The shorn grass sloped gently downward from the windows till it met the broad level on which stood, in clumps4, or solitarily5 scattered6, some of the noblest timber in England. Hoar in the moonbeams stood those graceful7 trees casting their moveless shadows upon the grass, and in the background crowning the undulations of the distance, in masses, were piled those woods among which lay the solitary8 tomb where the remains9 of my beloved mother rested.
The air was still. The silvery vapour hung serenely10 on the far horizon, and the frosty stars blinked brightly. Everyone knows the effect of such a scene on a mind already saddened. Fancies and regrets float mistily11 in the dream, and the scene affects us with a strange mixture of memory and anticipation12, like some sweet old air heard in the distance. As my eyes rested on those, to me, funereal13 but glorious woods, which formed the background of the picture, my thoughts recurred14 to my father’s mysterious intimations and the image of the approaching visitor; and the thought of the unknown journey saddened me.
In all that concerned his religion, from very early association, there was to me something of the unearthly and spectral15.
When my dear mamma died I was not nine years old; and I remember, two days before the funeral, there came to Knowl, where she died, a thin little man, with large black eyes, and a very grave, dark face.
He was shut up a good deal with my dear father, who was in deep affliction; and Mrs. Rusk used to say, “It is rather odd to see him praying with that little scarecrow from London, and good Mr. Clay ready at call, in the village; much good that little black whipper-snapper will do him!”
With that little black man, on the day after the funeral, I was sent out, for some reason, for a walk; my governess was ill, I know, and there was confusion in the house, and I dare say the maids made as much of a holiday as they could.
I remember feeling a sort of awe16 of this little dark man; but I was not afraid of him, for he was gentle, though sad — and seemed kind. He led me into the garden — the Dutch garden, we used to call it — with a balustrade, and statues at the farther front, laid out in a carpet-pattern of brilliantly-coloured flowers. We came down the broad flight of Caen stone steps into this, and we walked in silence to the balustrade. The base was too high at the spot where we reached it for me to see over; but holding my hand, he said, “Look through that, my child. Well, you can’t; but I can see beyond it — shall I tell you what? I see ever so much. I see a cottage with a steep roof, that looks like gold in the sunlight; there are tall trees throwing soft shadows round it, and flowering shrubs17, I can’t say what, only the colours are beautiful, growing by the walls and windows, and two little children are playing among the stems of the trees, and we are on our way there, and in a few minutes shall be under those trees ourselves, and talking to those little children. Yet now to me it is but a picture in my brain, and to you but a story told by me, which you believe. Come dear; let us be going.”
So we descended18 the steps at the right, and side by side walked along the grass lane between tall trim walls of evergreens19. The way was in deep shadow, for the sun was near the horizon; but suddenly we turned to the left, and there we stood in rich sunlight, among the many objects he had described.
“Is this your house, my little men?” he asked of the children — pretty little rosy20 boys — who assented21; and he leaned with his open hand against the stem of one of the trees, and with a grave smile he nodded down to me, saying —
“You see now, and hear, and feel for yourself that both the vision and the story were quite true; but come on, my dear, we have further to go.”
And relapsing into silence we had a long ramble22 through the wood, the same on which I was now looking in the distance. Every now and then he made me sit down to rest, and he in a musing23 solemn sort of way would relate some little story, reflecting, even to my childish mind, a strange suspicion of a spiritual meaning, but different from what honest Mrs. Rusk used to expound24 to me from the Parables25, and, somehow, startling in its very vagueness.
Thus entertained, though a little awfully26, I accompanied the dark mysterious little “whipper-snapper” through the woodland glades27. We came, to me quite unexpectedly, in the deep sylvan28 shadows, upon the grey, pillared temple, four-fronted, with a slanting29 pedestal of lichen-stained steps, the lonely sepulchre in which I had the morning before seen poor mamma laid. At the sight the fountains of my grief reopened, and I cried bitterly, repeating, “Oh! mamma, mamma, little mamma!” and so went on weeping and calling wildly on the deaf and the silent. There was a stone bench some ten steps away from the tomb.
“Sit down beside me, child!” said the grave man with the black eyes, very kindly30 and gently. “Now, what do you see there?” he asked, pointing horizontally with his stick towards the centre of the opposite structure.
“Oh, that — that place where poor mamma is?”
“Yes, a stone wall with pillars, too high for either you or me to see over. But ——”
Here he mentioned a name which I think must have been Swedenborg, from what I afterwards learnt of his tenets and revelations; I only know that it sounded to me like the name of a magician in a fairy tale; I fancied he lived in the wood which surrounded us, and I began to grow frightened as he proceeded.
“But Swedenborg sees beyond it, over, and through it, and has told me all that concerns us to know. He says your mamma is not there.”
“She is taken away!” I cried, starting up, and with streaming eyes, gazing on the building which, though I stamped my feet in my distraction31, I was afraid to approach. “Oh, is mamma taken away? Where is she? Where have they brought her to?”
I was uttering unconsciously very nearly the question with which Mary, in the grey of that wondrous32 morning on which she stood by the empty sepulchre, accosted33 the figure standing34 near.
“Your mamma is alive, but too far away to see or hear us; but Swedenborg, standing here, can see and hear her, and tells me all he sees, just as I told you in the garden about the little boys and the cottage, and the trees and flowers which you could not see, but believed in when I told you. So I can tell you now as I did then; and as we are both, I hope, walking on to the same place, just as we did to the trees and cottage, you will surely see with your own eyes how true is the description which I give you.”
I was very frightened, for I feared that when he had done his narrative35 we were to walk on through the wood into that place of wonders and of shadows where the dead are visible.
He leaned his elbow on his knee, and his forehead on his hand, which shaded his downcast eyes, and in that attitude described to me a beautiful landscape, radiant with a wondrous light, in which, rejoicing, my mother moved along an airy path, ascending36 among mountains of fantastic height, and peaks, melting in celestial37 colouring into the air, and peopled with human beings translated into the same image, beauty, and splendour. And when he had ended his relation, he rose, took my hand, and smiling gently down on my pale, wondering face, he said in the same words he had spoken before —
“Come, dear, let us be going.”
“Oh! no, no, no — not now,” I said, resisting, and very much frightened.
“Home, I mean, dear. We cannot walk to the place I have described. We can only reach it through the gate of death, to which we are all tending, young and old, with sure steps.”
“And where is the gate of death?” I asked in a sort of whisper, as we walked together, holding his hand very fast, and looking stealthily. He smiled sadly and said —
“When, sooner or later, the time comes, as Hagar’s eyes were opened in the wilderness38, and she beheld39 a fountain of water, so shall each of us see the door open before us, and enter in and be refreshed.”
For a long time after this walk I was very nervous; the more so for the awful manner in which Mrs. Rusk received my statement — with stern lips and upturned hands and eyes, and an angry expostulation: “I do wonder at you, Mary Quince, letting the child walk into the wood with that limb of darkness. It is a mercy he did not show her the devil, or frighten her out of her senses, in that lonely place!”
Of these Swedenborgians, indeed, I know no more than I might learn from good Mrs. Rusk’s very inaccurate40 talk. Two or three of them crossed in the course of my early life, like magic-lantern figures, the disk of my very circumscribed41 observation. All outside was and is darkness. I once tried to read one of their books upon the future state — heaven and hell; but I grew after a day or two so nervous that I laid it aside. It is enough for me to know that their founder42 either saw or fancied he saw amazing visions, which, so far from superseding43, confirmed and interpreted the language of the Bible; and as dear papa accepted their ideas, I am happy in thinking that they did not conflict with the supreme44 authority of holy writ45.
Leaning on my hand, I was now looking upon that solemn wood, white and shadowy in the moonlight, where, for a long time after that ramble with the visionary, I fancied the gate of death, hidden only by a strange glamour46, and the dazzling land of ghosts, were situate; and I suppose these earlier associations gave to my reverie about my father’s coming visitor a wilder and a sadder tinge47.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
detailed
|
|
| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
melancholy
|
|
| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
admiration
|
|
| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
clumps
|
|
| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
solitarily
|
|
| adv.独自一人地，寂寞地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
scattered
|
|
| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
graceful
|
|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
solitary
|
|
| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
serenely
|
|
| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
mistily
|
|
| adv.有雾地，朦胧地，不清楚地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
anticipation
|
|
| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
funereal
|
|
| adj.悲哀的；送葬的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
recurred
|
|
| 再发生，复发( recur的过去式和过去分词 )； 治愈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
spectral
|
|
| adj.幽灵的，鬼魂的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
awe
|
|
| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
shrubs
|
|
| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
evergreens
|
|
| n.常青树，常绿植物，万年青( evergreen的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
rosy
|
|
| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
assented
|
|
| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
ramble
|
|
| v.漫步，漫谈，漫游；n.漫步，闲谈，蔓延 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
musing
|
|
| n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
expound
|
|
| v.详述；解释；阐述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
parables
|
|
| n.（圣经中的）寓言故事( parable的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
awfully
|
|
| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
glades
|
|
| n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
sylvan
|
|
| adj.森林的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
slanting
|
|
| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
distraction
|
|
| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
wondrous
|
|
| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
accosted
|
|
| v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
narrative
|
|
| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
ascending
|
|
| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
celestial
|
|
| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
wilderness
|
|
| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
beheld
|
|
| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
inaccurate
|
|
| adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
circumscribed
|
|
| adj.[医]局限的：受限制或限于有限空间的v.在…周围划线( circumscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；划定…范围；限制；限定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
Founder
|
|
| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
superseding
|
|
| 取代，接替( supersede的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
supreme
|
|
| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
writ
|
|
| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
glamour
|
|
| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
tinge
|
|
| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |