It will be necessary, for several reasons, to give this short sketch1 the form rather of a critical essay than of a biography. The data for a life of Nathaniel Hawthorne are the reverse of copious2, and even if they were abundant they would serve but in a limited measure the purpose of the biographer. Hawthorne’s career was probably as tranquil3 and uneventful a one as ever fell to the lot of a man of letters; it was almost strikingly deficient4 in incident, in what may be called the dramatic quality. Few men of equal genius and of equal eminence5 can have led on the whole a simpler life. His six volumes of Note–Books illustrate6 this simplicity7; they are a sort of monument to an unagitated fortune. Hawthorne’s career had few vicissitudes8 or variations; it was passed for the most part in a small and homogeneous society, in a provincial9, rural community; it had few perceptible points of contact with what is called the world, with public events, with the manners of his time, even with the life of his neighbours. Its literary incidents are not numerous. He produced, in quantity, but little. His works consist of four novels and the fragment of another, five volumes of short tales, a collection of sketches10, and a couple of story-books for children. And yet some account of the man and the writer is well worth giving. Whatever may have been Hawthorne’s private lot, he has the importance of being the most beautiful and most eminent11 representative of a literature. The importance of the literature may be questioned, but at any rate, in the field of letters, Hawthorne is the most valuable example of the American genius. That genius has not, as a whole, been literary; but Hawthorne was on his limited scale a master of expression. He is the writer to whom his countrymen most confidently point when they wish to make a claim to have enriched the mother-tongue, and, judging from present appearances, he will long occupy this honourable12 position. If there is something very fortunate for him in the way that he borrows an added relief from the absence of competitors in his own line and from the general flatness of the literary field that surrounds him, there is also, to a spectator, something almost touching13 in his situation. He was so modest and delicate a genius that we may fancy him appealing from the lonely honour of a representative attitude — perceiving a painful incongruity14 between his imponderable literary baggage and the large conditions of American life. Hawthorne on the one side is so subtle and slender and unpretending, and the American world on the other is so vast and various and substantial, that it might seem to the author of The Scarlet15 Letter and the Mosses16 from an Old Manse, that we render him a poor service in contrasting his proportions with those of a great civilization. But our author must accept the awkward as well as the graceful18 side of his fame; for he has the advantage of pointing a valuable moral. This moral is that the flower of art blooms only where the soil is deep, that it takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature, that it needs a complex social machinery19 to set a writer in motion. American civilization has hitherto had other things to do than to produce flowers, and before giving birth to writers it has wisely occupied itself with providing something for them to write about. Three or four beautiful talents of trans-Atlantic growth are the sum of what the world usually recognises, and in this modest nosegay the genius of Hawthorne is admitted to have the rarest and sweetest fragrance20.
His very simplicity has been in his favour; it has helped him to appear complete and homogeneous. To talk of his being national would be to force the note and make a mistake of proportion; but he is, in spite of the absence of the realistic quality, intensely and vividly21 local. Out of the soil of New England he sprang — in a crevice22 of that immitigable granite23 he sprouted24 and bloomed. Half of the interest that he possesses for an American reader with any turn for analysis must reside in his latent New England savour; and I think it no more than just to say that whatever entertainment he may yield to those who know him at a distance, it is an almost indispensable condition of properly appreciating him to have received a personal impression of the manners, the morals, indeed of the very climate, of the great region of which the remarkable25 city of Boston is the metropolis26. The cold, bright air of New England seems to blow through his pages, and these, in the opinion of many people, are the medium in which it is most agreeable to make the acquaintance of that tonic28 atmosphere. As to whether it is worth while to seek to know something of New England in order to extract a more intimate quality from The House of Seven Gables and The Blithedale Romance, I need not pronounce; but it is certain that a considerable observation of the society to which these productions were more directly addressed is a capital preparation for enjoying them. I have alluded29 to the absence in Hawthorne of that quality of realism which is now so much in fashion, an absence in regard to which there will of course be more to say; and yet I think I am not fanciful in saying that he testifies to the sentiments of the society in which he flourished almost as pertinently30 (proportions observed) as Balzac and some of his descendants — MM. Flaubert and Zola — testify to the manners and morals of the French people. He was not a man with a literary theory; he was guiltless of a system, and I am not sure that he had ever heard of Realism, this remarkable compound having (although it was invented some time earlier) come into general use only since his death. He had certainly not proposed to himself to give an account of the social idiosyncrasies of his fellow-citizens, for his touch on such points is always light and vague, he has none of the apparatus31 of an historian, and his shadowy style of portraiture32 never suggests a rigid33 standard of accuracy. Nevertheless he virtually offers the most vivid reflection of New England life that has found its way into literature. His value in this respect is not diminished by the fact that he has not attempted to portray34 the usual Yankee of comedy, and that he has been almost culpably35 indifferent to his opportunities for commemorating36 the variations of colloquial37 English that may be observed in the New World. His characters do not express themselves in the dialect of the Biglow Papers — their language indeed is apt to be too elegant, too delicate. They are not portraits of actual types, and in their phraseology there is nothing imitative. But none the less, Hawthorne’s work savours thoroughly38 of the local soil — it is redolent of the social system in which he had his being.
