Foremost for good amongst all whom I knew was Zachary Palmer, the village carpenter, a man whose aged4 and labour-warped body contained the simplest and purest of spirits. Yet his simplicity5 was by no means the result of ignorance, for from the teachings of Plato to those of Hobbes there were few systems ever thought out by man which he had not studied and weighed. Books were far dearer in my boyhood than they are now, and carpenters were less well paid, but old Palmer had neither wife nor child, and spent little on food or raiment. Thus it came about that on the shelf over his bed he had a more choice collection of books — few as they were in number — than the squire6 or the parson, and these books he had read until he not only understood them himself, but could impart them to others.
This white-bearded and venerable village philosopher would sit by his cabin door upon a summer evening, and was never so pleased as when some of the young fellows would slip away from their bowls and their quoit-playing in order to lie in the grass at his feet, and ask him questions about the great men of old, their words and their deeds. But of all the youths I and Reuben Lockarby, the innkeeper’s son, were his two favourites, for we would come the earliest and stop the latest to hear the old man talk. No father could have loved his children better than he did us, and he would spare no pains to get at our callow thoughts, and to throw light upon whatever perplexed7 or troubled us. Like all growing things, we had run our heads against the problem of the universe. We had peeped and pryed with our boyish eyes into those profound depths in which the keenest-sighted of the human race had seen no bottom. Yet when we looked around us in our own village world, and saw the bitterness and rancour which pervaded8 every sect9, we could not but think that a tree which bore such fruit must have something amiss with it. This was one of the thoughts unspoken to our parents which we carried to good old Zachary, and on which he had much to say which cheered and comforted us.
‘These janglings and wranglings,’ said he, ‘are but on the surface, and spring from the infinite variety of the human mind, which will ever adapt a creed10 to suit its own turn of thought. It is the solid core that underlies11 every Christian12 creed which is of importance. Could you but live among the Romans or the Greeks, in the days before this new doctrine13 was preached, you would then know the change that it has wrought14 in the world. How this or that text should be construed15 is a matter of no moment, however warm men may get over it. What is of the very greatest moment is, that every man should have a good and solid reason for living a simple, cleanly life. This the Christian creed has given us.’
‘I would not have you be virtuous16 out of fear,’ he said upon another occasion. ‘The experience of a long life has taught me, however, that sin is always punished in this world, whatever may come in the next. There is always some penalty in health, in comfort, or in peace of mind to be paid for every wrong. It is with nations as it is with individuals. A book of history is a book of sermons. See how the luxurious17 Babylonians were destroyed by the frugal18 Persians, and how these same Persians when they learned the vices20 of prosperity were put to the sword by the Greeks. Read on and mark how the sensual Greeks were trodden down by the more robust21 and hardier22 Romans, and finally how the Romans, having lost their manly23 virtues25, were subdued26 by the nations of the north. Vice19 and destruction came ever hand in hand. Thus did Providence27 use each in turn as a scourge28 wherewith to chastise29 the follies30 of the other. These things do not come by chance. They are part of a great system which is at work in your own lives. The longer you live the more you will see that sin and sadness are never far apart, and that no true prosperity can exist away from virtue24.’
A very different teacher was the sea-dog Solomon Sprent, who lived in the second last cottage on the left-hand side of the main street of the village. He was one of the old tarpaulin31 breed, who had fought under the red cross ensign against Frenchman, Don, Dutchman, and Moor32, until a round shot carried off his foot and put an end to his battles for ever. In person he was thin, and hard, and brown, as lithe33 and active as a cat, with a short body and very long arms, each ending in a great hand which was ever half closed as though shutting on a rope. From head to foot he was covered with the most marvellous tattooings, done in blue, red, and green, beginning with the Creation upon his neck and winding34 up with the Ascension upon his left ankle. Never have I seen such a walking work of art. He was wont35 to say that had he been owned and his body cast up upon some savage36 land, the natives might have learned the whole of the blessed gospel from a contemplation of his carcass. Yet with sorrow I must say that the seaman37’s religion appeared to have all worked into his skin, so that very little was left for inner use. It had broken out upon the surface, like the spotted38 fever, but his system was clear of it elsewhere. He could swear in eleven languages and three-and-twenty dialects, nor did he ever let his great powers rust39 for want of practice. He would swear when he was happy or when he was sad, when he was angry or when he was loving, but this swearing was so mere40 a trick of speech, without malice41 or bitterness, that even my father could hardly deal harshly with the sinner. As time passed, however, the old man grew more sober and more thoughtful, until in his latter days he went back to the simple beliefs of his childhood, and learned to fight the devil with the same steady courage with which he had faced the enemies of his country.
Old Solomon was a never-failing source of amusement and of interest to my friend Lockarby and myself. On gala days he would have us in to dine with him, when he would regale42 us with lobscouse and salmagundi, or perhaps with an outland dish, a pillaw or olla podrida, or fish broiled43 after the fashion of the Azores, for he had a famous trick of cooking, and could produce the delicacies44 of all nations. And all the time that we were with him he would tell us the most marvellous stories of Rupert, under whom he served; how he would shout from the poop to his squadron to wheel to the right, or to charge, or to halt, as the case might be, as if he were still with his regiment45 of horse. Of Blake, too, he had many stories to tell. But even the name of Blake was not so dear to our old sailor as was that of Sir Christopher Mings. Solomon had at one time been his coxswain, and could talk by the hour of those gallant46 deeds which had distinguished47 him from the day that he entered the navy as a cabin boy until he fell upon his own quarter-deck, a full admiral of the red, and was borne by his weeping ship’s company to his grave in Chatham churchyard. ‘If so be as there’s a jasper sea up aloft,’ said the old seaman, ‘I’ll wager48 that Sir Christopher will see that the English flag has proper respect paid to it upon it, and that we are not fooled by foreigners. I’ve served under him in this world, and I ask nothing better than to be his coxswain in the next — if so be as he should chance to have a vacancy49 for such.’ These remembrances would always end in the brewing50 of an extra bowl of punch, and the drinking of a solemn bumper51 to the memory of the departed hero.
Stirring as were Solomon Sprent’s accounts of his old commanders, their effect upon us was not so great as when, about his second or third glass, the floodgates of his memory would be opened, and he would pour out long tales of the lands which he had visited, and the peoples which he had seen. Leaning forward in our seats with our chins resting upon our hands, we two youngsters would sit for hours, with our eyes fixed52 upon the old adventurer, drinking in his words, while he, pleased at the interest which he excited, would puff53 slowly at his pipe and reel off story after story of what he had seen or done. In those days, my dears, there was no Defoe to tell us the wonders of the world, no Spectator to lie upon our breakfast table, no Gulliver to satisfy our love of adventure by telling us of such adventures as never were. Not once in a month did a common newsletter fall into our hands. Personal hazards, therefore, were of more value then than they are now, and the talk of a man like old Solomon was a library in itself. To us it was all real. His husky tones and ill-chosen words were as the voice of an angel, and our eager minds filled in the details and supplied all that was wanting in his narratives54. In one evening we have engaged a Sallee rover off the Pillars of Hercules; we have coasted down the shores of the African continent, and seen the great breakers of the Spanish Main foaming55 upon the yellow sand; we have passed the black ivory merchants with their human cargoes56; we have faced the terrible storms which blow ever around the Cape57 de Boa Esperanza; and finally, we have sailed away out over the great ocean beyond, amid the palm-clad coral islands, with the knowledge that the realms of Prester John lie somewhere behind the golden haze58 which shimmers59 upon the horizon. After such a flight as that we would feel, as we came back to the Hampshire village and the dull realities of country life, like wild birds who had been snared60 by the fowler and clapped into narrow cages. Then it was that the words of my father, ‘You will find your wings some day and fly away,’ would come back to me, and set up such a restlessness as all the wise words of Zachary Palmer could not allay61.
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1 prologue | |
n.开场白,序言;开端,序幕 | |
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2 ERECTED | |
adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立 | |
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3 intercourse | |
n.性交;交流,交往,交际 | |
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4 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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5 simplicity | |
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯 | |
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6 squire | |
n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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7 perplexed | |
adj.不知所措的 | |
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8 pervaded | |
v.遍及,弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9 sect | |
n.派别,宗教,学派,派系 | |
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10 creed | |
n.信条;信念,纲领 | |
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11 underlies | |
v.位于或存在于(某物)之下( underlie的第三人称单数 );构成…的基础(或起因),引起 | |
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12 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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13 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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14 wrought | |
v.引起;以…原料制作;运转;adj.制造的 | |
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15 construed | |
v.解释(陈述、行为等)( construe的过去式和过去分词 );翻译,作句法分析 | |
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16 virtuous | |
adj.有品德的,善良的,贞洁的,有效力的 | |
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17 luxurious | |
adj.精美而昂贵的;豪华的 | |
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18 frugal | |
adj.节俭的,节约的,少量的,微量的 | |
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19 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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20 vices | |
缺陷( vice的名词复数 ); 恶习; 不道德行为; 台钳 | |
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21 robust | |
adj.强壮的,强健的,粗野的,需要体力的,浓的 | |
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22 hardier | |
能吃苦耐劳的,坚强的( hardy的比较级 ); (植物等)耐寒的 | |
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23 manly | |
adj.有男子气概的;adv.男子般地,果断地 | |
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24 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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25 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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26 subdued | |
adj. 屈服的,柔和的,减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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27 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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28 scourge | |
n.灾难,祸害;v.蹂躏 | |
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29 chastise | |
vt.责骂,严惩 | |
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30 follies | |
罪恶,时事讽刺剧; 愚蠢,蠢笨,愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
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31 tarpaulin | |
n.涂油防水布,防水衣,防水帽 | |
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32 moor | |
n.荒野,沼泽;vt.(使)停泊;vi.停泊 | |
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33 lithe | |
adj.(指人、身体)柔软的,易弯的 | |
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34 winding | |
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
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35 wont | |
adj.习惯于;v.习惯;n.习惯 | |
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36 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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37 seaman | |
n.海员,水手,水兵 | |
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38 spotted | |
adj.有斑点的,斑纹的,弄污了的 | |
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39 rust | |
n.锈;v.生锈;(脑子)衰退 | |
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40 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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41 malice | |
n.恶意,怨恨,蓄意;[律]预谋 | |
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42 regale | |
v.取悦,款待 | |
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43 broiled | |
a.烤过的 | |
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44 delicacies | |
n.棘手( delicacy的名词复数 );精致;精美的食物;周到 | |
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45 regiment | |
n.团,多数,管理;v.组织,编成团,统制 | |
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46 gallant | |
adj.英勇的,豪侠的;(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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47 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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48 wager | |
n.赌注;vt.押注,打赌 | |
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49 vacancy | |
n.(旅馆的)空位,空房,(职务的)空缺 | |
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50 brewing | |
n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式 | |
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51 bumper | |
n.(汽车上的)保险杠;adj.特大的,丰盛的 | |
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52 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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53 puff | |
n.一口(气);一阵(风);v.喷气,喘气 | |
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54 narratives | |
记叙文( narrative的名词复数 ); 故事; 叙述; 叙述部分 | |
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55 foaming | |
adj.布满泡沫的;发泡 | |
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56 cargoes | |
n.(船或飞机装载的)货物( cargo的名词复数 );大量,重负 | |
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57 cape | |
n.海角,岬;披肩,短披风 | |
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58 haze | |
n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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59 shimmers | |
n.闪闪发光,发微光( shimmer的名词复数 )v.闪闪发光,发微光( shimmer的第三人称单数 ) | |
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60 snared | |
v.用罗网捕捉,诱陷,陷害( snare的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61 allay | |
v.消除,减轻(恐惧、怀疑等) | |
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