We made our first stage below Compiegne to Pont Sainte Maxence. I was abroad a little after six the next morning. The air was biting, and smelt1 of frost. In an open place a score of women wrangled2 together over the day's market; and the noise of their negotiation3 sounded thin and querulous like that of sparrows on a winter's morning. The rare passengers blew into their hands, and shuffled4 in their wooden shoes to set the blood agog5. The streets were full of icy shadow, although the chimneys were smoking overhead in golden sunshine. If you wake early enough at this season of the year, you may get up in December to break your fast in June.
I found my way to the church; for there is always something to see about a church, whether living worshippers or dead men's tombs; you find there the deadliest earnest, and the hollowest deceit; and even where it is not a piece of history, it will be certain to leak out some contemporary gossip. It was scarcely so cold in the church as it was without, but it looked colder. The white nave6 was positively7 arctic to the eye; and the tawdriness of a continental8 altar looked more forlorn than usual in the solitude9 and the bleak10 air. Two priests sat in the chancel, reading and waiting penitents11; and out in the nave, one very old woman was engaged in her devotions. It was a wonder how she was able to pass her beads12 when healthy young people were breathing in their palms and slapping their chest; but though this concerned me, I was yet more dispirited by the nature of her exercises. She went from chair to chair, from altar to altar, circumnavigating the church. To each shrine13 she dedicated14 an equal number of beads and an equal length of time. Like a prudent15 capitalist with a somewhat cynical16 view of the commercial prospect17, she desired to place her supplications in a great variety of heavenly securities. She would risk nothing on the credit of any single intercessor. Out of the whole company of saints and angels, not one but was to suppose himself her champion elect against the Great Assize! I could only think of it as a dull, transparent18 jugglery20, based upon unconscious unbelief.
She was as dead an old woman as ever I saw; no more than bone and parchment, curiously21 put together. Her eyes, with which she interrogated22 mine, were vacant of sense. It depends on what you call seeing, whether you might not call her blind. Perhaps she had known love: perhaps borne children, suckled them and given them pet names. But now that was all gone by, and had left her neither happier nor wiser; and the best she could do with her mornings was to come up here into the cold church and juggle19 for a slice of heaven. It was not without a gulp23 that I escaped into the streets and the keen morning air. Morning? why, how tired of it she would be before night! and if she did not sleep, how then? It is fortunate that not many of us are brought up publicly to justify24 our lives at the bar of threescore years and ten; fortunate that such a number are knocked opportunely25 on the head in what they call the flower of their years, and go away to suffer for their follies26 in private somewhere else. Otherwise, between sick children and discontented old folk, we might be put out of all conceit27 of life.
I had need of all my cerebral28 hygiene29 during that day's paddle: the old devotee stuck in my throat sorely. But I was soon in the seventh heaven of stupidity; and knew nothing but that somebody was paddling a canoe, while I was counting his strokes and forgetting the hundreds. I used sometimes to be afraid I should remember the hundreds; which would have made a toil30 of a pleasure; but the terror was chimerical31, they went out of my mind by enchantment32, and I knew no more than the man in the moon about my only occupation.
At Creil, where we stopped to lunch, we left the canoes in another floating lavatory33, which, as it was high noon, was packed with washerwomen, red-handed and loud-voiced; and they and their broad jokes are about all I remember of the place. I could look up my history-books, if you were very anxious, and tell you a date or two; for it figured rather largely in the English wars. But I prefer to mention a girls' boarding-school, which had an interest for us because it was a girls' boarding-school, and because we imagined we had rather an interest for it. At least--there were the girls about the garden; and here were we on the river; and there was more than one handkerchief waved as we went by. It caused quite a stir in my heart; and yet how we should have wearied and despised each other, these girls and I, if we had been introduced at a croquet-party! But this is a fashion I love: to kiss the hand or wave a handkerchief to people I shall never see again, to play with possibility, and knock in a peg34 for fancy to hang upon. It gives the traveller a jog, reminds him that he is not a traveller everywhere, and that his journey is no more than a siesta35 by the way on the real march of life.
The church at Creil was a nondescript place in the inside, splashed with gaudy36 lights from the windows, and picked out with medallions of the Dolorous37 Way. But there was one oddity, in the way of an ex voto, which pleased me hugely: a faithful model of a canal boat, swung from the vault38, with a written aspiration39 that God should conduct the Saint Nicolas of Creil to a good haven40. The thing was neatly41 executed, and would have made the delight of a party of boys on the waterside. But what tickled42 me was the gravity of the peril43 to be conjured44. You might hang up the model of a sea-going ship, and welcome: one that is to plough a furrow45 round the world, and visit the tropic or the frosty poles, runs dangers that are well worth a candle and a mass. But the Saint Nicolas of Creil, which was to be tugged46 for some ten years by patient draught-horses, in a weedy canal, with the poplars chattering47 overhead, and the skipper whistling at the tiller; which was to do all its errands in green inland places, and never get out of sight of a village belfry in all its cruising; why, you would have thought if anything could be done without the intervention48 of Providence49, it would be that! But perhaps the skipper was a humorist: or perhaps a prophet, reminding people of the seriousness of life by this preposterous50 token.
At Creil, as at Noyon, Saint Joseph seemed a favourite saint on the score of punctuality. Day and hour can be specified51; and grateful people do not fail to specify52 them on a votive tablet, when prayers have been punctually and neatly answered. Whenever time is a consideration, Saint Joseph is the proper intermediary. I took a sort of pleasure in observing the vogue53 he had in France, for the good man plays a very small part in my religion at home. Yet I could not help fearing that, where the Saint is so much commanded for exactitude, he will be expected to be very grateful for his tablet.
This is foolishness to us Protestants; and not of great importance anyway. Whether people's gratitude54 for the good gifts that come to them be wisely conceived or dutifully expressed, is a secondary matter, after all, so long as they feel gratitude. The true ignorance is when a man does not know that he has received a good gift, or begins to imagine that he has got it for himself. The self-made man is the funniest windbag55 after all! There is a marked difference between decreeing light in chaos56, and lighting57 the gas in a metropolitan58 back-parlour with a box of patent matches; and do what we will, there is always something made to our hand, if it were only our fingers.
But there was something worse than foolishness placarded in Creil Church. The Association of the Living Rosary (of which I had never previously59 heard) is responsible for that. This Association was founded, according to the printed advertisement, by a brief of Pope Gregory Sixteenth, on the 17th of January 1832: according to a coloured bas-relief, it seems to have been founded, sometime other, by the Virgin60 giving one rosary to Saint Dominic, and the Infant Saviour61 giving another to Saint Catharine of Siena. Pope Gregory is not so imposing62, but he is nearer hand. I could not distinctly make out whether the Association was entirely63 devotional, or had an eye to good works; at least it is highly organised: the names of fourteen matrons and misses were filled in for each week of the month as associates, with one other, generally a married woman, at the top for zelatrice: the leader of the band. Indulgences, plenary and partial, follow on the performance of the duties of the Association. 'The partial indulgences are attached to the recitation of the rosary.' On 'the recitation of the required dizaine,' a partial indulgence promptly64 follows. When people serve the kingdom of heaven with a pass-book in their hands, I should always be afraid lest they should carry the same commercial spirit into their dealings with their fellow-men, which would make a sad and sordid65 business of this life.
There is one more article, however, of happier import. 'All these indulgences,' it appeared, 'are applicable to souls in purgatory66.' For God's sake, ye ladies of Creil, apply them all to the souls in purgatory without delay! Burns would take no hire for his last songs, preferring to serve his country out of unmixed love. Suppose you were to imitate the exciseman, mesdames, and even if the souls in purgatory were not greatly bettered, some souls in Creil upon the Oise would find themselves none the worse either here or hereafter.
I cannot help wondering, as I transcribe67 these notes, whether a Protestant born and bred is in a fit state to understand these signs, and do them what justice they deserve; and I cannot help answering that he is not. They cannot look so merely ugly and mean to the faithful as they do to me. I see that as clearly as a proposition in Euclid. For these believers are neither weak nor wicked. They can put up their tablet commanding Saint Joseph for his despatch68, as if he were still a village carpenter; they can 'recite the required dizaine,' and metaphorically69 pocket the indulgence, as if they had done a job for Heaven; and then they can go out and look down unabashed upon this wonderful river flowing by, and up without confusion at the pin-point stars, which are themselves great worlds full of flowing rivers greater than the Oise. I see it as plainly, I say, as a proposition in Euclid, that my Protestant mind has missed the point, and that there goes with these deformities some higher and more religious spirit than I dream.
I wonder if other people would make the same allowances for me! Like the ladies of Creil, having recited my rosary of toleration, I look for my indulgence on the spot.
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smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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wrangled
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| v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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negotiation
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| n.谈判，协商 | |
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shuffled
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| v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼 | |
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agog
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| adj.兴奋的，有强烈兴趣的； adv.渴望地 | |
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nave
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| n.教堂的中部；本堂 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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penitents
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| n.后悔者( penitent的名词复数 )；忏悔者 | |
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beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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shrine
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| n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣 | |
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dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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juggle
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| v.变戏法，纂改，欺骗，同时做；n.玩杂耍，纂改，花招 | |
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jugglery
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| n.杂耍，把戏 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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interrogated
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| v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询 | |
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gulp
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| vt.吞咽，大口地吸（气）；vi.哽住；n.吞咽 | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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opportunely
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| adv.恰好地，适时地 | |
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follies
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| 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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conceit
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| n.自负，自高自大 | |
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cerebral
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| adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的 | |
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hygiene
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| n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic） | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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chimerical
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| adj.荒诞不经的，梦幻的 | |
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enchantment
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| n.迷惑，妖术，魅力 | |
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lavatory
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| n.盥洗室，厕所 | |
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peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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siesta
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| n.午睡 | |
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gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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dolorous
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| adj.悲伤的；忧愁的 | |
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vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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aspiration
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| n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出 | |
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haven
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| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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42
tickled
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| （使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐 | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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44
conjured
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| 用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现 | |
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45
furrow
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| n.沟；垄沟；轨迹；车辙；皱纹 | |
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46
tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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48
intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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49
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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50
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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51
specified
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| adj.特定的 | |
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52
specify
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| vt.指定，详细说明 | |
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53
Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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54
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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55
windbag
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| n.风囊，饶舌之人，好说话的人 | |
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56
chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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57
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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metropolitan
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| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
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59
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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62
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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66
purgatory
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| n.炼狱；苦难；adj.净化的，清洗的 | |
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67
transcribe
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| v.抄写，誉写；改编(乐曲)；复制，转录 | |
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68
despatch
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| n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道 | |
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metaphorically
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| adv. 用比喻地 | |
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