With Stella Binny Mrs. Rylands discussed theology. The green leather book had been planned on generous lines to open with metaphysical and religious ideas. Stella had just been received in the Catholic Church and had arrived in a phase of shy proselytism. So naturally both ladies converged9 on a common preoccupation.
But if they converged they never met. When at last Stella took her unremarkable departure for England and Mrs. Rylands could think over all that had passed between them as one whole, she was impressed by that failure to meet, more than by anything else in their arguments and comparisons. In some quite untraceable way the idea of God as of a great being comprehending the universe and pervading10 every fibre of her existence had crept into her mind during the past month or so. It was as if He had always been there in her mind and yet as if He was only now becoming near and perceptible. So long as she had been in her first phase of love for Philip she had hardly given this presence a thought; now in the new phase that was developing, the presence presided. It was something profoundly still, something absolutely permanent, which embraced all her life and Philip and everything in her consciousness out to the uttermost star. But when she set herself to compare this gathering11 apprehension12 of God with Stella’s happy lucidities about her new faith, she found herself looking into a mental world that had not an idea nor a meaning in common with her own.
Indeed her impression was that Stella’s religion, so far from being of the same nature as her own, was nothing more than a huge furniture store of screens, hangings, painted windows, curtains and walls, ornaments13 and bric-à-brac, to banish14 and hide this one thing that constituted her own whole faith. This cosmic certitude, this simplicity15 beneath diversity, this absolute reassurance16 amidst perplexity and confusion, this profound intimacy17, had nothing in common with the docketed Incomprehensible of Stella’s pious18 activities, who was locked away in some steel safe of dogmas, far away from the music and decorations. Stella became defensive19 and elusive20 directly Mrs. Rylands spoke21 of God. She gave her to understand that the Mysteries of the Being of God were unthinkable things, an affair for specialists, to be entrusted22 to specialists and left to specialists, like the mysteries discussed by Mr. Einstein. The good Roman Catholic hurried past them with a bowed head and averted23 eyes to deal with other things.
But Mrs. Rylands had not the slightest desire to deal with these other things. She found them not merely unattractive; she found them tiresome24 and even in some aspects repulsive25. She had no taste for bric-à-brac in the soul. She wanted God herself. Belonging to a Church whose Holy Father conceivably stood in the presence of God, was no satisfaction to her. She herself wanted to stand in the presence of God. So far as Stella could be argued with upon this question, she argued with her about the Mass. “It brings one near. It is the ultimate nearness,” said Stella, dropping her voice to a whisper. “It would take me a billion miles away,” said Mrs. Rylands. She was naughty about the Mass and did her best to shock her friend. “I don’t want to eat God,” she blasphemed. “I want to know him.” She said that invoking26 the spirit by colours and garments and music reminded her of the hiving of swarming27 bees. She objected scornfully to the necessary priest. “God is hard enough to realise,” she said, “without the intervention28 of a shaven individual in petticoats — however symbolic29 his petticoats and his shaven face may be.” She recalled some crumbs30 of erudition that had fallen from the table of the parental31 vicarage and cited parallelisms between the old Egyptian religions and religious procedure and the Catholic faith and practice. She hunted out controversial material from the Encyclop?dia Britannica. And from more destructive sources.
The miscellaneous literary accumulations of Casa Terragena included several volumes about Catholic mysticism, and among others one or two books by Saint Teresa and the Life and Revelations of Saint Gertrude with many details of her extremely physical kissings and caressings with her “adorable lover.” There was also Houtin’s account of the marvellous experiences of the sainted Abbess of Solesmes, who died so recently as 1909. Mrs. Rylands had dipped in these strange records and now she returned to them for ammunition32. She read the blushing Stella how every Christmas Eve, the latter lady and her spiritual daughters gave the breast, with a great physical excitement, to the infant Jesus, and how her spiritual sons were afterwards rewarded by derivative33 ecstasies34 when their sisters described to them “the chaste35 emotions of this virginal milking.”
“Where, my dear,” cried Cynthia, “is God, the Wonderful, the Everlasting36, in ecstasies like that?”
Stella was ill instructed as yet in the new faith she had embraced. But she had learnt the lesson of confidence in the authorities into whose hands she had given herself. “All this can be explained. . . . It is a special side of the faith.”
Mrs. Rylands propounding37 fresh perplexities had suddenly become aware that there was distress38 in her friend’s voice, in her eyes, in her flushed face. Things had appeared in a changed light. Stella was large and very blonde, a creature so gentle that abruptly39, as the tears showed in her eyes and the note of fear betrayed itself in her voice, her little hostess had seen herself like a fierce little rationalist ferret, tackling this white rabbit of faith. Surely she had not been discussing great religious ideas at all. How could one discuss such things with Stella? She had simply been spoiling a new toy that had been making her friend very happy. “Oh Stella dear! Forgive my troubling you with my elementary doubts,” she had said. “I am very crude and ignorant. I know it, my dear. Of course there must be explanations.”
Stella dissolved in gratitude40.
“Of course there are explanations. If only you could talk to men like Cardinal41 Amontillado, you would realise how explicable all these things are. They make it so clear. But I’m not clever nor trained.”
“I was just asking,” Mrs. Rylands had apologised.
“Some things of course are simply given us to try our faith,” Stella had said.
And Mrs. Rylands had changed the subject with the happy discovery of two pretty little birds flirting42 in a rose-brake.
Now however that Stella had gone Mrs. Rylands could look back on all their disputations and utter her matured and final verdict upon the great system that had embraced and taken possession of her friend. And it has to be recorded that the matured and final verdict of Mrs. Rylands upon Roman Catholic Christianity, its orders and subjugations, its gifts and consolations43, its saints and mysteries and marvels44 and the enduring miracle of its existence, was delivered in one single word: Rubbish. “Rubbish,” she said — aloud and distinctly as though she had hearers. She said it aloud as she walked in the darkness of her garden after dinner. As one might rehearse a one word part. Mrs. McManus no doubt was hovering46, but she could hover45 so skilfully47 and tactfully that it seemed to Mrs. Rylands that she was entirely48 by herself.
With this word given out to the night Mrs. Rylands asserted her tested and inalterable Protestantism, her resolution to keep the idea of God clean from all traces of primordial49 rites50, of sublimated51 sensuality and wrappings of complication, and her relations with God simple and direct. God might be invisible, indescribable, veiled so deep in mystery as to be altogether undiscoverable, but at any rate He should not be caricatured in mysticism, worshipped in effigy52 and made the mouthpiece of authority. Better the Atheist53 who says there is nothing than the Catholic who says there is such stuff as altars are made of.
And with that word of dismissal Mrs. Rylands ceased to think about Roman Catholicism and fell into a deep meditation54 upon the mystery and majesty55 of her God.
Her God, that Being was; the frame and substance of her universe of which and by which all its things were made; the mighty56 essential reassurance of her particular mind. He was everywhere, but for her His seat was in her spirit and His centre was her heart. He had come as imperceptibly as a dawn and her life had ceased to be an?mic and dispersed57 and purposeless with His coming. Everything was suffused58 with tone and beauty because of Him. He had dawned upon her not as a dawn of light, for she knew no more than she had ever known, but as a dawn of courage. She perceived she could have as soon called him “Courage” as called him “God.” The courage of the earth and skies. A courage mighty beyond thinking and yet friendly and near. No Name he had, nor need for a name; no prayers nor method of approach. His utmost worship was a wordless quiet. But in such stillness and black clearness as this night gave, under the laced loveliness of the star-entangling branches, he seemed to be very close indeed to her.
Dreaming, drenched59 in worship and the sense of communion, Mrs. Rylands walked in her garden. The familiar paths just intimated themselves in the obscurity sufficiently60 to guide her steps. One serene61 planet high in the blue heaven was the most definite thing in that world of shadows and obscurity.
The little white figure came to rest and stood quite motionless upon the bridge where Mr. Plantagenet-Buchan had discovered the flamboyant62 quality of the gorge63, but to-night, now that the moon rose late, all that ascendant clamour of lines was veiled under one universal curtain of velvet64 shadow. Far, far above, minute cascades65 caught a faint glimmer66 from the depth of the sky, and plunged67 into an abyss of darkness.
For a long time she remained there and her soul knelt and was comforted.
At last she stirred and went slowly down a slanting68 path that led towards the Via Aurelia, a path that in its windings69 up and down and round about, gave little glimpses between the trees now of Ventimiglia and now of the stars.
点击收听单词发音
1 marionette | |
n.木偶 | |
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2 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
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3 conquerors | |
征服者,占领者( conqueror的名词复数 ) | |
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4 musing | |
n. 沉思,冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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5 reminders | |
n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 );提醒…的东西;(告知该做某事的)通知单;提示信 | |
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6 caressed | |
爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7 peevish | |
adj.易怒的,坏脾气的 | |
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8 chunks | |
厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 ); (某物)相当大的数量或部分 | |
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9 converged | |
v.(线条、运动的物体等)会于一点( converge的过去式 );(趋于)相似或相同;人或车辆汇集;聚集 | |
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10 pervading | |
v.遍及,弥漫( pervade的现在分词 ) | |
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11 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
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12 apprehension | |
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑 | |
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13 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 ) | |
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14 banish | |
vt.放逐,驱逐;消除,排除 | |
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15 simplicity | |
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯 | |
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16 reassurance | |
n.使放心,使消除疑虑 | |
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17 intimacy | |
n.熟悉,亲密,密切关系,亲昵的言行 | |
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18 pious | |
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
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19 defensive | |
adj.防御的;防卫的;防守的 | |
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20 elusive | |
adj.难以表达(捉摸)的;令人困惑的;逃避的 | |
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21 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 | |
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22 entrusted | |
v.委托,托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23 averted | |
防止,避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 ); 转移 | |
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24 tiresome | |
adj.令人疲劳的,令人厌倦的 | |
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25 repulsive | |
adj.排斥的,使人反感的 | |
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26 invoking | |
v.援引( invoke的现在分词 );行使(权利等);祈求救助;恳求 | |
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27 swarming | |
密集( swarm的现在分词 ); 云集; 成群地移动; 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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28 intervention | |
n.介入,干涉,干预 | |
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29 symbolic | |
adj.象征性的,符号的,象征主义的 | |
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30 crumbs | |
int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
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31 parental | |
adj.父母的;父的;母的 | |
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32 ammunition | |
n.军火,弹药 | |
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33 derivative | |
n.派(衍)生物;adj.非独创性的,模仿他人的 | |
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34 ecstasies | |
狂喜( ecstasy的名词复数 ); 出神; 入迷; 迷幻药 | |
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35 chaste | |
adj.贞洁的;有道德的;善良的;简朴的 | |
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36 everlasting | |
adj.永恒的,持久的,无止境的 | |
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37 propounding | |
v.提出(问题、计划等)供考虑[讨论],提议( propound的现在分词 ) | |
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38 distress | |
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛 | |
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39 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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40 gratitude | |
adj.感激,感谢 | |
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41 cardinal | |
n.(天主教的)红衣主教;adj.首要的,基本的 | |
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42 flirting | |
v.调情,打情骂俏( flirt的现在分词 ) | |
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43 consolations | |
n.安慰,慰问( consolation的名词复数 );起安慰作用的人(或事物) | |
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44 marvels | |
n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 );令人惊奇的事物(或事例);不平凡的成果;成就v.惊奇,对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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45 hover | |
vi.翱翔,盘旋;徘徊;彷徨,犹豫 | |
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46 hovering | |
鸟( hover的现在分词 ); 靠近(某事物); (人)徘徊; 犹豫 | |
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47 skilfully | |
adv. (美skillfully)熟练地 | |
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48 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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49 primordial | |
adj.原始的;最初的 | |
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50 rites | |
仪式,典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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51 sublimated | |
v.(使某物质)升华( sublimate的过去式和过去分词 );使净化;纯化 | |
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52 effigy | |
n.肖像 | |
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53 atheist | |
n.无神论者 | |
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54 meditation | |
n.熟虑,(尤指宗教的)默想,沉思,(pl.)冥想录 | |
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55 majesty | |
n.雄伟,壮丽,庄严,威严;最高权威,王权 | |
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56 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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57 dispersed | |
adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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58 suffused | |
v.(指颜色、水气等)弥漫于,布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59 drenched | |
adj.湿透的;充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 );在某人(某物)上大量使用(某液体) | |
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60 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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61 serene | |
adj. 安详的,宁静的,平静的 | |
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62 flamboyant | |
adj.火焰般的,华丽的,炫耀的 | |
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63 gorge | |
n.咽喉,胃,暴食,山峡;v.塞饱,狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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64 velvet | |
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的 | |
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65 cascades | |
倾泻( cascade的名词复数 ); 小瀑布(尤指一连串瀑布中的一支); 瀑布状物; 倾泻(或涌出)的东西 | |
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66 glimmer | |
v.发出闪烁的微光;n.微光,微弱的闪光 | |
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67 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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68 slanting | |
倾斜的,歪斜的 | |
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69 windings | |
(道路、河流等)蜿蜒的,弯曲的( winding的名词复数 ); 缠绕( wind的现在分词 ); 卷绕; 转动(把手) | |
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