This could hardly fail to be the case, when the man himself was so deeply rooted in the soil. Hawthorne sprang from the primitive39 New England stock; he had a very definite and conspicuous40 pedigree. He was born at Salem, Massachusetts, on the 4th of July, 1804, and his birthday was the great American festival, the anniversary of the Declaration of national Independence.1 Hawthorne was in his disposition41 an unqualified and unflinching American; he found occasion to give us the measure of the fact during the seven years that he spent in Europe toward the close of his life; and this was no more than proper on the part of a man who had enjoyed the honour of coming into the world on the day on which of all the days in the year the great Republic enjoys her acutest fit of self-consciousness. Moreover, a person who has been ushered43 into life by the ringing of bells and the booming of cannon44 (unless indeed he be frightened straight out of it again by the uproar45 of his awakening) receives by this very fact an injunction to do something great, something that will justify46 such striking natal47 accompaniments. Hawthorne was by race of the clearest Puritan strain. His earliest American ancestors (who wrote the name “Hathorne”— the shape in which it was transmitted to Nathaniel, who inserted the w,) was the younger son of a Wiltshire family, whose residence, according to a note of our author’s in 1837, was “Wigcastle, Wigton.” Hawthorne, in the note in question, mentions the gentleman who was at that time the head of the family; but it does not appear that he at any period renewed acquaintance with his English kinsfolk. Major William Hathorne came out to Massachusetts in the early years of the Puritan settlement; in 1635 or 1636, according to the note to which I have just alluded; in 1630 according to information presumably more accurate. He was one of the band of companions of the virtuous48 and exemplary John Winthrop, the almost life-long royal Governor of the young colony, and the brightest and most amiable49 figure in the early Puritan annals. How amiable William Hathorne may have been I know not, but he was evidently of the stuff of which the citizens of the Commonwealth50 were best advised to be made. He was a sturdy fighting man, doing solid execution upon both the inward and outward enemies of the State. The latter were the savages51, the former the Quakers; the energy expended52 by the early Puritans in resistance to the tomahawk not weakening their disposition to deal with spiritual dangers. They employed the same — or almost the same — weapons in both directions; the flintlock and the halberd against the Indians, and the cat-o’-nine-tails against the heretics. One of the longest, though by no means one of the most successful, of Hawthorne’s shorter tales (The Gentle Boy) deals with this pitiful persecution53 of the least aggressive of all schismatic bodies. William Hathorne, who had been made a magistrate54 of the town of Salem, where a grant of land had been offered him as an inducement to residence, figures in New England history as having given orders that “Anne Coleman and four of her friends” should be whipped through Salem, Boston, and Dedham. This Anne Coleman, I suppose, is the woman alluded to in that fine passage in the Introduction to The Scarlet Letter, in which Hawthorne pays a qualified42 tribute to the founder55 of the American branch of his race:—
“The figure of that first ancestor, invested by family tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur56, was present to my boyish imagination as far back as I can remember. It still haunts me, and induces a sort of home-feeling with the past, which I scarcely claim in reference to the present, phase of the town. I seem to have a stronger claim to a residence here on account of this grave, bearded, sable-cloaked and steeple-crowned progenitor57 — who came so early, with his Bible and his sword, and trod the unworn street with such a stately port, and make so large a figure as a man of war and peace — a stronger claim than for myself, whose name is seldom heard and my face hardly known. He was a soldier, legislator, judge; he was a ruler in the church; he had all the Puritanic traits, both good and evil. He was likewise a bitter persecutor58, as witness the Quakers, who have remembered him in their histories, and relate an incident of his hard severity towards a woman of their sect59 which will last longer, it is to be feared, than any of his better deeds, though these were many.”
William Hathorne died in 1681; but those hard qualities that his descendant speaks of were reproduced in his son John, who bore the title of Colonel, and who was connected, too intimately for his honour, with that deplorable episode of New England history, the persecution of-the so-called Witches of Salem. John Hathorne is introduced into the little drama entitled The Salem Farms in Longfellow’s New England Tragedies. I know not whether he had the compensating60 merits of his father, but our author speaks of him, in the continuation of the passage I have just quoted, as having made himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, that their blood may be said to have left a stain upon him. “So deep a stain, indeed,” Hawthorne adds, characteristically, “that his old dry bones in the Charter Street burial-ground must still retain it, if they have not crumbled61 utterly62 to dust.” Readers of The House of the Seven Gables will remember that the story concerns itself with a family which is supposed to be overshadowed by a curse launched against one of its earlier members by a poor man occupying a lowlier place in the world, whom this ill-advised ancestor had been the means of bringing to justice for the crime of witchcraft63. Hawthorne apparently64 found the idea of the history of the Pyncheons in his own family annals. His witch-judging ancestor was reported to have incurred65 a malediction66 from one of his victims, in consequence of which the prosperity of the race faded utterly away. “I know not,” the passage I have already quoted goes on, “whether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent67 and ask pardon of Heaven for their cruelties, or whether they are now groaning68 under the heavy consequences of them in another state of being. At all events, I, the present writer, hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes, and pray that any curse incurred by them — as I have heard, and as the dreary69 and unprosperous condition of the race for some time back would argue to exist — may be now and henceforth removed.” The two first American Hathornes had been people of importance and responsibility; but with the third generation the family lapsed71 into an obscurity from which it emerged in the very person of the writer who begs so gracefully73 for a turn in its affairs. It is very true, Hawthorne proceeds, in the Introduction to The Scarlet Letter, that from the original point of view such lustre75 as he might have contrived77 to confer upon the name would have appeared more than questionable78.
