“I perceive,” said Mr Milestone1, after they had walked a few paces, “these grounds have never been touched by the finger of taste.”
“The place is quite a wilderness2,” said Squire3 Headlong: “for, during the latter part of my father’s life, while I was finishing my education, he troubled himself about nothing but the cellar, and suffered everything else to go to rack and ruin. A mere4 wilderness, as you see, even now in December; but in summer a complete nursery of briers, a forest of thistles, a plantation5 of nettles6, without any live stock but goats, that have eaten up all the bark of the trees. Here you see is the pedestal of a statue, with only half a leg and four toes remaining: there were many here once. When I was a boy, I used to sit every day on the shoulders of Hercules: what became of him I have never been able to ascertain7. Neptune8 has been lying these seven years in the dust-hole; Atlas9 had his head knocked off to fit him for propping10 a shed; and only the day before yesterday we fished Bacchus out of the horse-pond.”
“My dear sir,” said Mr Milestone, “accord me your permission to wave the wand of enchantment11 over your grounds. The rocks shall be blown up, the trees shall be cut down, the wilderness and all its goats shall vanish like mist. Pagodas12 and Chinese bridges, gravel13 walks and shrubberies, bowling-greens, canals, and clumps14 of larch15, shall rise upon its ruins. One age, sir, has brought to light the treasures of ancient learning; a second has penetrated16 into the depths of metaphysics; a third has brought to perfection the science of astronomy; but it was reserved for the exclusive genius of the present times, to invent the noble art of picturesque17 gardening, which has given, as it were, a new tint18 to the complexion19 of nature, and a new outline to the physiognomy of the universe!”
“Give me leave,” said Sir Patrick O’Prism, “to take an exception to that same. Your system of levelling, and trimming, and clipping, and docking, and clumping20, and polishing, and cropping, and shaving, destroys all the beautiful intricacies of natural luxuriance, and all the graduated harmonies of light and shade, melting into one another, as you see them on that rock over yonder. I never saw one of your improved places, as you call them, and which are nothing but big bowling-greens, like sheets of green paper, with a parcel of round clumps scattered21 over them, like so many spots of ink, flicked22 at random23 out of a pen,1 and a solitary24 animal here and there looking as if it were lost, that I did not think it was for all the world like Hounslow Heath, thinly sprinkled over with bushes and highwaymen.”
“Sir,” said Mr Milestone, “you will have the goodness to make a distinction between the picturesque and the beautiful.”
“Will I?” said Sir Patrick, “och! but I won’t. For what is beautiful? That what pleases the eye. And what pleases the eye? Tints25 variously broken and blended. Now, tints variously broken and blended constitute the picturesque.”
“Allow me,” said Mr Gall26. “I distinguish the picturesque and the beautiful, and I add to them, in the laying out of grounds, a third and distinct character, which I call unexpectedness.”
“Pray, sir,” said Mr Milestone, “by what name do you distinguish this character, when a person walks round the grounds for the second time?”2
Mr Gall bit his lips, and inwardly vowed27 to revenge himself on Milestone, by cutting up his next publication.
A long controversy28 now ensued concerning the picturesque and the beautiful, highly edifying29 to Squire Headlong.
The three philosophers stopped, as they wound round a projecting point of rock, to contemplate30 a little boat which was gliding31 over the tranquil32 surface of the lake below.
“The blessings33 of civilisation,” said Mr Foster, “extend themselves to the meanest individuals of the community. That boatman, singing as he sails along, is, I have no doubt, a very happy, and, comparatively to the men of his class some centuries back, a very enlightened and intelligent man.”
“As a partisan34 of the system of the moral perfectibility of the human race,” said Mr Escot,— who was always for considering things on a large scale, and whose thoughts immediately wandered from the lake to the ocean, from the little boat to a ship of the line,—“you will probably be able to point out to me the degree of improvement that you suppose to have taken place in the character of a sailor, from the days when Jason sailed through the Cyanean Symplegades, or Noah moored35 his ark on the summit of Ararat.”
“If you talk to me,” said Mr Foster, “of mythological36 personages, of course I cannot meet you on fair grounds.”
“We will begin, if you please, then,” said Mr Escot, “no further back than the battle of Salamis; and I will ask you if you think the mariners37 of England are, in any one respect, morally or intellectually, superior to those who then preserved the liberties of Greece, under the direction of Themistocles?”
“I will venture to assert,” said Mr Foster, “that considered merely as sailors, which is the only fair mode of judging them, they are as far superior to the Athenians, as the structure of our ships is superior to that of theirs. Would not one English seventy-four, think you, have been sufficient to have sunk, burned, and put to flight, all the Persian and Grecian vessels38 in that memorable40 bay? Contemplate the progress of naval41 architecture, and the slow, but immense succession of concatenated42 intelligence, by which it has gradually attained43 its present stage of perfectibility. In this, as in all other branches of art and science, every generation possesses all the knowledge of the preceding, and adds to it its own discoveries in a progression to which there seems no limit. The skill requisite44 to direct these immense machines is proportionate to their magnitude and complicated mechanism45; and, therefore, the English sailor, considered merely as a sailor, is vastly superior to the ancient Greek.”
“You make a distinction, of course,” said Mr Escot, “between scientific and moral perfectibility?”
“I conceive,” said Mr Foster, “that men are virtuous46 in proportion as they are enlightened; and that, as every generation increases in knowledge, it also increases in virtue47.”
“I wish it were so,” said Mr Escot; “but to me the very reverse appears to be the fact. The progress of knowledge is not general: it is confined to a chosen few of every age. How far these are better than their neighbours, we may examine by and bye. The mass of mankind is composed of beasts of burden, mere clods, and tools of their superiors. By enlarging and complicating48 your machines, you degrade, not exalt49, the human animals you employ to direct them. When the boatswain of a seventy-four pipes all hands to the main tack50, and flourishes his rope’s end over the shoulders of the poor fellows who are tugging51 at the ropes, do you perceive so dignified52, so gratifying a picture, as Ulysses exhorting53 his dear friends, his ΕΡΙΗΡΕΣ ’ΕΤΑΙΡΟΙ, to ply54 their oars55 with energy? You will say, Ulysses was a fabulous56 character. But the economy of his vessel39 is drawn57 from nature. Every man on board has a character and a will of his own. He talks to them, argues with them, convinces them; and they obey him, because they love him, and know the reason of his orders. Now, as I have said before, all singleness of character is lost. We divide men into herds58 like cattle: an individual man, if you strip him of all that is extraneous59 to himself, is the most wretched and contemptible60 creature on the face of the earth. The sciences advance. True. A few years of study puts a modern mathematician61 in possession of more than Newton knew, and leaves him at leisure to add new discoveries of his own. Agreed. But does this make him a Newton? Does it put him in possession of that range of intellect, that grasp of mind, from which the discoveries of Newton sprang? It is mental power that I look for: if you can demonstrate the increase of that, I will give up the field. Energy — independence — individuality — disinterested62 virtue — active benevolence63 — self-oblivion — universal philanthropy — these are the qualities I desire to find, and of which I contend that every succeeding age produces fewer examples. I repeat it; there is scarcely such a thing to be found as a single individual man; a few classes compose the whole frame of society, and when you know one of a class you know the whole of it. Give me the wild man of the woods; the original, unthinking, unscientific, unlogical savage64: in him there is at least some good; but, in a civilised, sophisticated, cold-blooded, mechanical, calculating slave of Mammon and the world, there is none — absolutely none. Sir, if I fall into a river, an unsophisticated man will jump in and bring me out; but a philosopher will look on with the utmost calmness, and consider me in the light of a projectile65, and, making a calculation of the degree of force with which I have impinged the surface, the resistance of the fluid, the velocity66 of the current, and the depth of the water in that particular place, he will ascertain with the greatest nicety in what part of the mud at the bottom I may probably be found, at any given distance of time from the moment of my first immersion67.”
Mr Foster was preparing to reply, when the first dinner-bell rang, and he immediately commenced a precipitate68 return towards the house; followed by his two companions, who both admitted that he was now leading the way to at least a temporary period of physical amelioration: “but, alas69!” added Mr Escot, after a moment’s reflection, “Epul? NOCUERE repost?!”
