to spin and revolve149. I cannot help recalling the fine anecdote150 which Warton relates of Bishop151 Berkeley, when he was preparing to leave England, with his plan of planting the gospel among the American savages152. “Lord Bathurst told me, that the members of the Scriblerus club, being met at his house at dinner, they agreed to rally Berkeley, who was also his guest, on his scheme at Bermudas. Berkeley, having listened to the many lively things they had to say, begged to be heard in his turn, and displayed his plan with such an astonishing and animating153 force of eloquence154 and enthusiasm, that they were struck dumb, and, after some pause, rose up all together with earnestness, exclaiming, ‘Let us set out with him immediately.’” Men in all ways are better than they seem. They like flattery for the moment, but they know the truth for their own. It is a foolish cowardice155 which keeps us from trusting them, and speaking to them rude truth. They resent your honesty for an instant, they will thank you for it always. What is it we heartily156 wish of each other? Is it to be pleased and flattered? No, but to be convicted and exposed, to be shamed out of our nonsense of all kinds, and made men of, instead of ghosts and phantoms157. We are weary of gliding158 ghostlike through the world, which is itself so slight and unreal. We crave159 a sense of reality, though it come in strokes of pain. I explain so, — by this manlike love of truth, — those excesses and errors into which souls of great vigor130, but not equal insight, often fall. They feel the poverty at the bottom of all the seeming affluence160 of the world. They know the speed with which they come straight through the thin masquerade, and conceive a disgust at the indigence161 of nature: Rousseau, Mirabeau, Charles Fox, Napoleon, Byron, — and I could easily add names nearer home, of raging riders, who drive their steeds so hard, in the violence of living to forget its illusion: they would know the worst, and tread the floors of hell. The heroes of ancient and modern fame, Cimon, Themistocles, Alcibiades, Alexander, Caesar, have treated life and fortune as a game to be well and skillfully played, but the stake not to be so valued, but that any time, it could be held as a trifle light as air, and thrown up. Caesar, just before the battle of Pharsalia, discourses163 with the Egyptian priest, concerning the fountains of the Nile, and offers to quit the army, the empire, and Cleopatra, if he will show him those mysterious sources.
The same magnanimity shows itself in our social relations, in the preference, namely, which each man gives to the society of superiors over that of his equals. All that a man has, will he give for right relations with his mates. All that he has, will he give for an erect164 demeanor165 in every company and on each occasion. He aims at such things as his neighbors prize, and gives his days and nights, his talents and his heart, to strike a good stroke, to acquit166 himself in all men’s sight as a man. The consideration of an eminent citizen, of a noted167 merchant, of a man of mark in his profession; naval168 and military honor, a general’s commission, a marshal’s baton169, a ducal coronet, the laurel of poets, and, anyhow procured170, the acknowledgment of eminent merit, have this lustre171 for each candidate, that they enable him to walk erect and unashamed, in the presence of some persons, before whom he felt himself inferior. Having raised himself to this rank, having established his equality with class after class, of those with whom he would live well, he still finds certain others, before whom he cannot possess himself, because they have somewhat fairer, somewhat grander, somewhat purer, which extorts172 homage173 of him. Is his ambition pure? then, will his laurels174 and his possessions seem worthless: instead of avoiding these men who make his fine gold dim, he will cast all behind him, and seek their society only, woo and embrace this his humiliation175 and mortification176, until he shall know why his eye sinks, his voice is husky, and his brilliant talents are paralyzed in this presence. He is sure that the soul which gives the lie to all things, will tell none. His constitution will not mislead him. If it cannot carry itself as it ought, high and unmatchable in the presence of any man, if the secret oracles177 whose whisper makes the sweetness and dignity of his life, do here withdraw and accompany, him no longer, it is time to undervalue what he has valued, to dispossess himself of what he has acquired, and with Caesar to take in his hand the army, the empire, and Cleopatra, and say, ‘All these will I relinquish178, if you will show me the fountains of the Nile.’ Dear to us are those who love us, the swift moments we spend with them are a compensation for a great deal of misery179 they enlarge our life; — but dearer are those who reject us as unworthy, for they add another life: they build a heaven before us, whereof we had not dreamed, and thereby181 supply to us new powers out of the recesses182 of the spirit, and urge us to new and unattempted performances.
