At Balzac’s funeral, the glorious yet bitter seal upon his destiny, Victor Hugo delivered a magnificent address, and in his capacity as poet and seer proclaimed with assurance the judgment1 of posterity2:
“His life has been brief yet full, and richer in works than in days.
“Alas! This powerful and indefatigable3 worker, this philosopher, this thinker, this poet, this genius has lived amongst us that life of storms, of struggles, of quarrels, of combats, which has always been the common lot of all great men. Today we see him at peace. He has escaped from controversies4 and enmities. He has entered, on the selfsame day, into glory and into the tomb. Henceforward he will shine far above all those clouds which float over our heads, among the brightest stars of his native land.”
This discourse5 was admirable for its truth, its justice and its far-sightedness, a golden palm branch laid upon the author’s tomb, around which there still arose clamours and bitter arguments, denying the greatness of his works, and rumours6 which veiled the features of the man behind a haze7 of absurd legends. A star of his country he certainly was, as Victor Hugo proclaimed him, one of those enduring stars which time — so cruel to others — fails to change, except to purify their light and augment9 their brilliance10, to the greater pride of the nation. His life was indeed short, but it was one which set a salutary example, because, stripped of idle gossip, it teaches us the inner discipline, the commanding will and the courage of this hero who, in the midst of joy and sorrow alike, succeeded in creating an entire world.
Honore de Balzac was born at Tours on the 20th of March, 1799, on the ground floor of a building belonging to a tailor named Damourette, in the Rue8 de l’Armee d’Italie, No. 25 — now No. 35, Rue Nationale. The majority of his biographers have confused it with the dwelling11 which his father bought later on, No. 29 in the same street according to the old numbering, and the acacia which is there pointed12 out as having been planted at the date of his birth really celebrated13 that of his brother Henri, who was several years the younger.
Although born in Touraine, Balzac was not of Tourainian stock, for his birthplace was due merely to chance. His father, Bernard Francois Balssa or Balsa, came originally from the little village of Nougaire, in the commune of Montirat and district of Albi. He descended14 from a peasant family, small land-owners or often simple day labourers. It was he who first added a “c” to his patronymic and who later prefixed the particle for which the great novelist was afterwards so often reproached. Bernard Balssa, born July 22, 1746, left his native village at the age of fourteen years, never to return. What was his career, and what functions did he fulfil? Honore de Balzac says that his father was secretary to the Grand Council under Louis XV, and Laure Surville, his sister, wrote that under Louis XVI he was attorney to the Council. He himself, in an invitation to the marriage of his second daughter, Laurence, described himself as former secretary to the King’s Council. During the revolution he was secretary to the minister of the navy, Bertrant de Molleville, and later was director of the commissary department in the first division of the Armee du Nord, stationed at Lille.
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Fran?ois de Balzac and Mme. F. de Balzac, parents of the great novelist
It is impossible to follow him through all the different wanderings necessitated15 by his functions, but it is known that upon returning to Paris he there married the daughter of one of his superior officers, Sallambier, attached to the Ministry16 of War and at the same time director of the Paris hospitals. At the time of the marriage, January 30, 1797, he was fifty-one years of age; his bride, Laure, was only eighteen, a young girl possessed17 of culture, beauty and distinction of manner. The first fruit of this union was a son, who, although nursed by the mother, died at an early age. Through the influence of his father-in-law, the elder Balzac obtained in 1799 the direction of the commissary department of the twenty-second military division, and installed himself at Tours, where the division was stationed, in the early months of the same year.
Francois soon had a reputation throughout the province. He was a sort of philosopher and reformer, a man with ideas. He despised the currently accepted opinions, and proclaimed his own boldly, indifferent to the consternation18 of his fellow townsmen. A large head emerging from the high, thick collar of his blue, white-braided coat, which opened to disclose an ample cravat19, a smooth-shaven face and florid complexion20, a powerful chin and full cheeks, framed in short, brown “mutton-chop” whiskers, a small mouth with thick lips, a long straight, slightly bulbous nose, an energetic face lit up by black eyes, brilliant and slightly dreamy, beneath a broad, determined21 forehead overhung with stray locks of hair, gathered back in the fashion of the Republic — all these features proclaimed a rugged22 personality, a dominant23 character, conspicuously24 at variance25 with the placid26 bourgeoisie of Touraine. Francois Balzac had furthermore an agreeable presence and a self-satisfied manner, and it pleased him to boast of his southern origin.
The citizens of Tours spoke28 of him as “an eccentric,” but he was greatly annoyed when the term reached his ears, for, good Gascon that he was, and proud of himself, body and mind, he felt that it was singularly humiliating to be treated with so little respect. In point of fact, he was quite justified29 in refusing to accept an appellation30 which, however well it might fit his manners as a well-intentioned fault-finder, caustic31 and whimsical in speech, in no way applied32 to his unusually broad and penetrating33 intelligence, teeming34 with new and strictly35 original ideas.
He was a disciple36 of Rousseau; he held certain social theories, and he was unsparing in his criticisms of existing governments. He had his own views as to how society at large should be governed and improved. The first of these views consisted in cultivating mankind, by applying the method of eugenic37 selection to marriage, in such a manner that after a few years there would be no human beings left save those who were strong, robust38 and healthy. He could not find sufficient sarcasm39 to express his scorn of governments which, in civilised countries, allowed the development of weaklings, cripples and invalids40. Perhaps he based his theory upon his own example. Francois Balzac had the constitution of an athlete and believed himself destined41 to live to the age of a hundred years and upward. According to his calculations, a man did not reach his perfect development until after completing his first century; and, in order to do this, he took the most minute care of himself. He studied the Chinese people, celebrated for their longevity42, and he sought for the best methods of maintaining what he called the equilibrium43 of vital forces. When any event contradicted his theories, he found no trouble in turning it to his own advantage.
“He was never,” related his daughter, Mme. Laure Surville, in her article upon Balzac, “under any circumstances at a loss for a retort. One day, when a newspaper article relating to a centenarian was being read aloud (an article not likely to escape notice in our family, as may well be imagined) he interrupted the reader, contrary to his habit, in order to say enthusiastically, ‘There is a man who has lived wisely and has never squandered44 his strength in all sorts of excesses, as so many imprudent young people do!’ It turned out, on the contrary, that this wise old man frequently became drunk, and that he took a late supper every evening, which, according to my father, was one of the greatest enormities that one could perpetrate against one’s health. ‘Well,’ resumed my father imperturbably45, ‘the man has shortened his life, no doubt about it.’”
Francois Balzac was not to be shaken in his opinions. Furthermore, he was not satisfied with asserting them in the course of conversation, but in spite of his lack of confidence in the influence of books upon prejudiced readers (for he considered that the sole exception was the reaction against chivalry46 brought about by Cervantes’s Don Quixote), he wrote a number of pamphlets in which the vigour47 and originality48 of his mind are revealed. He published successively: An Essay regarding Two Great Obligations to be fulfilled by the French (1804), An Essay on the Methods of preventing Thefts and Assassinations49 (1807), A Pamphlet regarding the Equestrian50 Statue which the French People ought to raise to perpetuate51 the Memory of Henry IV (1815), The History of Hydrophobia (1819), etc. In the first of these works Francois Balzac proposed that a monument should be raised to commemorate52 the glory of Napoleon and the French army. Might that not be almost called the origin of the Arc-de-Triomphe?
The singularities of Francois Balzac in no wise hurt him in the estimation of the inhabitants of Touraine. He served as administrator53 of the General Hospice from 1804 to 1812, and introduced there a practical reform in providing remunerative54 work for the old men. As an attache of the Mayor’s office, he had the mayoralty offered him in 1808, but he refused it in order to consecrate55 himself entirely56 to the sick and convalescent.
At Tours the Balzac household led the life of prosperous bourgeois27 folk. The father had acquired a house with grounds and farm lands. The Balzacs entertained and were received in society. People enjoyed — perhaps with some secret smiles — the unexpected outbursts of the husband, and they liked him for his kindly57 ironies58 which had no touch of malice59. As for the subtle and witty60 Madame Laure Balzac, who had preserved all the graces of the eighteenth century, she was found delightful61 by all those whom she admitted to the honour of entering her circle of acquaintances.
She was a young woman of distinguished62 manner, with a somewhat oval face and small, delicate features, overcast63 at times with a shade of melancholy64. She had a somewhat distant manner which she redeemed65 by a gesture of charming welcome, or a gracious phrase. She was pious66, but without bigotry67, a mystic whose religion was that of St. John, all gentleness and impulse. She read Swedenborg, St. Martin, and Jacob Boehm. She had an ardent68 and untrammelled imagination, but her character was firm. Her decisions were promptly69 taken and she knew how to enforce their execution. She was a woman of principle; she respected social rules and customs and demanded that the members of her family should observe them.
Four more children were born to this marriage, two sons and two daughters: Honore, Laure, Laurence, and Henri, all of whom had widely different destinies. Laure became the wife of an engineer of bridges and highways, M. Midy de la Greneraye Surville, and was intimately associated with the life of her older brother, whom she survived down to 1854; Laurence died a few years after her marriage in 1821 to M. de Montzaigle; Henri, the youngest, went through divers70 ups and downs; but finding himself unable to achieve a position of independence, he finally went into exile in the Colonies.
Madame de Balzac’s first son having died, as was thought, in consequence of the mother’s attempt to nurse him herself, Honore was placed with a nurse in the country district outside of Tours. He remained there until four years of age, together with his sister Laure, and it is there, no doubt, that they formed that tender and trusting friendship which never wavered. When he returned to the paternal71 roof, Honore was a plump, chubby-cheeked little boy with brown hair falling in masses of curls, a contented72 disposition73 and laughing eyes. People noticed him when out walking in his short vest of brown silk and blue belt, and mothers would turn around to say, “What a pretty child!”
Honore was impulsive74, with a heart overflowing75 with affection, but the training he received at home was rigorous and severe. Entrusted76 to the hands of servants, under the high and mighty77 surveillance of his governess, Mlle. Delahaye, he received from his father, who was already an old man, nothing more than an indulgent and often absent-minded affection, while, as for his mother, she carried out with great firmness her theories regarding the relation between children and parents. She received hers each evening in her large drawing room with cold dignity. Before kissing them she recapitulated78 all the faults they had committed during the day, which she had learned from the governess, and her reproofs79 were reinforced with punishments. Honore never approached her without fear, repressing all his feelings and his need of affection. He suffered in secret. Then he would take refuge with his sister Laure, his only friend and comforter.
Before he was five years old he was sent to a day-school in Tours known as the Leguay Institution. He had a taste for reading, indeed it was more than a taste, it was a sort of mental starvation which made him throw himself hungrily upon every book he encountered. Otherwise, Honore was frankly81 a mediocre82 and negligent83. But concentrated in himself and deprived of the caresses84 which would have meant so much to him, he created a whole world out of his readings and sometimes gave glimpses of it to Laure by acting85 out before her dramas and comedies of his own manufacture and of which he was the hero. His exuberance86 made him a good comrade; yet he also loved solitude87. When alone, he could give himself up to the fantasies born of his own imagination, and he invented his own games and used to play upon a cheap toy violin made of red wood airs which he enjoyed to the point of ecstasy88 and of which no one else could bear the sound.
At the age of eight years and some months, on the 22d of June, 1807, Honore entered a college school at Vendome. It was an institution celebrated throughout the districts of central France and directed by the Oratorian89 Fathers. Prior to the Revolution, cadets used to be trained there for the army, and it had preserved the military severity of its discipline. After their admission, the pupils were never allowed outside vacations and never left its walls until their course of study was terminated. Honore lived there until April 22, 1813 — and in Louis Lambert he has described his sufferings, his hopes and the tumultuous and confused awakening91 of his genius, throughout those long years of convent-like imprisonment92. He had passed from the cold discipline of the family circle, which had nevertheless been tempered by an atmosphere of kindliness93, to the hard and impersonal94 discipline of the college school. The warm-hearted and melancholy child must needs undergo this second severe test, and he was destined to come out from it in a state of self-intoxication, a bewilderment of dreams and ideas.
The college buildings, surrounded by walls, contained everything that would seem calculated to render existence laborious95 and gloomy for the students. The latter were divided into four sections, the Minions96, the Smalls, the Mediums, and the Greats, to which they were assigned according to the grade of their studies. For diversion, they had a narrow garden which they could cultivate and a cabin; they had permission to raise pigeons and to eat them, in addition to the ordinary fare. The classrooms were dirty, being either muddy or covered with dust, according to the season, and evil-smelling as a result of crowding together within narrow spaces too many young folks who were none too clean and to whom the laws of hygiene97 were unknown. The masters were either overbearing or neglectful, incapable98 of distinguishing the individual from the crowd and concerned only with seeing that the rules were obeyed and discipline maintained. The pupils themselves were often cruel to each other.
It was here that Honore de Balzac formed his own character, alone, and suffered alone, sensitive and repressed child that he was. From the very first months of the sojourn99 in the College of Vendome, he was classed among the apathetic100 and lazy pupils, among those of whom nothing could be made, who would never be an honour to the school that trained them and could be ignored excepting for the purposes of punishment. Honore had an insurmountable aversion for all the required tasks, he was indifferent to the charms of Greek themes or Latin translations, and history alone had the power of stirring him and awakening his appetite for knowledge. He was habitually101 sluggish102 and stupid in the eyes of his masters, but what a formidable, unknown work was going on in the brain of this child!
We may picture him in the classroom, during study hour, leaning on his left elbow and holding an open book with his right hand, while he rubs his shoes one against the other, with a mechanical movement. What is he reading? Morality in Action and in Example. His obscure desires are taking definite form. To become a great man, a hero, one of those whose names are transmitted from age to age, such from choice will be his own destiny. He seizes his pen and rapidly writes “Balzac, Balzac, Balzac” over all the white margins103 of the book on morality. (This book passed into the possession of M. Jules Claretie.) Then once more he leans upon his elbow, gazing out of the window at a corner of verdure which he can just glimpse, and forthwith he is off again in one of his interminable reveries.
The harsh voice of his teacher interrupts him:
“You are doing nothing, M. Balzac.”
The boy falls back from his dreams into the classroom. The reproof80 has hurt him keenly. He fixes his magnetic black eyes upon the teacher. Is it bitterness, disdain104 or anger towards him for having destroyed those fruitful meditations105? At all events, the teacher feels something like a shock. He says:
“If you look at me like that, M. Balzac, you will receive the ferrule.”
The ferrule! The thong106 of leather that cut so painfully when it fell with dreaded107 rhythm, one, two, three, on the tips of the fingers or the palm of the hand.
Punishments rained heavily on Balzac, the bad pupil, who seems to have been perpetually in disgrace over his tasks and lessons. These punishments included the extra copying of lines in such numbers that he has been declared the inventor of the three-pointed pen; and then there was imprisonment in the dormitory, “the wooden breeches,” as it was called in the college, and where he remained for weeks at a time. Whether he suffered from these punishments and from the contempt of his teachers, Honore at least never complained; for whatever left his mind free to follow its own self-cultivation was a welcome opportunity.
He had a tutor, the librarian of the rich Oratorian library, who during those rare recreation hours, when he had no extra lines to copy, was supposed to give him special lessons in mathematics. But by a tacit agreement the teacher paid no attention to the pupil, and the latter was permitted to read and carry away any books which took his fancy. In point of fact, no book seemed to him too austere108 or too repellent or too obscure for his youthful understanding. He absorbed pell-mell works upon religion, treatises109 of chemistry and physics, and historical and philosophical111 works. He even developed a special taste for dictionaries, dreaming over the exact sense of words, the adventures that befall them in the course of time and their final destinies.
“The absorption of ideas through reading had become in his case a curious phenomenon,” so Honore de Balzac has recorded in Louis Lambert, in which he has painted in the person of his hero his own formative years in the college school of Vendome. “His eye would take in seven or eight lines at once, and his mind would grasp the meaning with a velocity112 equal to that of his glance; sometimes even a single word in a phrase was enough to give him the essence of it. His memory was prodigious113. He retained thoughts acquired through reading with the same fidelity114 as those suggested to him in the course of reflection or conversation. In short, he possessed every kind of memory: that of places, of names, of things, and of faces. Not only could he recall objects at will, but he could see them again within himself under the same conditions of position and light and colour as they had been at the moment when he first perceived them. This same power applied equally to the most intangible processes of the understanding. He could remember, according to his own expression, not merely the exact spot from which he had gleaned115 a thought in any given book, but also the conditions of his own mind at far-off periods. By an undreamed-of privilege, his memory could thus retrace116 the progress and entire life history of his mind from the earliest acquired ideas down to the latest ones to unfold, from the most confused down to the most lucid117. His brain, which while still young was habituated to the difficult mechanism118 of the concentration of human forces, drew from this rich storehouse a multitude of images admirable for their reality and freshness, and which supplied him with mental nutriment through all his periods of clear-sighted contemplation.”
Such was the mental condition of Honore at the time when he was regarded by his masters as a dullard, a mediocre pupil who might as well be left to reap the consequences of his own laziness. Clad in his grey uniform, ill shod and with hands red and swollen119 from chilblains, he held aloof120 from his comrades, indifferent alike to their games and their taunts121. The ruddy colour of well-rounded cheeks, due to long walks in the open air of the countryside around Tours, had disappeared and his face was now as white and delicate as a young girl’s, while his eyes had become blacker and more mysterious than ever.
Honore de Balzac received visits from his parents at Easter and at the time of the distribution of prizes. It was a joyous122 occasion, long awaited by the boy, who retained the warmest affection for his family. But his joy was short-lived. The pupil Balzac had won no prizes, he had received black marks, he had done no work; consequently, instead of the loving greeting that he expected, he was met only with words of disappointment and censure123; he was told that he did not appreciate the sacrifices that were being made to educate him, he was idle and lazy; they hoped that next year he would do better and at last give them some little satisfaction.
Honore listened to these reproofs with bowed head, and probably he made promises, in his desire to bring a smile to their faces and to receive some of those endearments124 that he had hungered for, through long days of solitude. But each year he again took up his interrupted dream, more laboriously125 and more fiercely than before.
The college school at Vendome possesses a literary society whose membership is confined to the Greats, and which gives performances of scenes from tragedies and comedies, poetic126 recitations, etc. Honore conceived the ambition to have some writing of his own produced by this society. He practised rhyming, composed poems, and undertook an epic127, one line of which has remained famous,
“O Inca! luckless and unhappy king,”
for it made him the butt128 and by-word of the entire school. He was nicknamed “The Poet,” and laughed at for his formless efforts. The director of the school, M. Mareschal, told him a fable129, with the charitable intent of turning him aside from his ambitions. There was once upon a time a young linnet in a soft and downy nest; but the young linnet longed for the free and open air and the blue sky. Its wings had not yet grown, and yet the imprudent bird made up its mind to fly. What happened? Why, simply that the young linnet fell from the tree in which the nest was built, and hurt itself pitifully. Warning to poets who presume too far upon their powers. Honore disregarded the fable, just as he had disregarded reproofs, mockery and punishment, and burrowed130 deeper than ever into the Oratorian library, in a sort of somber131 phrensy. He neglected his studies and assigned tasks for the sake of the secret and forbidden work that constituted what he called later on, in Louis Lambert, his contraband132 studies. Although he continued to write poetry, his mind as it ripened133 and gathered strength in its singular solitude aspired134 to still loftier works, based upon metaphysics and pure reason.
While his comrades translated Virgil and Demosthenes, he had begun to write a Treatise110 upon the Will, a symbolic135 work which contained the germs of his entire destiny. His fellow students, rendered curious by his sustained application, continuing month after month, tried in vain to steal glimpses over his shoulder, but Honore de Balzac would permit no profane136 eye to fall upon his manuscript. He eluded137 their persistence138 and entrusted the precious pages to a box which he could secure under lock and key. A conspiracy139 was formed. They wanted to know what he had been writing all this time with such serious intent that nothing could take his attention from it. During a recreation period Honore was copying, as usual, some extra lines as a punishment. A turbulent troupe140 invaded the classroom and flung themselves upon the box which concealed141 the manuscript. They wanted to know and they were going to know! Honore defended the box energetically, for it was his heart and brain which they wanted to know, it was all his knowledge and beautiful dreams that they wished to lay bare to the light of day. There followed a veritable battle around that little wooden casket. Attracted by the outcries of the assailants, one of the masters, Father Haugoult, arrived in the midst of the tumult90. Balzac’s crime was proclaimed, he was hiding papers in his box and refused to show them. The master straightway ordered this bad pupil to surrender these secret and forbidden writings. Honore could not do otherwise than obey, for the box would be broken open if he did not unlock it of his own accord; so, with trembling hands, he despoiled142 himself of his treasures.
With careless fingers the master fumbled143 over the manuscript and with an air of disdain and a voice of severity summed up the case against this bad pupil:
“And it was for the sake of such nonsense that you have been neglecting your duties!”
Honore held back his tears, profoundly hurt at this blow to his dreams and his creative pride; but he retained a confused sense of injustice144 and a conviction of the superior quality of his work.
He had now been at the Vendome school for more than six years, and had given himself up to a prodigious amount of work, the extent of which no one even suspected. He had grown thin and pallid145 and half dazed, intoxicated146 with the ideas which whirled within his brain without system or order. He seemed to be attacked by some grave malady147, the cause of which could not be explained. The director of the school, M. Mareschal Duplessis, became anxious and wrote to the boy’s parents to come and take him out of school. They came post-haste. Honore was apparently148 in a somnambulistic state, hardly answering the questions put to him; his features were drawn149 and haggard, for he had been carrying too heavy a burden of readings, feelings and thoughts. His family could no more understand than his masters did the origin of his strange disorder150. And Mme. Sallambier, who had come to live with her daughter at Tours, after the death of her husband in 1804, summed up the opinion of the family:
“That is the state in which the schools give us back the fine children that we send them!”
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judgment
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posterity
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indefatigable
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controversies
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discourse
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rumours
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haze
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rue
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augment
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brilliance
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dwelling
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pointed
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celebrated
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descended
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necessitated
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ministry
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possessed
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consternation
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cravat
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complexion
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determined
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rugged
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dominant
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conspicuously
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variance
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placid
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bourgeois
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spoke
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justified
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appellation
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caustic
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| adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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34
teeming
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| adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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35
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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36
disciple
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| n.信徒，门徒，追随者 | |
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37
eugenic
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| adj.优生的 | |
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38
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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39
sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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40
invalids
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| 病人，残疾者( invalid的名词复数 ) | |
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41
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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42
longevity
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| n.长命；长寿 | |
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43
equilibrium
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| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
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44
squandered
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| v.（指钱，财产等）浪费，乱花( squander的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
imperturbably
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| adv.泰然地，镇静地，平静地 | |
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46
chivalry
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| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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47
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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48
originality
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| n.创造力，独创性；新颖 | |
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49
assassinations
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| n.暗杀( assassination的名词复数 ) | |
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50
equestrian
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| adj.骑马的；n.马术 | |
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51
perpetuate
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| v.使永存，使永记不忘 | |
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52
commemorate
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| vt.纪念，庆祝 | |
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53
administrator
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| n.经营管理者，行政官员 | |
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54
remunerative
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| adj.有报酬的 | |
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55
consecrate
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| v.使圣化，奉…为神圣；尊崇；奉献 | |
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56
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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57
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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58
ironies
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| n.反语( irony的名词复数 )；冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事；嘲弄 | |
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59
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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60
witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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61
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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62
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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63
overcast
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| adj.阴天的，阴暗的，愁闷的；v.遮盖，（使）变暗，包边缝；n.覆盖，阴天 | |
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64
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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65
redeemed
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| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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66
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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67
bigotry
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| n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等 | |
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68
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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69
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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70
divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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71
paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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72
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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73
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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74
impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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75
overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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76
entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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77
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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78
recapitulated
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| v.总结，扼要重述( recapitulate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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79
reproofs
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| n.责备，责难，指责( reproof的名词复数 ) | |
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80
reproof
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| n.斥责，责备 | |
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81
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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82
mediocre
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| adj.平常的，普通的 | |
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83
negligent
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| adj.疏忽的；玩忽的；粗心大意的 | |
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84
caresses
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| 爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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85
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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86
exuberance
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| n.丰富；繁荣 | |
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87
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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88
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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89
Oratorian
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| n.奥拉托利会会友 | |
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90
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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91
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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92
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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93
kindliness
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| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
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94
impersonal
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| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
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95
laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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96
minions
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| n.奴颜婢膝的仆从( minion的名词复数 )；走狗；宠儿；受人崇拜者 | |
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97
hygiene
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| n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic） | |
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98
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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99
sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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100
apathetic
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| adj.冷漠的，无动于衷的 | |
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101
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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102
sluggish
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| adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的 | |
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103
margins
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| 边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数 | |
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104
disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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105
meditations
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| 默想( meditation的名词复数 )； 默念； 沉思； 冥想 | |
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106
thong
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| n.皮带；皮鞭；v.装皮带 | |
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107
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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108
austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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109
treatises
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| n.专题著作，专题论文，专著( treatise的名词复数 ) | |
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110
treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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111
philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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112
velocity
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| n.速度，速率 | |
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113
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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114
fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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115
gleaned
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| v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的过去式和过去分词 )；（收割后）拾穗 | |
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116
retrace
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| v.折回；追溯，探源 | |
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117
lucid
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| adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的 | |
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118
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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119
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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120
aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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121
taunts
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| 嘲弄的言语，嘲笑，奚落( taunt的名词复数 ) | |
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122
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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123
censure
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| v./n.责备；非难；责难 | |
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124
endearments
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| n.表示爱慕的话语，亲热的表示( endearment的名词复数 ) | |
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125
laboriously
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| adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地 | |
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126
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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127
epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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128
butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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129
fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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130
burrowed
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| v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的过去式和过去分词 )；翻寻 | |
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131
somber
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| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
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132
contraband
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| n.违禁品，走私品 | |
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133
ripened
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| v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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134
aspired
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| v.渴望，追求( aspire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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135
symbolic
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| adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的 | |
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136
profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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137
eluded
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| v.（尤指机敏地）避开( elude的过去式和过去分词 )；逃避；躲避；使达不到 | |
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138
persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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139
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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140
troupe
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| n.剧团，戏班；杂技团；马戏团 | |
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141
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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142
despoiled
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| v.掠夺，抢劫( despoil的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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143
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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144
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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145
pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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146
intoxicated
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| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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147
malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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148
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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149
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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150
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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