1 milestone | |
n.里程碑;划时代的事件 | |
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2 wilderness | |
n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等,荒漠 | |
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3 squire | |
n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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4 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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5 plantation | |
n.种植园,大农场 | |
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6 nettles | |
n.荨麻( nettle的名词复数 ) | |
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7 ascertain | |
vt.发现,确定,查明,弄清 | |
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8 Neptune | |
n.海王星 | |
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9 atlas | |
n.地图册,图表集 | |
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10 propping | |
支撑 | |
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11 enchantment | |
n.迷惑,妖术,魅力 | |
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12 pagodas | |
塔,宝塔( pagoda的名词复数 ) | |
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13 gravel | |
n.砂跞;砂砾层;结石 | |
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14 clumps | |
n.(树、灌木、植物等的)丛、簇( clump的名词复数 );(土、泥等)团;块;笨重的脚步声v.(树、灌木、植物等的)丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 );(土、泥等)团;块;笨重的脚步声 | |
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15 larch | |
n.落叶松 | |
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16 penetrated | |
adj. 击穿的,鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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17 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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18 tint | |
n.淡色,浅色;染发剂;vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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19 complexion | |
n.肤色;情况,局面;气质,性格 | |
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20 clumping | |
v.(树、灌木、植物等的)丛、簇( clump的现在分词 );(土、泥等)团;块;笨重的脚步声 | |
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21 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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22 flicked | |
(尤指用手指或手快速地)轻击( flick的过去式和过去分词 ); (用…)轻挥; (快速地)按开关; 向…笑了一下(或瞥了一眼等) | |
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23 random | |
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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24 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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25 tints | |
色彩( tint的名词复数 ); 带白的颜色; (淡色)染发剂; 痕迹 | |
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26 gall | |
v.使烦恼,使焦躁,难堪;n.磨难 | |
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27 vowed | |
起誓,发誓(vow的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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28 controversy | |
n.争论,辩论,争吵 | |
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29 edifying | |
adj.有教训意味的,教训性的,有益的v.开导,启发( edify的现在分词 ) | |
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30 contemplate | |
vt.盘算,计议;周密考虑;注视,凝视 | |
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31 gliding | |
v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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32 tranquil | |
adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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33 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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34 partisan | |
adj.党派性的;游击队的;n.游击队员;党徒 | |
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35 moored | |
adj. 系泊的 动词moor的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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36 mythological | |
adj.神话的 | |
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37 mariners | |
海员,水手(mariner的复数形式) | |
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38 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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39 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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40 memorable | |
adj.值得回忆的,难忘的,特别的,显著的 | |
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41 naval | |
adj.海军的,军舰的,船的 | |
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42 concatenated | |
v.把 (一系列事件、事情等)联系起来( concatenate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43 attained | |
(通常经过努力)实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 ); 达到; 获得; 达到(某年龄、水平、状况) | |
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44 requisite | |
adj.需要的,必不可少的;n.必需品 | |
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45 mechanism | |
n.机械装置;机构,结构 | |
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46 virtuous | |
adj.有品德的,善良的,贞洁的,有效力的 | |
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47 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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48 complicating | |
使复杂化( complicate的现在分词 ) | |
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49 exalt | |
v.赞扬,歌颂,晋升,提升 | |
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50 tack | |
n.大头钉;假缝,粗缝 | |
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51 tugging | |
n.牵引感v.用力拉,使劲拉,猛扯( tug的现在分词 ) | |
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52 dignified | |
a.可敬的,高贵的 | |
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53 exhorting | |
v.劝告,劝说( exhort的现在分词 ) | |
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54 ply | |
v.(搬运工等)等候顾客,弯曲 | |
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55 oars | |
n.桨,橹( oar的名词复数 );划手v.划(行)( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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56 fabulous | |
adj.极好的;极为巨大的;寓言中的,传说中的 | |
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57 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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58 herds | |
兽群( herd的名词复数 ); 牧群; 人群; 群众 | |
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59 extraneous | |
adj.体外的;外来的;外部的 | |
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60 contemptible | |
adj.可鄙的,可轻视的,卑劣的 | |
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61 mathematician | |
n.数学家 | |
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62 disinterested | |
adj.不关心的,不感兴趣的 | |
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63 benevolence | |
n.慈悲,捐助 | |
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64 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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65 projectile | |
n.投射物,发射体;adj.向前开进的;推进的;抛掷的 | |
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66 velocity | |
n.速度,速率 | |
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67 immersion | |
n.沉浸;专心 | |
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68 precipitate | |
adj.突如其来的;vt.使突然发生;n.沉淀物 | |
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69 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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