“Either of these stern and black-browed Puritans would have thought it quite a sufficient retribution for his sins that after so long a lapse72 of years the old trunk of the family tree, with so much venerable moss17 upon it, should have borne, as its topmost bough79, an idler like myself. No aim that I have ever cherished would they recognise as laudable; no success of mine, if my life, beyond its domestic scope, had ever been brightened by success, would they deem otherwise than worthless, if not positively80 disgraceful. ‘What is he?’ murmurs81 one grey shadow of my forefathers82 to the other. ‘A writer of story-books! What kind of a business in life, what manner of glorifying83 God, or being serviceable to mankind in his day and generation, may that be? Why, the degenerate84 fellow might as well have been a fiddler!’ Such are the compliments bandied between my great grandsires and myself across the gulf85 of time! And yet, let them scorn me as they will, strong traits of their nature have intertwined themselves with mine.”
In this last observation we may imagine that there was not a little truth. Poet and novelist as Hawthorne was, sceptic and dreamer and little of a man of action, late-coming fruit of a tree which might seem to have lost the power to bloom, he was morally, in an appreciative86 degree, a chip of the old block. His forefathers had crossed the Atlantic for conscience’ sake, and it was the idea of the urgent conscience that haunted the imagination of their so-called degenerate successor. The Puritan strain in his blood ran clear — there are passages in his Diaries, kept during his residence in Europe, which might almost have been written by the grimmest of the old Salem worthies87. To him as to them, the consciousness of sin was the most importunate88 fact of life, and if they had undertaken to write little tales, this baleful substantive89, with its attendant adjective, could hardly have been more frequent in their pages than in those of their fanciful descendant. Hawthorne had moreover in his composition contemplator90 and dreamer as he was, an element of simplicity and rigidity91, a something plain and masculine and sensible, which might have kept his black-browed grandsires on better terms with him than he admits to be possible. However little they might have appreciated the artist, they would have approved of the man. The play of Hawthorne’s intellect was light and capricious, but the man himself was firm and rational. The imagination was profane92, but the temper was not degenerate.
The “dreary and unprosperous condition” that he speaks of in regard to the fortunes of his family is an allusion93 to the fact that several generations followed each other on the soil in which they had been planted, that during the eighteenth century a succession of Hathornes trod the simple streets of Salem without ever conferring any especial lustre upon the town or receiving, presumably, any great delight from it. A hundred years of Salem would perhaps be rather a dead-weight for any family to carry, and we venture to imagine that the Hathornes were dull and depressed94. They did what they could, however, to improve their situation; they trod the Salem streets as little as possible. They went to sea, and made long voyages; seamanship became the regular profession of the family. Hawthorne has said it in charming language. “From father to son, for above a hundred years, they followed the sea; a grey-headed shipmaster, in each generation, retiring from the quarter-deck to the homestead, while a boy of fourteen took the hereditary95 place before the mast, confronting the salt spray and the gale96 which had blustered97 against his sire and grandsire. The boy also, in due time, passed from the forecastle to the cabin, spent a tempestuous98 manhood, and returned from his world-wanderings to grow old and die and mingle99 his dust with the natal earth.” Our author’s grandfather, Daniel Hathorne, is mentioned by Mr. Lathrop, his biographer and son-inlaw, as a hardy100 privateer during the war of Independence. His father, from whom he was named, was also a shipmaster, and he died in foreign lands, in the exercise of his profession. He was carried off by a fever, at Surinam, in 1808. He left three children, of whom Nathaniel was the only boy. The boy’s mother, who had been a Miss Manning, came of a New England stock almost as long-established as that of her husband; she is described by our author’s biographer as a woman of remarkable beauty, and by an authority whom he quotes, as being “a minute observer of religious festivals,” of “feasts, fasts, new-moons, and Sabbaths.” Of feasts the poor lady in her Puritanic home can have had but a very limited number to celebrate; but of new-moons, she may be supposed to have enjoyed the usual, and of Sabbaths even more than the usual, proportion.
In quiet provincial Salem, Nathaniel Hawthorne passed the greater part of his boyhood, as well as many years of his later life. Mr. Lathrop has much to say about the ancient picturesqueness101 of the place, and about the mystic influences it would project upon such a mind and character as Hawthorne’s. These things are always relative, and in appreciating them everything depends upon the point of view. Mr. Lathrop writes for American readers, who in such a matter as this are very easy to please. Americans have as a general thing a hungry passion for the picturesque102, and they are so fond of local colour that they contrive76 to perceive it in localities in which the amateurs of other countries would detect only the most neutral tints103. History, as yet, has left in the United States but so thin and impalpable a deposit that we very soon touch the hard substratum of nature; and nature herself, in the western world, has the peculiarity104 of seeming rather crude and immature105. The very air looks new and young; the light of the sun seems fresh and innocent, as if it knew as yet but few of the secrets of the world and none of the weariness of shining; the vegetation has the appearance of not having reached its majority. A large juvenility106 is stamped upon the face of things, and in the vividness of the present, the past, which died so young and had time to produce so little, attracts but scanty107 attention. I doubt whether English observers would discover any very striking trace of it in the ancient town of Salem. Still, with all respect to a York and a Shrewsbury, to a Toledo and a Verona, Salem has a physiognomy in which the past plays a more important part than the present. It is of course a very recent past; but one must remember that the dead of yesterday are not more alive than those of a century ago. I know not of what picturesqueness Hawthorne was conscious in his respectable birthplace; I suspect his perception of it was less keen than his biographer assumes it to have been; but he must have felt at least that of whatever complexity108 of earlier life there had been in the country, the elm-shadowed streets of Salem were a recognisable memento109. He has made considerable mention of the place, here and there, in his tales; but he has nowhere dilated110 upon it very lovingly, and it is noteworthy that in The House of the Seven Gables, the only one of his novels of which the scene is laid in it, he has by no means availed himself of the opportunity to give a description of it. He had of course a filial fondness for it — a deep-seated sense of connection with it; but he must have spent some very dreary years there, and the two feelings, the mingled111 tenderness and rancour, are visible in the Introduction to The Scarlet Letter.
“The old town of Salem,” he writes,—“my native place, though I have dwelt much away from it, both in boyhood and in maturer years — possesses, or did possess, a hold on my affections, the force of which I have never realized during my seasons of actual residence here. Indeed, so far as the physical aspect is concerned, with its flat, unvaried surface, covered chiefly with wooden houses, few or none of which pretend to architectural beauty; its irregularity, which is neither picturesque nor quaint27, but only tame; its long and lazy street, lounging wearisomely through the whole extent of the peninsula, with Gallows112 Hill and New Guinea at one end, and a view of the almshouse at the other — such being the features of my native town it would be quite as reasonable to form a sentimental113 attachment114 to a disarranged chequer-board.”
But he goes on to say that he has never divested115 himself of the sense of intensely belonging to it — that the spell of the continuity of his life with that of his predecessors116 has never been broken. “It is no matter that the place is joyless for him; that he is weary of the old wooden houses, the mud and the dust, the dead level of site and sentiment, the chill east wind, and the chilliest117 of social atmospheres;— all these and whatever faults besides he may see or imagine, are nothing to the purpose. The spell survives, and just as powerfully as if the natal spot were an earthly paradise.” There is a very American quality in this perpetual consciousness of a spell on Hawthorne’s part; it is only in a country where newness and change and brevity of tenure118 are the common substance of life, that the fact of one’s ancestors having lived for a hundred and seventy years in a single spot would become an element of one’s morality. It is only an imaginative American that would feel urged to keep reverting119 to this circumstance, to keep analysing and cunningly considering it.
The Salem of today has, as New England towns go, a physiognomy of its own, and in spite of Hawthorne’s analogy of the disarranged draught-board, it is a decidedly agreeable one. The spreading elms in its streets, the proportion of large, square, honourable-looking houses, suggesting an easy, copious material life, the little gardens, the grassy120 waysides, the open windows, the air of space and salubrity and decency121, and above all the intimation of larger antecedents — these things compose a picture which has little of the element that painters call depth of tone, but which is not without something that they would admit to be style. To English eyes the oldest and most honourable of the smaller American towns must seem in a manner primitive and rustic122; the shabby, straggling, village-quality appears marked in them, and their social tone is not unnaturally123 inferred to bear the village stamp. Village-like they are, and it would be no gross incivility to describe them as large, respectable, prosperous, democratic villages. But even a village, in a great and vigorous democracy, where there are no overshadowing squires125, where the “county” has no social existence, where the villagers are conscious of no superincumbent strata126 of gentility, piled upwards127 into vague regions of privilege — even a village is not an institution to accept of more or less graceful patronage128; it thinks extremely well of itself, and is absolute in its own regard. Salem is a sea-port, but it is a sea-port deserted129 and decayed. It belongs to that rather melancholy130 group of old coast-towns, scattered131 along the great sea-face of New England, and of which the list is completed by the names of Portsmouth, Plymouth, New Bedford, Newburyport, Newport — superannuated132 centres of the traffic with foreign lands, which have seen their trade carried away from them by the greater cities. As Hawthorne says, their ventures have gone “to swell133, needlessly and imperceptibly, the mighty134 flood of commerce at New York or Boston.” Salem, at the beginning of the present century, played a great part in the Eastern trade; it was the residence of enterprising shipowners who despatched their vessels135 to Indian and Chinese seas. It was a place of large fortunes, many of which have remained, though the activity that produced them has passed away. These successful traders constituted what Hawthorne calls “the aristocratic class.” He alludes136 in one of his slighter sketches (The Sister Years) to the sway of this class and the “moral influence of wealth” having been more marked in Salem than in any other New England town. The sway, we may believe, was on the whole gently exercised, and the moral influence of wealth was not exerted in the cause of immorality137. Hawthorne was probably but imperfectly conscious of an advantage which familiarity had made stale — the fact that he lived in the most democratic and most virtuous of modern communities. Of the virtue138 it is but civil to suppose that his own family had a liberal share; but not much of the wealth, apparently, came into their way. Hawthorne was not born to a patrimony139, and his income, later in life, never exceeded very modest proportions.
Of his childish years there appears to be nothing very definite to relate, though his biographer devotes a good many graceful pages to them. There is a considerable sameness in the behaviour of small boys, and it is probable that if we were acquainted with the details of our author’s infantine career we should find it to be made up of the same pleasures and pains as that of many ingenuous140 lads for whom fame has had nothing in keeping.
The absence of precocious141 symptoms of genius is on the whole more striking in the lives of men who have distinguished142 themselves than their juvenile143 promise; though it must be added that Mr. Lathrop has made out, as he was almost in duty bound to do, a very good case in favour of Hawthorne’s having been an interesting child. He was not at any time what would be called a sociable144 man, and there is therefore nothing unexpected in the fact that he was fond of long walks in which he was not known to have had a companion. “Juvenile literature” was but scantily145 known at that time, and the enormous and extraordinary contribution made by the United States to this department of human happiness was locked in the bosom146 of futurity. The young Hawthorne, therefore, like many of his contemporaries, was constrained147 to amuse himself, for want of anything better, with the Pilgrim’s Progress and the Faery Queen. A boy may have worse company than Bunyan and Spenser, and it is very probable that in his childish rambles148 our author may have had associates of whom there could be no record. When he was nine years old he met with an accident at school which threatened for a while to have serious results. He was struck on the foot by a ball and so severely149 lamed150 that he was kept at home for a long time, and had not completely recovered before his twelfth year. His school, it is to be supposed, was the common day-school of New England — the primary factor in that extraordinarily151 pervasive152 system of instruction in the plainer branches of learning, which forms one of the principal ornaments153 of American life. In 1818, when he was fourteen years old, he was taken by his mother to live in the house of an uncle, her brother, who was established in the town of Raymond, near Lake Sebago, in the State of Maine. The immense State of Maine, in the year 1818, must have had an even more magnificently natural character than it possesses at the present day, and the uncle’s dwelling154, in consequence of being in a little smarter style than the primitive structures that surrounded it, was known by the villagers as Manning’s Folly155. Mr. Lathrop pronounces this region to be of a “weird and woodsy” character; and Hawthorne, later in life, spoke156 of it to a friend as the place where “I first got my cursed habits of solitude157.” The outlook, indeed, for an embryonic158 novelist, would not seem to have been cheerful; the social dreariness159 of a small New England community lost amid the forests of Maine, at the beginning of the present century, must have been consummate160. But for a boy with a relish161 for solitude there were many natural resources, and we can understand that Hawthorne should in after years have spoken very tenderly of this episode. “I lived in Maine like a bird of the air, so perfect was the freedom I enjoyed.” During the long summer days he roamed, gun in hand, through the great woods, and during the moonlight nights of winter, says his biographer, quoting another informant, “he would skate until midnight, all alone, upon Sebago Lake, with the deep shadows of the icy hills on either hand.”
In 1819 he was sent back to Salem to school, and in the following year he wrote to his mother, who had remained at Raymond (the boy had found a home at Salem with another uncle), “I have left school and have begun to fit for college under Benjm. L. Oliver, Lawyer. So you are in danger of having one learned man in your family. . . . I get my lessons at home and recite them to him (Mr. Oliver) at seven o’clock in the morning. . . . Shall you want me to be a Minister, Doctor, or Lawyer? A Minister I will not be.” He adds, at the close of this epistle —“O how I wish I was again with you, with nothing to do but to go a-gunning! But the happiest days of my life are gone.” In 1821, in his seventeenth year, he entered Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Maine. This institution was in the year 1821 — a quarter of a century after its foundation — a highly honourable, but not a very elaborately organized, nor a particularly impressive, seat of learning. I say it was not impressive, but I immediately remember that impressions depend upon the minds receiving them; and that to a group of simple New England lads, upwards of sixty years ago, the halls and groves162 of Bowdoin, neither dense163 nor lofty though they can have been, may have seemed replete164 with Academic stateliness. It was a homely165, simple, frugal166, “country college,” of the old-fashioned American stamp; exerting within its limits a civilizing167 influence, working, amid the forests and the lakes, the log-houses and the clearings, toward the amenities168 and humanities and other collegiate graces, and offering a very sufficient education to the future lawyers, merchants, clergymen, politicians, and editors, of the very active and knowledge-loving community that supported it. It did more than this — it numbered poets and statesmen among its undergraduates, and on the roll-call of its sons it has several distinguished names. Among Hawthorne’s fellow-students was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who divides with our author the honour of being the most distinguished of American men of letters. I know not whether Mr. Longfellow was especially intimate with Hawthorne at this period (they were very good friends later in life), but with two of his companions he formed a friendship which lasted always. One of these was Franklin Pierce, who was destined169 to fill what Hawthorne calls “the most august position in the world.” Pierce was elected President of the United States in 1852. The other was Horatio Bridge, who afterwards served with distinction in the Navy, and to whom the charming prefatory letter of the collection of tales published under the name of The Snow Image, is addressed. “If anybody is responsible at this day for my being an author it is yourself. I know not whence your faith came; but while we were lads together at a country college — gathering170 blueberries in study-hours under those tall Academic pines; or watching the great logs as they tumbled along the current of the Androscoggin; or shooting pigeons and grey squirrels in the woods; or bat-fowling in the summer twilight171; or catching172 trout173 in that shadowy little stream which, I suppose, is still wandering river-ward through the forest — though you