As every man at heart wishes the best and not inferior society, wishes to be convicted of his error, and to come to himself, so he wishes that the same healing should not stop in his thought, but should penetrate183 his will or active power. The selfish man suffers more from his selfishness, than he from whom that selfishness withholds184 some important benefit. What he most wishes is to be lifted to some higher platform, that he may see beyond his present fear the transalpine good, so that his fear, his coldness, his custom may be broken up like fragments of ice, melted and carried away in the great stream of good will. Do you ask my aid? I also wish to be a benefactor. I wish more to be a benefactor and servant, than you wish to be served by me, and surely the greatest good fortune that could befall me, is precisely185 to be so moved by you that I should say, ‘Take me and all nine, and use me and mine freely to your ends’! for, I could not say it, otherwise than because a great enlargement had come to my heart and mind, which made me superior to my fortunes. Here we are paralyzed with fear; we hold on to our little properties, house and land, office and money, for the bread which they have in our experience yielded us, although we confess, that our being does not flow through them. We desire to be made great, we desire to be touched with that fire which shall command this ice to stream, and make our existence a benefit. If therefore we start objections to your project, O friend of the slave, or friend of the poor, or of the race, understand well, that it is because we wish to drive you to drive us into your measures. We wish to hear ourselves confuted. We are haunted with a belief that you have a secret, which it would highliest advantage us to learn, and we would force you to impart it to us, though it should bring us to prison, or to worse extremity186.
Nothing shall warp98 me from the belief, that every man is a lover of truth. There is no pure lie, no pure malignity187 in nature. The entertainment of the proposition of depravity is the last profligacy188 and profanation189. There is no skepticism, no atheism190 but that. Could it be received into common belief, suicide would unpeople the planet. It has had a name to live in some dogmatic theology, but each man’s innocence191 and his real liking192 of his neighbor, have kept it a dead letter. I remember standing at the polls one day, when the anger of the political contest gave a certain grimness to the faces of the independent electors, and a good man at my side looking on the people, remarked, “I am satisfied that the largest part of these men, on either side, mean to vote right.” I suppose, considerate observers looking at the masses of men, in their blameless, and in their equivocal actions, will assent193, that in spite of selfishness and frivolity194, the general purpose in the great number of persons is fidelity118. The reason why any one refuses his assent to your opinion, or his aid to your benevolent195 design, is in you: he refuses to accept you as a bringer of truth, because, though you think you have it, he feels that you have it not. You have not given him the authentic196 sign.
If it were worth while to run into details this general doctrine of the latent but ever soliciting197 Spirit, it would be easy to adduce illustration in particulars of a man’s equality to the church, of his equality to the state, and of his equality to every other man. It is yet in all men’s memory, that, a few years ago, the liberal churches complained, that the Calvinistic church denied to them the name of Christian. I think the complaint was confession198: a religious church would not complain. A religious man like Behmen, Fox, or Swedenborg, is not irritated by wanting the sanction of the church, but the church feels the accusation199 of his presence and belief.
It only needs, that a just man should walk in our streets, to make it appear how pitiful and inartificial a contrivance is our legislation. The man whose part is taken, and who does not walt for society in anything, has a power which society cannot choose but feel. The familiar experiment, called the hydrostatic paradox200, in which a capillary201 column of water balances the ocean, is a symbol of the relation of one man to the whole family of men. The wise Dandini, on hearing the lives of Socrates, Pythagoras, and Diogenes read, “judged them to be great men every way, excepting, that they were too much subjected to the reverence202 of the laws, which to second and authorize203, true virtue must abate204 very, much of its original vigor.”
And as a man is equal to the church, and equal to the state, so he is equal to every other man. The disparities of power in men are superficial; and all frank and searching conversation, in which a man lays himself open to his brother, apprizes each of their radical unity1. When two persons sit and converse205 in a thoroughly206 good understanding, the remark is sure to be made, See how we have disputed about words! Let a clear, apprehensive207 mind, such as every man knows among his friends, converse with the most commanding poetic208 genius, I think, it would appear that there was no inequality such as men fancy between them; that a perfect understanding, a like receiving, a like perceiving, abolished differences, and the poet would confess, that his creative imagination gave him no deep advantage, but only the superficial one, that he could express himself, and the other could not; that his advantage was a knack209, which might impose on indolent men, but could not impose on lovers of truth; for they know the tax of talent, or, what a price of greatness the power of expression too often pays. I believe it is the conviction of the purest men, that the net amount of man and man does not much vary. Each is incomparably superior to his companion in some faculty210. His want of skill in other directions, has added to his fitness for his own work. Each seems to have some compensation yielded to him by his infirmity, and every hindrance211 operates as a concentration of his force.
These and the like experiences intimate, that man stands in strict connexion with a higher fact never yet manifested. There is power over and behind us, and we are the channels of its communications. We seek to say thus and so, and over our head some spirit sits, which contradicts what we say. We would persuade our fellow to this or that; another self within our eyes dissuades212 him. That which we keep back, this reveals. In vain we compose our faces and our words; it holds uncontrollable communication with the enemy, and he answers civilly to us, but believes the spirit. We exclaim, ‘There’s a traitor213 in the house!’ but at last it appears that he is the true man, and I am the traitor. This open channel to the highest life is the first and last reality, so subtle, so quiet, yet so tenacious214, that although I have never expressed the truth, and although I have never heard the expression of it from any other, I know that the whole truth is here for me. What if I cannot answer your questions? I am not pained that I cannot frame a reply to the question, What is the operation we call Providence215? There lies the unspoken thing, present, omnipresent. Every time we converse, we seek to translate it into speech, but whether we hit, or whether we miss, we have the fact. Every discourse162 is an approximate answer: but it is of small consequence, that we do not get it into verbs and nouns, whilst it abides216 for contemplation forever.
If the auguries217 of the prophesying218 heart shall make themselves good in time, the man who shall be born, whose advent219 men and events prepare and foreshow, is one who shall enjoy his connexion with a higher life, with the man within man; shall destroy distrust by his trust, shall use his native but forgotten methods, shall not take counsel of flesh and blood, but shall rely on the Law alive and beautiful, which works over our heads and under our feet. Pitiless, it avails itself of our success, when we obey it, and of our ruin, when we contravene220 it. Men are all secret believers in it, else, the word justice would have no meaning: they believe that the best is the true; that right is done at last; or chaos221 would come. It rewards actions after their nature, and not after the design of the agent. ‘Work,’ it saith to man, ‘in every hour, paid or unpaid223, see only that thou work, and thou canst not escape the reward: whether thy work be fine or coarse, planting corn, or writing epics224, so only it be honest work, done to thine own approbation225, it shall earn a reward to the senses as well as to the thought: no matter, how often defeated, you are born to victory. The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.’
As soon as a man is wonted to look beyond surfaces, and to see how this high will prevails without an exception or an interval142, he settles himself into serenity226. He can already rely on the laws of gravity, that every stone will fall where it is due; the good globe is faithful, and carries us securely through the celestial227 spaces, anxious or resigned: we need not interfere40 to help it on, and he will learn, one day, the mild lesson they teach, that our own orbit is all our task, and we need not assist the administration of the universe. Do not be so impatient to set the town right concerning the unfounded pretensions228 and the false reputation of certain men of standing. They are laboring229 harder to set the town right concerning themselves, and will certainly succeed. Suppress for a few days your criticism on the insufficiency of this or that teacher or experimenter, and he will have demonstrated his insufficiency to all men’s eyes. In like manner, let a man fall into the divine circuits, and he is enlarged. Obedience230 to his genius is the only liberating231 influence. We wish to escape from subjection, and a sense of inferiority, — and we make self-denying ordinances232, we drink water, we eat grass, we refuse the laws, we go to jail: it is all in vain; only by obedience to his genius; only by the freest activity in the way constitutional to him, does an angel seem to arise before a man, and lead him by the hand out of all the wards222 of the prison.
That which befits us, embosomed in beauty and wonder as we are, is cheerfulness and courage, and the endeavor to realize our aspirations233. The life of man is the true romance, which, when it is valiantly234 conducted, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction. All around us, what powers are wrapped up under the coarse mattings of custom, and all wonder prevented. It is so wonderful to our neurologists that a man can see without his eyes, that it does not occur to them, that it is just as wonderful, that he should see with them; and that is ever the difference between the wise and the unwise: the latter wonders at what is unusual, the wise man wonders at the usual. Shall not the heart which has received so much, trust the Power by which it lives? May it not quit other leadings, and listen to the Soul that has guided it so gently, and taught it so much, secure that the future will be worthy180 of the past?
The End


1
unity
![]() |
|
n.团结,联合,统一;和睦,协调 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2
din
![]() |
|
n.喧闹声,嘈杂声 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3
nominal
![]() |
|
adj.名义上的;(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4
socialists
![]() |
|
社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5
dissent
![]() |
|
n./v.不同意,持异议 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6
remarkable
![]() |
|
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7
begot
![]() |
|
v.为…之生父( beget的过去式 );产生,引起 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8
testimony
![]() |
|
n.证词;见证,证明 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9
afterward
![]() |
|
adv.后来;以后 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10
impatience
![]() |
|
n.不耐烦,急躁 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11
salvation
![]() |
|
n.(尤指基督)救世,超度,拯救,解困 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12
cardinal
![]() |
|
n.(天主教的)红衣主教;adj.首要的,基本的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13
mischief
![]() |
|
n.损害,伤害,危害;恶作剧,捣蛋,胡闹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14
foes
![]() |
|
敌人,仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15
ferment
![]() |
|
vt.使发酵;n./vt.(使)激动,(使)动乱 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16
yeast
![]() |
|
n.酵母;酵母片;泡沫;v.发酵;起泡沫 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17
dough
![]() |
|
n.生面团;钱,现款 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18
saccharine
![]() |
|
adj.奉承的,讨好的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19
palatable
![]() |
|
adj.可口的,美味的;惬意的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20
incessant
![]() |
|
adj.不停的,连续的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21
scotch
![]() |
|
n.伤口,刻痕;苏格兰威士忌酒;v.粉碎,消灭,阻止;adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22
brute
![]() |
|
n.野兽,兽性 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23
adepts
![]() |
|
n.专家,能手( adept的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24
Christian
![]() |
|
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25
assailed
![]() |
|
v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 );困扰;质问;毅然应对 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26
vocations
![]() |
|
n.(认为特别适合自己的)职业( vocation的名词复数 );使命;神召;(认为某种工作或生活方式特别适合自己的)信心 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27
devoted
![]() |
|
adj.忠诚的,忠实的,热心的,献身于...的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28
scrutiny
![]() |
|
n.详细检查,仔细观察 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29
dictated
![]() |
|
v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 );口授;支配;摆布 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30
dictate
![]() |
|
v.口授;(使)听写;指令,指示,命令 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31
plentiful
![]() |
|
adj.富裕的,丰富的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32
vaporing
![]() |
|
n.说大话,吹牛adj.蒸发的,自夸的v.自夸,(使)蒸发( vapor的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33
adoption
![]() |
|
n.采用,采纳,通过;收养 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34
censured
![]() |
|
v.指责,非难,谴责( censure的过去式 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35
dual
![]() |
|
adj.双的;二重的,二元的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36
generosity
![]() |
|
n.大度,慷慨,慷慨的行为 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37
originality
![]() |
|
n.创造力,独创性;新颖 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38
withdrawal
![]() |
|
n.取回,提款;撤退,撤军;收回,撤销 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39
virtuous
![]() |
|
adj.有品德的,善良的,贞洁的,有效力的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40
interfere
![]() |
|
v.(in)干涉,干预;(with)妨碍,打扰 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41
doctrine
![]() |
|
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42
solitary
![]() |
|
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43
nay
![]() |
|
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
44
militia
![]() |
|
n.民兵,民兵组织 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
45
disposition
![]() |
|
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
46
festive
![]() |
|
adj.欢宴的,节日的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
47
prying
![]() |
|
adj.爱打听的v.打听,刺探(他人的私事)( pry的现在分词 );撬开 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
48
conscientious
![]() |
|
adj.审慎正直的,认真的,本着良心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
49
labor
![]() |
|
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 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
50
prone
![]() |
|
adj.(to)易于…的,很可能…的;俯卧的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
51
benefactor
![]() |
|
n. 恩人,行善的人,捐助人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
52
defrauded
![]() |
|
v.诈取,骗取( defraud的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
53
exalting
![]() |
|
a.令人激动的,令人喜悦的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
54
conformity
![]() |
|
n.一致,遵从,顺从 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
55
edible
![]() |
|
n.食品,食物;adj.可食用的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
56
standing
![]() |
|
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
57
oxide
![]() |
|
n.氧化物 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
58
fixed
![]() |
|
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
59
scholastic
![]() |
|
adj.学校的,学院的,学术上的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
60
remains
![]() |
|
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
61
drowsiness
![]() |
|
n.睡意;嗜睡 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
62
momentary
![]() |
|
adj.片刻的,瞬息的;短暂的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
63
stereotyped
![]() |
|
adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
64
warfare
![]() |
|
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
65
parsing
![]() |
|
n.分[剖]析,分解v.从语法上描述或分析(词句等)( parse的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
66
conjure
![]() |
|
v.恳求,祈求;变魔术,变戏法 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
67
conjuring
![]() |
|
n.魔术 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
68
conjugating
![]() |
|
vt.使结合(conjugate的现在分词形式) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
69
astonishment
![]() |
|
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
70
philosophical
![]() |
|
adj.哲学家的,哲学上的,达观的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
71
speculation
![]() |
|
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
72
petulance
![]() |
|
n.发脾气,生气,易怒,暴躁,性急 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
73
puerility
![]() |
|
n.幼稚,愚蠢;幼稚、愚蠢的行为、想法等 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
74
superfluous
![]() |
|
adj.过多的,过剩的,多余的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
75
expend
![]() |
|
vt.花费,消费,消耗 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
76
sanity
![]() |
|
n.心智健全,神智正常,判断正确 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
77
renovated
![]() |
|
翻新,修复,整修( renovate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
78
renovate
![]() |
|
vt.更新,革新,刷新 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
79
negligent
![]() |
|
adj.疏忽的;玩忽的;粗心大意的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
80
hypocrisy
![]() |
|
n.伪善,虚伪 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
81
alas
![]() |
|
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
82
pedantry
![]() |
|
n.迂腐,卖弄学问 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
83
aloof
![]() |
|
adj.远离的;冷淡的,漠不关心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
84
irritable
![]() |
|
adj.急躁的;过敏的;易怒的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
85
captious
![]() |
|
adj.难讨好的,吹毛求疵的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
86
virtue
![]() |
|
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
87
piecemeal
![]() |
|
adj.零碎的;n.片,块;adv.逐渐地;v.弄成碎块 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
88
vindicated
![]() |
|
v.澄清(某人/某事物)受到的责难或嫌疑( vindicate的过去式和过去分词 );表明或证明(所争辩的事物)属实、正当、有效等;维护 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
89
aisles
![]() |
|
n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
90
forth
![]() |
|
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
91
abrogate
![]() |
|
v.废止,废除 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
92
agitate
![]() |
|
vi.(for,against)煽动,鼓动;vt.搅动 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
93
inveterate
![]() |
|
adj.积习已深的,根深蒂固的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
94
humble
![]() |
|
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
95
dwarfs
![]() |
|
n.侏儒,矮子(dwarf的复数形式)vt.(使)显得矮小(dwarf的第三人称单数形式) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
96
stature
![]() |
|
n.(高度)水平,(高度)境界,身高,身材 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
97
potent
![]() |
|
adj.强有力的,有权势的;有效力的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
98
warp
![]() |
|
vt.弄歪,使翘曲,使不正常,歪曲,使有偏见 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
99
warped
![]() |
|
adj.反常的;乖戾的;(变)弯曲的;变形的v.弄弯,变歪( warp的过去式和过去分词 );使(行为等)不合情理,使乖戾, | |
参考例句: |
|
|
100
celebrated
![]() |
|
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
101
expiration
![]() |
|
n.终结,期满,呼气,呼出物 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
102
respiration
![]() |
|
n.呼吸作用;一次呼吸;植物光合作用 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
103
covenants
![]() |
|
n.(有法律约束的)协议( covenant的名词复数 );盟约;公约;(向慈善事业、信托基金会等定期捐款的)契约书 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
104
isolated
![]() |
|
adj.与世隔绝的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
105
cramped
![]() |
|
a.狭窄的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
106
spoke
![]() |
|
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 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
107
speculations
![]() |
|
n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 );思考;投机活动;推断 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
108
alluding
![]() |
|
提及,暗指( allude的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
109
labors
![]() |
|
v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
110
renounce
![]() |
|
v.放弃;拒绝承认,宣布与…断绝关系 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
111
perverse
![]() |
|
adj.刚愎的;坚持错误的,行为反常的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
112
frivolous
![]() |
|
adj.轻薄的;轻率的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
113
incurables
![]() |
|
无法治愈,不可救药( incurable的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
114
compassion
![]() |
|
n.同情,怜悯 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
115
maxim
![]() |
|
n.格言,箴言 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
116
tyrant
![]() |
|
n.暴君,专制的君主,残暴的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
117
eminent
![]() |
|
adj.显赫的,杰出的,有名的,优良的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
118
fidelity
![]() |
|
n.忠诚,忠实;精确 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
119
expended
![]() |
|
v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 );使用(钱等)做某事;用光;耗尽 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
120
procure
![]() |
|
vt.获得,取得,促成;vi.拉皮条 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
121
adorn
![]() |
|
vt.使美化,装饰 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
122
comely
![]() |
|
adj.漂亮的,合宜的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
123
aged
![]() |
|
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
124
avert
![]() |
|
v.防止,避免;转移(目光、注意力等) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
125
devoured
![]() |
|
吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 ); 耗尽; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
126
melancholy
![]() |
|
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
127
probity
![]() |
|
n.刚直;廉洁,正直 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
128
profane
![]() |
|
adj.亵神的,亵渎的;vt.亵渎,玷污 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
129
sustenance
![]() |
|
n.食物,粮食;生活资料;生计 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
130
vigor
![]() |
|
n.活力,精力,元气 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
131
monstrous
![]() |
|
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
132
canine
![]() |
|
adj.犬的,犬科的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
133
humane
![]() |
|
adj.人道的,富有同情心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
134
blessing
![]() |
|
n.祈神赐福;祷告;祝福,祝愿 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
135
destitution
![]() |
|
n.穷困,缺乏,贫穷 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
136
ascend
![]() |
|
vi.渐渐上升,升高;vt.攀登,登上 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
137
importuned
![]() |
|
v.纠缠,向(某人)不断要求( importune的过去式和过去分词 );(妓女)拉(客) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
138
miser
![]() |
|
n.守财奴,吝啬鬼 (adj.miserly) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
139
torpidity
![]() |
|
n.麻痹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
140
wedded
![]() |
|
adj.正式结婚的;渴望…的,执著于…的v.嫁,娶,(与…)结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
141
paltry
![]() |
|
adj.无价值的,微不足道的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
142
interval
![]() |
|
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
143
intervals
![]() |
|
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
144
anthem
![]() |
|
n.圣歌,赞美诗,颂歌 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
145
radical
![]() |
|
n.激进份子,原子团,根号;adj.根本的,激进的,彻底的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
146
luxurious
![]() |
|
adj.精美而昂贵的;豪华的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
147
radicals
![]() |
|
n.激进分子( radical的名词复数 );根基;基本原理;[数学]根数 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
148
stimulating
![]() |
|
adj.有启发性的,能激发人思考的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
149
revolve
![]() |
|
vi.(使)旋转;循环出现 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
150
anecdote
![]() |
|
n.轶事,趣闻,短故事 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
151
bishop
![]() |
|
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
152
savages
![]() |
|
未开化的人,野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
153
animating
![]() |
|
v.使有生气( animate的现在分词 );驱动;使栩栩如生地动作;赋予…以生命 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
154
eloquence
![]() |
|
n.雄辩;口才,修辞 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
155
cowardice
![]() |
|
n.胆小,怯懦 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
156
heartily
![]() |
|
adv.衷心地,诚恳地,十分,很 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
157
phantoms
![]() |
|
n.鬼怪,幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
158
gliding
![]() |
|
v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
159
crave
![]() |
|
vt.渴望得到,迫切需要,恳求,请求 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
160
affluence
![]() |
|
n.充裕,富足 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
161
indigence
![]() |
|
n.贫穷 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
162
discourse
![]() |
|
n.论文,演说;谈话;话语;vi.讲述,著述 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
163
discourses
![]() |
|
论文( discourse的名词复数 ); 演说; 讲道; 话语 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
164
erect
![]() |
|
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
165
demeanor
![]() |
|
n.行为;风度 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
166
acquit
![]() |
|
vt.宣判无罪;(oneself)使(自己)表现出 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
167
noted
![]() |
|
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
168
naval
![]() |
|
adj.海军的,军舰的,船的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
169
baton
![]() |
|
n.乐队用指挥杖 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
170
procured
![]() |
|
v.(努力)取得, (设法)获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 );拉皮条 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
171
lustre
![]() |
|
n.光亮,光泽;荣誉 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
172
extorts
![]() |
|
v.敲诈( extort的第三人称单数 );曲解 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
173
homage
![]() |
|
n.尊敬,敬意,崇敬 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
174
laurels
![]() |
|
n.桂冠,荣誉 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
175
humiliation
![]() |
|
n.羞辱 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
176
mortification
![]() |
|
n.耻辱,屈辱 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
177
oracles
![]() |
|
神示所( oracle的名词复数 ); 神谕; 圣贤; 哲人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
178
relinquish
![]() |
|
v.放弃,撤回,让与,放手 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
179
misery
![]() |
|
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
180
worthy
![]() |
|
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
181
thereby
![]() |
|
adv.因此,从而 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
182
recesses
![]() |
|
n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 );(工作或业务活动的)中止或暂停期间;学校的课间休息;某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 );将(墙)做成凹形,在(墙)上做壁龛;休息,休会,休庭 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
183
penetrate
![]() |
|
v.透(渗)入;刺入,刺穿;洞察,了解 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
184
withholds
![]() |
|
v.扣留( withhold的第三人称单数 );拒绝给予;抑制(某事物);制止 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
185
precisely
![]() |
|
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
186
extremity
![]() |
|
n.末端,尽头;尽力;终极;极度 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
187
malignity
![]() |
|
n.极度的恶意,恶毒;(病的)恶性 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
188
profligacy
![]() |
|
n.放荡,不检点,肆意挥霍 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
189
profanation
![]() |
|
n.亵渎 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
190
atheism
![]() |
|
n.无神论,不信神 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
191
innocence
![]() |
|
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
192
liking
![]() |
|
n.爱好;嗜好;喜欢 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
193
assent
![]() |
|
v.批准,认可;n.批准,认可 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
194
frivolity
![]() |
|
n.轻松的乐事,兴高采烈;轻浮的举止 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
195
benevolent
![]() |
|
adj.仁慈的,乐善好施的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
196
authentic
![]() |
|
a.真的,真正的;可靠的,可信的,有根据的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
197
soliciting
![]() |
|
v.恳求( solicit的现在分词 );(指娼妇)拉客;索求;征求 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
198
confession
![]() |
|
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
199
accusation
![]() |
|
n.控告,指责,谴责 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
200
paradox
![]() |
|
n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法;自相矛盾的人(物) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
201
capillary
![]() |
|
n.毛细血管;adj.毛细管道;毛状的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
202
reverence
![]() |
|
n.敬畏,尊敬,尊严;Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称;v.尊敬,敬畏,崇敬 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
203
authorize
![]() |
|
v.授权,委任;批准,认可 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
204
abate
![]() |
|
vi.(风势,疼痛等)减弱,减轻,减退 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
205
converse
![]() |
|
vi.谈话,谈天,闲聊;adv.相反的,相反 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
206
thoroughly
![]() |
|
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
207
apprehensive
![]() |
|
adj.担心的,恐惧的,善于领会的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
208
poetic
![]() |
|
adj.富有诗意的,有诗人气质的,善于抒情的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
209
knack
![]() |
|
n.诀窍,做事情的灵巧的,便利的方法 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
210
faculty
![]() |
|
n.才能;学院,系;(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
211
hindrance
![]() |
|
n.妨碍,障碍 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
212
dissuades
![]() |
|
劝(某人)勿做某事,劝阻( dissuade的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
213
traitor
![]() |
|
n.叛徒,卖国贼 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
214
tenacious
![]() |
|
adj.顽强的,固执的,记忆力强的,粘的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
215
providence
![]() |
|
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
216
abides
![]() |
|
容忍( abide的第三人称单数 ); 等候; 逗留; 停留 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
217
auguries
![]() |
|
n.(古罗马)占卜术,占卜仪式( augury的名词复数 );预兆 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
218
prophesying
![]() |
|
v.预告,预言( prophesy的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
219
advent
![]() |
|
n.(重要事件等的)到来,来临 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
220
contravene
![]() |
|
v.违反,违背,反驳,反对 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
221
chaos
![]() |
|
n.混乱,无秩序 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
222
wards
![]() |
|
区( ward的名词复数 ); 病房; 受监护的未成年者; 被人照顾或控制的状态 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
223
unpaid
![]() |
|
adj.未付款的,无报酬的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
224
epics
![]() |
|
n.叙事诗( epic的名词复数 );壮举;惊人之举;史诗般的电影(或书籍) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
225
approbation
![]() |
|
n.称赞;认可 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
226
serenity
![]() |
|
n.宁静,沉着,晴朗 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
227
celestial
![]() |
|
adj.天体的;天上的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
228
pretensions
![]() |
|
自称( pretension的名词复数 ); 自命不凡; 要求; 权力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
229
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 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
230
obedience
![]() |
|
n.服从,顺从 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
231
liberating
![]() |
|
解放,释放( liberate的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
232
ordinances
![]() |
|
n.条例,法令( ordinance的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
233
aspirations
![]() |
|
强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 ); 志向; 发送气音; 发 h 音 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
234
valiantly
![]() |
|
adv.勇敢地,英勇地;雄赳赳 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |