The tadpole3 Homo Tewler is an abject4 timid thing, a thing of flight and refuge, but with the metamorphosis into an adult specimen5 of the Primates6, quite a new series of later acquisitions break into the gathering7 personality. The apes, including the Hominida, left the monkeys and lemurs at an early stage and developed along a line of their own, into ego-centred combative8 creatures with a disposition9 to own all the universe within sight. Reluctantly Homo in his various species, has been forced into an uncongenial social life in the brief course of a million years or so. Yet still his fundamental nature remains10. Still he wants to feel successful, masterful, lord and owner of all he surveys, and if he can feel so, he will.
That is something much more persistently11 present than hunger or lust12, which are impulses that can be sated and suppressed for a time. But Homo craves13 for self-assertion and reassurances14 from the sprouting15 of his whiskers to his death rattle16. It is his natural resistance to the social envelopment17 that has happened to him, and which continues to restrain his anarchistic18 disposition. He never forgets about himself, never just grazes on like a sheep or nibbles19 like a rabbit.
It is unavoidable, and even if the breed of Homo Tewler rises presently to a point where it may indeed merit this name it has usurped20 so prematurely21, Homo sapiens, this conflict, the moral conflict, the need for education, for being trimmed to fit into social life which is the cause of all religion, will still be in it. It may be controlled, propitiated22, diverted and sublimated23, but it will be there. We must not indulge in prophecies and speculation24. In this book we are not concerned with that possible but improbable animal, Homo sapiens, who may rise indeed in revolt against old Mother Nature and try to wrest25 his destiny out of her hands. But we are dealing26 with an animal living far below the intellectual level of any such Satanic revolt. We are concerned with our specimen of Homo Tewler and his individual impulse to exist as emphatically as he could in society as he found it.
That amiable27 philosopher, Adler, dealing with problems of education and general behaviour rather than with sexual aberrations28, thrust much of the Freud–Jung psychology29 into a minor30 role, and concentrated upon what he called the “inferiority complex.” But he seems to have thought of it as something to a large extent curable, whereas in truth, with all the social Hominida, up to and including every living specimen of Homo Tewler, great or little or bond or free, it is an integral part of their make-up.
“I exist,” says this innate31 complex, “but do I exist importantly enough? Are these creatures about me getting the better of me, pushing in front of me? This I must not and cannot stand. Do they realise my existence?” This is something over and above every other urgency. It can blend with and pervade32 the sexual complex. Dogs, other social animals, betray an inferiority complex, but to nothing like the same extent as Homo. Edward Albert’s hatred33 of his college teachers and lecturers was one of its manifestations34. He detested35 concerts because he had to sit still while the performers, as he put it, “showed off.” He detested most of the people at a concert because they affected36 a discriminating37 taste for music and so got away with it. They were Beastly Prigs and so the wound was healed. Few conductors realise the little spots of hatred scattered38 through the audiences they dominate. Singers particularly, Edward Albert loathed39. He would have produced horrible parodies40 of the sounds they made had he dared. The dear old British B.B.C. at its virtuous41 outset tried to give the English Tewlers improving doses of classical music. The Tewlers in their millions protested with passion. What Edward Albert wanted was slave music that ministered to him, so that he could take possession of it, drum with his fingers, jig42 with his feet, vocalise as it went on, get up and caper43, stamp on it. That was a bit of all right.
And at Doober’s all the time, Edward Albert and all his kindred Tewlers without a solitary44 exception, each after his or her manner, sustained a continuous unconfessed struggle to assert themselves. There were differences in finesse45 and that was all. And the uneasy peace of the establishment was maintained by a continual give and take of resolute46 pretension47 and insincere mutual48 acquiescence49.
Thackeray was a novelist with a strange impulse towards truth-telling, and he wrote for a public that had to be propitiated and could be propitiated by the bare-faced flattery of inviting50 them to share his amusement at the foibles of other people. His Book of Snobs51, broadened out, embraced his unsuspecting public and himself and all mankind, and showed our universal effort to escape from insignificance52.
[But here a reader protests, quite a nice contented53 reader, with a twinkle in her eye. “Not quite universal,” she pleads. “There are people of good breeding who can be absolutely unpretentious. I admit the struggle. Nowadays one sees it all about one. In a time of shifting values, when no one knows his place, there is a vast amount of pushing and pretending. Some of it is quite ridiculous. I can’t help being amused. I laugh to myself. But so far as I am concerned, none of these things make the slightest difference to me. I can assure you. I’m just simply myself with everyone.”
To which the only possible reply is: “Exactly, Madam.”]
The development of self-assertion in Edward Albert’s mind throughout his teens was by no means confined to such simply negative reactions as his hatred of lecturers, classical music and singers. He was giving increased attention to the effectiveness of his personal appearance. He meditated54 suits, with a sub-purple glow, shirts, handkerchiefs and ties to correspond. Suppose, he thought, he got some gold cuff55 links, real gold, and just let his hand lie on the table. . . . They’d see.
Old Mr Blake, the erudite Frankincense, the young Indian, continued for the most part to treat him as an invisible man, but the women, he felt, noticed all these things. He was discovering a new use for women. They were interested in and affected by the clothing of the male. A new suit, a new cut of collar, a fresh tie — they saw it directly you came into the room. They looked at each other. He caught them at it. Thump56 was friendly, but he missed Edward Albert’s finer points.
Our hero was steadily57 becoming more unobjective and more autobiographical in his mind. When he went for a walk nowadays he found a new interest in the reflection of himself in oblique58 shop windows. He hardly ever looked at people. He looked for people who were looking at him. Sometimes he carried it off all right, but sometimes doubt would seize him and he would find himself uncertain about his steps and his hands became an encumbrance59. Then he felt he would like to go home at once and change his clothes,
In spite of these incidental failures he would plan fresh aggressions. He had a vision of coming into the dining-room at seven-thirty sharp, eating his dinner in a tremendous hurry and departing headlong — in faultless evening dress — to some high and unknown destination! That would make them think. He carne near to ordering that evening dress merely for the sake of that reverie,
But in truth Doober’s was far too occupied with its own individual schemes of aggression60 to notice the mental stresses and turmoil61 of our hero. They thought of him, when they thought of him at all, merely as a gawky, growing young man with a rather convulsive, guilty manner if spoken to suddenly, a definitely Cockney accent, and an odd taste in dress.
点击收听单词发音
1 insistence | |
n.坚持;强调;坚决主张 | |
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2 futile | |
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的 | |
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3 tadpole | |
n.[动]蝌蚪 | |
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4 abject | |
adj.极可怜的,卑屈的 | |
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5 specimen | |
n.样本,标本 | |
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6 primates | |
primate的复数 | |
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7 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
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8 combative | |
adj.好战的;好斗的 | |
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9 disposition | |
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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10 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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11 persistently | |
ad.坚持地;固执地 | |
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12 lust | |
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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13 craves | |
渴望,热望( crave的第三人称单数 ); 恳求,请求 | |
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14 reassurances | |
n.消除恐惧或疑虑( reassurance的名词复数 );恢复信心;使人消除恐惧或疑虑的事物;使人恢复信心的事物 | |
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15 sprouting | |
v.发芽( sprout的现在分词 );抽芽;出现;(使)涌现出 | |
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16 rattle | |
v.飞奔,碰响;激怒;n.碰撞声;拨浪鼓 | |
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17 envelopment | |
n.包封,封套 | |
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18 anarchistic | |
无政府主义的 | |
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19 nibbles | |
vt.& vi.啃,一点一点地咬(nibble的第三人称单数形式) | |
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20 usurped | |
篡夺,霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 ); 盗用; 篡夺,篡权 | |
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21 prematurely | |
adv.过早地,贸然地 | |
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22 propitiated | |
v.劝解,抚慰,使息怒( propitiate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23 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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24 speculation | |
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机 | |
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25 wrest | |
n.扭,拧,猛夺;v.夺取,猛扭,歪曲 | |
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26 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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27 amiable | |
adj.和蔼可亲的,友善的,亲切的 | |
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28 aberrations | |
n.偏差( aberration的名词复数 );差错;脱离常规;心理失常 | |
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29 psychology | |
n.心理,心理学,心理状态 | |
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30 minor | |
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修 | |
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31 innate | |
adj.天生的,固有的,天赋的 | |
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32 pervade | |
v.弥漫,遍及,充满,渗透,漫延 | |
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33 hatred | |
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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34 manifestations | |
n.表示,显示(manifestation的复数形式) | |
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35 detested | |
v.憎恶,嫌恶,痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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37 discriminating | |
a.有辨别能力的 | |
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38 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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39 loathed | |
v.憎恨,厌恶( loathe的过去式和过去分词 );极不喜欢 | |
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40 parodies | |
n.拙劣的模仿( parody的名词复数 );恶搞;滑稽的模仿诗文;表面上模仿得笨拙但充满了机智用来嘲弄别人作品的作品v.滑稽地模仿,拙劣地模仿( parody的第三人称单数 ) | |
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41 virtuous | |
adj.有品德的,善良的,贞洁的,有效力的 | |
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42 jig | |
n.快步舞(曲);v.上下晃动;用夹具辅助加工;蹦蹦跳跳 | |
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43 caper | |
v.雀跃,欢蹦;n.雀跃,跳跃;续随子,刺山柑花蕾;嬉戏 | |
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44 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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45 finesse | |
n.精密技巧,灵巧,手腕 | |
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46 resolute | |
adj.坚决的,果敢的 | |
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47 pretension | |
n.要求;自命,自称;自负 | |
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48 mutual | |
adj.相互的,彼此的;共同的,共有的 | |
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49 acquiescence | |
n.默许;顺从 | |
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50 inviting | |
adj.诱人的,引人注目的 | |
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51 snobs | |
(谄上傲下的)势利小人( snob的名词复数 ); 自高自大者,自命不凡者 | |
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52 insignificance | |
n.不重要;无价值;无意义 | |
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53 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
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54 meditated | |
深思,沉思,冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 ); 内心策划,考虑 | |
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55 cuff | |
n.袖口;手铐;护腕;vt.用手铐铐;上袖口 | |
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56 thump | |
v.重击,砰然地响;n.重击,重击声 | |
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57 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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58 oblique | |
adj.斜的,倾斜的,无诚意的,不坦率的 | |
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59 encumbrance | |
n.妨碍物,累赘 | |
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60 aggression | |
n.进攻,侵略,侵犯,侵害 | |
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61 turmoil | |
n.骚乱,混乱,动乱 | |
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