and I will never cast a line in it again — two idle lads, in short (as we need not fear to acknowledge now), doing a hundred things the Faculty174 never heard of, or else it had been worse for us — still it was your prognostic of your friend’s destiny that he was to be a writer of fiction.” That is a very pretty picture, but it is a picture of happy urchins175 at school, rather than of undergraduates “panting,” as Macaulay says, “for one and twenty.” Poor Hawthorne was indeed thousands of miles away from Oxford176 and Cambridge; that touch about the blueberries and the logs on the Androscoggin tells the whole story, and strikes the note, as it were, of his circumstances. But if the pleasures at Bowdoin were not expensive, so neither were the penalties. The amount of Hawthorne’s collegiate bill for one term was less than 4_l., and of this sum more than 9_s. was made up of fines. The fines, however, were not heavy. Mr. Lathrop prints a letter addressed by the President to “Mrs. Elizabeth C. Hathorne,” requesting her co-operation with the officers of this college, “in the attempt to induce your son faithfully to observe the laws of this institution.” He has just been fined fifty cents for playing cards for money during the preceding term. “Perhaps he might not have gamed,” the Professor adds, “were it not for the influence of a student whom we have dismissed from college.” The biographer quotes a letter from Hawthorne to one of his sisters, in which the writer says, in allusion to this remark, that it is a great mistake to think that he has been led away by the wicked ones. “I was fully74 as willing to play as the person he suspects of having enticed177 me, and would have been influenced by no one. I have a great mind to commence playing again, merely to show him that I scorn to be seduced179 by another into anything wrong.” There is something in these few words that accords with the impression that the observant reader of Hawthorne gathers of the personal character that underlay180 his duskily-sportive imagination — an impression of simple manliness181 and transparent182 honesty.
He appears to have been a fair scholar, but not a brilliant one; and it is very probable that as the standard of scholarship at Bowdoin was not high, he graduated none the less comfortably on this account. Mr. Lathrop is able to testify to the fact, by no means a surprising one, that he wrote verses at college, though the few stanzas183 that the biographer quotes are not such as to make us especially regret that his rhyming mood was a transient one.
“The ocean hath its silent caves,
Deep, quiet and alone.
Though there be fury on the waves,
Beneath them there is none.”
That quatrain may suffice to decorate our page. And in connection with his college days I may mention his first novel, a short romance entitled Fanshawe, which was published in Boston in 1828, three years after he graduated. It was probably also written after that event, but the scene of the tale is laid at Bowdoin (which figures under an altered name), and Hawthorne’s attitude with regard to the book, even shortly after it was published, was such as to assign it to this boyish period. It was issued anonymously184, but he so repented185 of his venture that he annihilated186 the edition, of which, according to Mr. Lathrop, “not half a dozen copies are now known to be extant.” I have seen none of these rare volumes, and I know nothing of Fanshawe but what the writer just quoted relates. It is the story of a young lady who goes in rather an odd fashion to reside at “Harley College” (equivalent of Bowdoin), under the care and guardianship187 of Dr. Melmoth, the President of the institution, a venerable, amiable, unworldly, and henpecked, scholar. Here she becomes very naturally an object of interest to two of the students; in regard to whom I cannot do better than quote Mr. Lathrop. One of these young men “is Edward Wolcott, a wealthy, handsome, generous, healthy young fellow from one of the sea-port towns; and the other Fanshawe, the hero, who is a poor but ambitious recluse188, already passing into a decline through overmuch devotion to books and meditation189. Fanshawe, though the deeper nature of the two, and intensely moved by his new passion, perceiving that a union between himself and Ellen could not be a happy one, resigns the hope of it from the beginning. But circumstances bring him into intimate relation with her. The real action of the book, after the preliminaries, takes up only some three days, and turns upon the attempt of a man named Butler to entice178 Ellen away under his protection, then marry her, and secure the fortune to which she is heiress. This scheme is partly frustrated190 by circumstances, and Butler’s purpose towards Ellen thus becomes a much more sinister191 one. From this she is rescued by Fanshawe, and knowing that he loves her, but is concealing192 his passion, she gives him the opportunity and the right to claim her hand. For a moment the rush of desire and hope is so great that he hesitates; then he refuses to take advantage of her generosity193, and parts with her for a last time. Ellen becomes engaged to Wolcott, who had won her heart from the first; and Fanshawe, sinking into rapid consumption, dies before his class graduates.” The story must have had a good deal of innocent lightness; and it is a proof of how little the world of observation lay open to Hawthorne, at this time, that he should have had no other choice than to make his little drama go forward between the rather naked walls of Bowdoin, where the presence of his heroine was an essential incongruity. He was twenty-four years old, but the “world,” in its social sense, had not disclosed itself to him. He had, however, already, at moments, a very pretty writer’s touch, as witness this passage, quoted by Mr. Lathrop, and which is worth transcribing194. The heroine has gone off with the nefarious195 Butler, and the good Dr. Melmoth starts in pursuit of her, attended by young Wolcott.
“‘Alas, youth, these are strange times,’ observed the President, ‘when a doctor of divinity and an undergraduate set forth70, like a knight-errant and his squire124, in search of a stray damsel. Methinks I am an epitome196 of the church militant197, or a new species of polemical divinity. Pray Heaven, however, there be no such encounter in store for us; for I utterly forgot to provide myself with weapons.’
“‘I took some thought for that matter, reverend knight,’ replied Edward, whose imagination was highly tickled198 by Dr. Melmoth’s chivalrous199 comparison.
“‘Aye, I see that you have girded on a sword,’ said the divine. ‘But wherewith shall I defend myself? my hand being empty except of this golden-headed staff, the gift of Mr. Langton.’
“‘One of these, if you will accept it,’ answered Edward, exhibiting a brace200 of pistols, ‘will serve to begin the conflict before you join the battle hand to hand.’
“‘Nay, I shall find little safety in meddling201 with that deadly instrument, since I know not accurately202 from which end proceeds the bullet,’ said Dr. Melmoth. ‘But were it not better, since we are so well provided with artillery203, to betake ourselves, in the event of an encounter, to some stone wall or other place of strength?’
“‘If I may presume to advise,’ said the squire, ‘you, as being most valiant204 and experienced, should ride forward, lance in hand (your long staff serving for a lance), while I annoy the enemy from afar.’
“‘Like Teucer, behind the shield of Ajax,’ interrupted Dr. Melmoth, ‘or David with his stone and sling205. No, no, young man; I have left unfinished in my study a learned treatise206, important not only to the present age, but to posterity207, for whose sake I must take heed208 to my safety. But, lo! who rides yonder?’”
On leaving college Hawthorne had gone back to live at Salem.
收听单词发音 |
1
sketch
|
|
| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
copious
|
|
| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
tranquil
|
|
| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
deficient
|
|
| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
eminence
|
|
| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
illustrate
|
|
| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
simplicity
|
|
| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
vicissitudes
|
|
| n.变迁，世事变化；变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 )；盛衰兴废 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
provincial
|
|
| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
sketches
|
|
| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
eminent
|
|
| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
honourable
|
|
| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
touching
|
|
| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
incongruity
|
|
| n.不协调，不一致 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
scarlet
|
|
| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
mosses
|
|
| n. 藓类, 苔藓植物 名词moss的复数形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
moss
|
|
| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
graceful
|
|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
machinery
|
|
| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
fragrance
|
|
| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
vividly
|
|
| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
crevice
|
|
| n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝；缺口 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
granite
|
|
| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
sprouted
|
|
| v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
remarkable
|
|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
metropolis
|
|
| n.首府；大城市 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
quaint
|
|
| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
tonic
|
|
| n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
alluded
|
|
| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
pertinently
|
|
| 适切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
apparatus
|
|
| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
portraiture
|
|
| n.肖像画法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
rigid
|
|
| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
portray
|
|
| v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
culpably
|
|
| adv.该罚地，可恶地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
36
commemorating
|
|
| v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
colloquial
|
|
| adj.口语的，会话的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
thoroughly
|
|
| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
primitive
|
|
| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
conspicuous
|
|
| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
disposition
|
|
| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
qualified
|
|
| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
ushered
|
|
| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
cannon
|
|
| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
uproar
|
|
| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
justify
|
|
| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
natal
|
|
| adj.出生的，先天的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
virtuous
|
|
| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
amiable
|
|
| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
commonwealth
|
|
| n.共和国，联邦，共同体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
savages
|
|
| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
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： |
|
|
|
|
53
persecution
|
|
| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
magistrate
|
|
| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
Founder
|
|
| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
grandeur
|
|
| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
progenitor
|
|
| n.祖先，先驱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
persecutor
|
|
| n. 迫害者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
sect
|
|
| n.派别，宗教，学派，派系 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
compensating
|
|
| 补偿，补助，修正 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
crumbled
|
|
| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
witchcraft
|
|
| n.魔法，巫术 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
incurred
|
|
| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
malediction
|
|
| n.诅咒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
repent
|
|
| v.悔悟，悔改，忏悔，后悔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
groaning
|
|
| adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
dreary
|
|
| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
lapsed
|
|
| adj.流失的，堕落的v.退步( lapse的过去式和过去分词 )；陷入；倒退；丧失 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
lapse
|
|
| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
gracefully
|
|
| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
fully
|
|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
lustre
|
|
| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
contrive
|
|
| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
contrived
|
|
| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
questionable
|
|
| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
bough
|
|
| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
positively
|
|
| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
murmurs
|
|
| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
forefathers
|
|
| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
glorifying
|
|
| 赞美( glorify的现在分词 )； 颂扬； 美化； 使光荣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
degenerate
|
|
| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
gulf
|
|
| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
appreciative
|
|
| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
worthies
|
|
| 应得某事物( worthy的名词复数 )； 值得做某事； 可尊敬的； 有（某人或事物）的典型特征 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
importunate
|
|
| adj.强求的；纠缠不休的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
substantive
|
|
| adj.表示实在的；本质的、实质性的；独立的；n.实词，实名词；独立存在的实体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
contemplator
|
|
| 沉思者，静观者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
91
rigidity
|
|
| adj.钢性，坚硬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
profane
|
|
| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
allusion
|
|
| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
depressed
|
|
| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
hereditary
|
|
| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
gale
|
|
| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
blustered
|
|
| v.外强中干的威吓( bluster的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮；（风）呼啸；狂吹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
tempestuous
|
|
| adj.狂暴的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
mingle
|
|
| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
hardy
|
|
| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
picturesqueness
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
picturesque
|
|
| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
tints
|
|
| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
peculiarity
|
|
| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
immature
|
|
| adj.未成熟的，发育未全的，未充分发展的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
juvenility
|
|
| n.年轻，不成熟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
scanty
|
|
| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
complexity
|
|
| n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
memento
|
|
| n.纪念品，令人回忆的东西 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
dilated
|
|
| adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
mingled
|
|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
gallows
|
|
| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
sentimental
|
|
| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
attachment
|
|
| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
divested
|
|
| v.剥夺( divest的过去式和过去分词 )；脱去（衣服）；2。从…取去…；1。（给某人）脱衣服 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
predecessors
|
|
| n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
chilliest
|
|
| adj.寒冷的，冷得难受的( chilly的最高级 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
tenure
|
|
| n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
reverting
|
|
| 恢复( revert的现在分词 )； 重提； 回到…上； 归还 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
grassy
|
|
| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
decency
|
|
| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
rustic
|
|
| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
unnaturally
|
|
| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
squire
|
|
| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
squires
|
|
| n.地主，乡绅( squire的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
strata
|
|
| n.地层（复数）；社会阶层 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
127
upwards
|
|
| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
128
patronage
|
|
| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
129
deserted
|
|
| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
130
melancholy
|
|
| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
131
scattered
|
|
| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
132
superannuated
|
|
| adj.老朽的，退休的；v.因落后于时代而废除，勒令退学 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
133
swell
|
|
| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
134
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
135
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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
136
alludes
|
|
| 提及，暗指( allude的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
137
immorality
|
|
| n. 不道德, 无道义 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
138
virtue
|
|
| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
139
patrimony
|
|
| n.世袭财产，继承物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
140
ingenuous
|
|
| adj.纯朴的，单纯的；天真的；坦率的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
141
precocious
|
|
| adj.早熟的；较早显出的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
142
distinguished
|
|
| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
143
juvenile
|
|
| n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
144
sociable
|
|
| adj.好交际的，友好的，合群的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
145
scantily
|
|
| adv.缺乏地；不充足地；吝啬地；狭窄地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
146
bosom
|
|
| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
147
constrained
|
|
| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
148
rambles
|
|
| （无目的地）漫游( ramble的第三人称单数 )； （喻）漫谈； 扯淡； 长篇大论 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
149
severely
|
|
| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
150
lamed
|
|
| 希伯莱语第十二个字母 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
151
extraordinarily
|
|
| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
152
pervasive
|
|
| adj.普遍的；遍布的，(到处)弥漫的；渗透性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
153
ornaments
|
|
| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
154
dwelling
|
|
| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
155
folly
|
|
| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
156
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： |
|
|
|
|
157
solitude
|
|
| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
158
embryonic
|
|
| adj.胚胎的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
159
dreariness
|
|
| 沉寂，可怕，凄凉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
160
consummate
|
|
| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
161
relish
|
|
| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
162
groves
|
|
| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
163
dense
|
|
| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
164
replete
|
|
| adj.饱满的，塞满的；n.贮蜜蚁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
165
homely
|
|
| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
166
frugal
|
|
| adj.节俭的，节约的，少量的，微量的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
167
civilizing
|
|
| v.使文明，使开化( civilize的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
168
amenities
|
|
| n.令人愉快的事物；礼仪；礼节；便利设施；礼仪( amenity的名词复数 )；便利设施；（环境等的）舒适；（性情等的）愉快 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
169
destined
|
|
| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
170
gathering
|
|
| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
171
twilight
|
|
| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
172
catching
|
|
| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
173
trout
|
|
| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
174
faculty
|
|
| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
175
urchins
|
|
| n.顽童( urchin的名词复数 )；淘气鬼；猬；海胆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
176
Oxford
|
|
| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
177
enticed
|
|
| 诱惑，怂恿( entice的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
178
entice
|
|
| v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
179
seduced
|
|
| 诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
180
underlay
|
|
| v.位于或存在于（某物）之下( underlie的过去式 )；构成…的基础（或起因），引起n.衬垫物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
181
manliness
|
|
| 刚毅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
182
transparent
|
|
| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
183
stanzas
|
|
| 节，段( stanza的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
184
anonymously
|
|
| ad.用匿名的方式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
185
repented
|
|
| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
186
annihilated
|
|
| v.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的过去式和过去分词 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
187
guardianship
|
|
| n. 监护, 保护, 守护 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
188
recluse
|
|
| n.隐居者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
189
meditation
|
|
| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
190
frustrated
|
|
| adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
191
sinister
|
|
| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
192
concealing
|
|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
193
generosity
|
|
| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
194
transcribing
|
|
| （用不同的录音手段）转录( transcribe的现在分词 )； 改编（乐曲）（以适应他种乐器或声部）； 抄写； 用音标标出（声音） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
195
nefarious
|
|
| adj.恶毒的，极坏的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
196
epitome
|
|
| n.典型，梗概 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
197
militant
|
|
| adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
198
tickled
|
|
| （使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
199
chivalrous
|
|
| adj.武士精神的；对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
200
brace
|
|
| n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
201
meddling
|
|
| v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
202
accurately
|
|
| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
203
artillery
|
|
| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
204
valiant
|
|
| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
205
sling
|
|
| vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
206
treatise
|
|
| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
207
posterity
|
|
| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
208
heed
|
|
| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |