DURING the three or four succeeding years a quaint1 and singular vehicle might have been discerned moving along the lanes and by-roads near Marygreen, driven in a quaint and singular way.
In the course of a month or two after the receipt of the books Jude had grown callous2 to the shabby trick played him by the dead languages. In fact, his disappointment at the nature of those tongues had, after a while, been the means of still further glorifying3 the erudition of Christminster. To acquire languages, departed or living in spite of such obstinacies4 as he now knew them inherently to possess, was a herculean performance which gradually led him on to a greater interest in it than in the presupposed patent process. The mountain-weight of material under which the ideas lay in those dusty volumes called the classics piqued5 him into a dogged, mouselike subtlety6 of attempt to move it piecemeal7.
He had endeavoured to make his presence tolerable to his crusty maiden8 aunt by assisting her to the best of his ability, and the business of the little cottage bakery had grown in consequence. An aged10 horse with a hanging head had been purchased for eight pounds at a sale, a creaking cart with a whity-brown tilt11 obtained for a few pounds more, and in this turn-out it became Jude's business thrice a week to carry loaves of bread to the villagers and solitary12 cotters immediately round Marygreen.
The singularity aforesaid lay, after all, less in the conveyance13 itself than in Jude's manner of conducting it along its route. Its interior was the scene of most of Jude's education by "private study." As soon as the horse had learnt the road and the houses at which he was to pause awhile, the boy, seated in front, would slip the reins14 over his arm, ingeniously fix open, by means of a strap15 attached to the tilt, the volume he was reading, spread the dictionary on his knees, and plunge16 into the simpler passages from Caesar, Virgil, or Horace, as the case might be, in his purblind17 stumbling way, and with an expenditure18 of labour that would have made a tender-hearted pedagogue19 shed tears; yet somehow getting at the meaning of what he read, and divining rather than beholding20 the spirit of the original, which often to his mind was something else than that which he was taught to look for.
The only copies he had been able to lay hands on were old Delphin editions, because they were superseded21, and therefore cheap. But, bad for idle schoolboys, it did so happen that they were passably good for him. The hampered22 and lonely itinerant23 conscientiously24 covered up the marginal readings, and used them merely on points of construction, as he would have used a comrade or tutor who should have happened to be passing by. And though Jude may have had little chance of becoming a scholar by these rough and ready means, he was in the way of getting into the groove25 he wished to follow.
While he was busied with these ancient pages, which had already been thumbed by hands possibly in the grave, digging out the thoughts of these minds so remote yet so near, the bony old horse pursued his rounds, and Jude would be aroused from the woes26 of Dido by the stoppage of his cart and the voice of some old woman crying, "Two to-day, baker9, and I return this stale one."
He was frequently met in the lanes by pedestrians27 and others without his seeing them, and by degrees the people of the neighbourhood began to talk about his method of combining work and play (such they considered his reading to be), which, though probably convenient enough to himself, was not altogether a safe proceeding28 for other travellers along the same roads. There were murmurs29. Then a private resident of an adjoining place informed the local policeman that the baker's boy should not be allowed to read while driving, and insisted that it was the constable's duty to catch him in the act, and take him to the police court at Alfredston, and get him fined for dangerous practices on the highway. The policeman thereupon lay in wait for Jude, and one day accosted30 him and cautioned him.
As Jude had to get up at three o'clock in the morning to heat the oven, and mix and set in the bread that he distributed later in the day, he was obliged to go to bed at night immediately after laying the sponge; so that if he could not read his classics on the highways he could hardly study at all. The only thing to be done was, therefore, to keep a sharp eye ahead and around him as well as he could in the circumstances, and slip away his books as soon as anybody loomed31 in the distance, the policeman in particular. To do that official justice, he did not put himself much in the way of Jude's bread-cart, considering that in such a lonely district the chief danger was to Jude himself, and often on seeing the white tilt over the hedges he would move in another direction.
On a day when Fawley was getting quite advanced, being now about sixteen, and had been stumbling through the "Carmen Saeculare," on his way home, he found himself to be passing over the high edge of the plateau by the Brown House. The light had changed, and it was the sense of this which had caused him to look up. The sun was going down, and the full moon was rising simultaneously32 behind the woods in the opposite quarter. His mind had become so impregnated with the poem that, in a moment of the same impulsive33 emotion which years before had caused him to kneel on the ladder, he stopped the horse, alighted, and glancing round to see that nobody was in sight, knelt down on the roadside bank with open book. He turned first to the shiny goddess, who seemed to look so softly and critically at his doings, then to the disappearing luminary34 on the other hand, as he began:
"Phoebe silvarumque potens Diana!"
The horse stood still till he had finished the hymn35, which Jude repeated under the sway of a polytheistic fancy that he would never have thought of humouring in broad daylight.
Reaching home, he mused36 over his curious superstition37, innate38 or acquired, in doing this, and the strange forgetfulness which had led to such a lapse39 from common sense and custom in one who wished, next to being a scholar, to be a Christian40 divine. It had all come of reading heathen works exclusively. The more he thought of it the more convinced he was of his inconsistency. He began to wonder whether he could be reading quite the right books for his object in life. Certainly there seemed little harmony between this pagan literature and the mediaeval colleges at Christminster, that ecclesiastical romance in stone.
Ultimately he decided41 that in his sheer love of reading he had taken up a wrong emotion for a Christian young man. He had dabbled42 in Clarke's Homer, but had never yet worked much at the New Testament43 in the Greek, though he possessed44 a copy, obtained by post from a second-hand45 bookseller. He abandoned the now familiar Ionic for a new dialect, and for a long time onward46 limited his reading almost entirely47 to the Gospels and Epistles in Griesbach's text. Moreover, on going into Alfredston one day, he was introduced to patristic literature by finding at the bookseller's some volumes of the Fathers which had been left behind by an insolvent48 clergyman of the neighbourhood.
As another outcome of this change of groove he visited on Sundays all the churches within a walk, and deciphered the Latin inscriptions49 on fifteenth-century brasses50 and tombs. On one of these pilgrimages he met with a hunch-backed old woman of great intelligence, who read everything she could lay her hands on, and she told him more yet of the romantic charms of the city of light and lore51. Thither52 he resolved as firmly as ever to go.
But how live in that city? At present he had no income at all. He had no trade or calling of any dignity or stability whatever on which he could subsist53 while carrying out an intellectual labour which might spread over many years.
What was most required by citizens? Food, clothing, and shelter. An income from any work in preparing the first would be too meagre; for making the second he felt a distaste; the preparation of the third requisite54 he inclined to. They built in a city; therefore he would learn to build. He thought of his unknown uncle, his cousin Susanna's father, an ecclesiastical worker in metal, and somehow mediaeval art in any material was a trade for which he had rather a fancy. He could not go far wrong in following his uncle's footsteps, and engaging himself awhile with the carcases that contained the scholar souls.
As a preliminary he obtained some small blocks of freestone, metal not being available, and suspending his studies awhile, occupied his spare half-hours in copying the heads and capitals in his parish church.
There was a stone-mason of a humble55 kind in Alfredston, and as soon as he had found a substitute for himself in his aunt's little business, he offered his services to this man for a trifling56 wage. Here Jude had the opportunity of learning at least the rudiments57 of freestone-working. Some time later he went to a church-builder in the same place, and under the architect's direction became handy at restoring the dilapidated masonries of several village churches round about.
Not forgetting that he was only following up this handicraft as a prop58 to lean on while he prepared those greater engines which he flattered himself would be better fitted for him, he yet was interested in his pursuit on its own account. He now had lodgings59 during the week in the little town, whence he returned to Marygreen village every Saturday evening. And thus he reached and passed his nineteenth year.
其后连续三四年光景，在马利格林附近的篱路和少人走的乡下小道上，常常看到一辆样子希奇古怪的老旧运货小马车来来去去，赶车的样子也希奇古怪。
裘德收到文法书之后头一两月，对死了的语言捉弄他的卑鄙伎俩抱着深恶痛绝的态度。但是，他这种情绪实际上并没能维持多久。两种语言本身的特性固然令他失望，而失望转而促使他对心目中的基督堂的博大精深更加崇敬。现在他对死去的或者活着的语言的邃密艰深已经有所了解，可是真要掌握语言，那就非得有一股子“力拔山兮气盖世”的魄力不可。正是由于这样的认识逐渐引导他不再那么斤斤于先人为主、自以为独得之秘的路数，而是对语言本身产生莫大兴趣。在浩如烟海的载籍中有号称经典之作的尘封的书卷，其中蕴藏着往哲先贤的思想，这催他感激奋发，决心要学老鼠啃东西那样，精细人微而又坚持不懈地把那些著作一小块一小块地啃完方肯罢休。
他尽己所能帮姑婆做事，省得那位脾气不好的老处女老看他不顺眼。小房子的面包生意也就日渐兴隆了。在集市上大甩卖时候，他们花八英镑买了一匹耷拉着脑袋的老马，又花了几镑搞到一辆棕色篷子已经发白的嘎吱吱的运货小马车。经过这番变化，裘德一礼拜得三回给紧挨马利格林一带的乡亲和单身汉送面包。
前面说到希奇古怪，倒不一定限于那辆旧车，主要还是说裘德一路驾车的样子。车身子成了裘德通过“自学”方式受到教育的主要阵地。一等到老马识途，还知道该在哪家门口停下来，这孩子就在前座上坐定，缓绳挂在胳臂上，再拿一根带子，一头系在篷子上，一头把他念的书巧妙地固定好，然后把词典摊在膝头上，一路颠簸着，埋头读起恺撒、维吉尔和贺拉斯的比较容易点的篇章。那股子争分夺妙、苦苦用功的劲头，要是叫心肠软的教书先生看到，真要泫然涕下。他多少懂得了念的东西的大意，也多少估摸到而不是理解了原著的精义，可是就他在思想方面一般获得的东西而言，同书里教他一意寻绎的内容，还是颇有差距的。
他弄到的几本书都是陈旧的德尔芬版，因为早已过时，由新版取而代之，所以不值钱。不过对懒学生是坏事，对他却有好处，这话也说到家了。这个走村串户、独来独往的送面包的伙计，把书边上的批注细心盖住，不遇上句子结构方面的难题，决不移开看，其情形正类似路上过来一位同好或老师，他就恭身请教。单凭这种粗疏而又简便的方法，裘德固然没什么机会当上学者，不过他到底按自己的愿望人了门，慢慢做到心领神会。
正当他全神贯注念那些古书（它们以前大概早经墓中人翻过了），瘦骨嶙峋的老马也一心当班的时候，只听得一位老太婆大声喊，“送面包的，今儿两个，把这个退给你。”一下子把沉浸在戴多的悲痛中的裘德惊醒过来了。
好多行人和别的人常常碰到他，他却没看见他们。前后左右的居民对他这种把干活儿跟开心玩儿（在他们眼里，念书就是开心玩儿）结合起来的驾车方式开始议论起来了，因为这样于他自己也许挺方便，可是对同一条路上来往的行人就不安全了，因此引发了群情不满，附近地方有位居民向当地警察报告，说不得允许面包房的孩子一边赶车，一边念书；还一而再、再而三地要求把他抓起来，送到阿尔夫瑞顿警察所，尽到警员应有的责任；并且要对他在路上危害治安行为课以罚款，云云。警察只好躲在一边，等着裘德，总算有一大把他一举擒获，对他予以警诫。
裘德凌晨三点就得起床，催好烘炉的火，把面和好了，做好当天稍晚点要分送的面包，所以他只好头天晚上先发面，再睡觉。要是他没法在路上读古典著作，那他就根本学不成了。在这样情势的逼迫之下，他唯一办得到的事，就是一路上留神，东张西望，万一远处有了人影，特别是警察，就赶快把书掖起来。警察那边呢，倒也做到了官家的公平合理，没有想方设法去阻截裘德的面包车，因为遇上危险的主要还是裘德自己，所以他每当看到发白的篷子一在树篱高头露出来，就自动朝另一个方向开步走了。
福来渐渐长大，到现在快十六岁了。有一天在回家路上，正似懂非懂地念着《颂歌》，无意中发觉自己原来正擦着栋房子旁边的高丘的地势很高的边缘一带过去。天光有异，也正因觉察到这个变化，他才抬起头来看。只见夕阳西下之际，一轮圆月正从相对方向的密林上空升起。那首诗把他浸润得如此之深，几年前那次使他跪在梯子上的感情冲动重又油然而生。他勒住马，下了车，四顾无人，就把书打开了，跪在了路边土堆上。他先是转过身来，面朝光明女神，她好像既温和、又带着批评意味地注视着他这会儿的一举一动；他随又转身对着那个渐渐隐没的光球，开始大声念起来：
菲波斯和林中女王戴亚娜啊！
马静静站着，直到他把颂歌读完；他因为受到多神教的幻念的强大有力的支配，一时间朗诵不已；倘若平时在光天化日之下，他断乎不会一时兴起，如此宣泄自己的感情。
到家后，他陷入了沉思：他怎么会有这样荒诞不经、不论是先天固有的还是后天儒染的迷信，以致干出来这等事呢？他发愿要当上学者，退一步也要做基督教神职人员，又怎么会这样莫名其妙地忘乎所以，导致了有悖常识和习俗的背教行为呢？原来这是他一味耽读异教徒著作的结果啊。他越往下想，越认定自己的确是用志不专，信教不诚，所以才如此不胜矛盾。他对自己究竟能不能为追求终生目标的实现，慎择与之完全适宜的书籍，开始发生怀疑。看来异教文学与基督堂的学院（石头也记载着教会种种动人事迹）之间断乎没有调和的余地啊。
想到最后，他终于下了个定论：他在读书的狂热中产生了一种对一个基督教的信徒来说绝对无益的情感。他涉猎过克拉克版的《荷马诗集》，对希腊文原本的《新约全书》却根本没下过工夫，尽管他已经用邮寄方式，从一家旧书店买到一本。结果他决定搁置眼下已经熟谙的爱奥尼语，转而学一种新的希腊方言，此后很长一个时期，他把阅读几乎完全限于格莱斯巴赫编订的《福音》和《使徒书》。不仅如此，有一天他去阿尔夫瑞顿，在书店里恰好发现几卷神父文集，是当地一位破产的牧师遗留的，从此他得以接触早期基督教会领袖的著作。
他原来的癖好改变之后还有一个结果，就是逢到礼拜天必到邻近所有教堂瞻仰，细心解读十五世纪铜版和墓碑上的拉丁铭文。其中一次朝拜过程中，他幸遇一位背驼了的、智慧非凡的老太婆，凡是能弄到手的书，她就非一一读过不可。她给他讲了更多的有关那座具启智之灵光和集学问之大成的城市的动人心弦的魅力。他听过之后，越发矢志不移，必求到那地方而后已。
但是他到那座城市又怎样生活呢？眼下他一点进项也没有，他既没有一手手艺，也没有体面的或固定的职业，以维持生计，便于他日后从事或许要延续好多年的精神劳动。
城市里的居民不可或缺的东西是哪些？吃饭、穿衣和住房。第一类活儿是给人做饭，肯定收入菲薄；第二类活儿是给人做衣服，他一想就倒胃口；第三类生活必需品，他倒挺中意，想于。反正城里头得盖房子，他就学这一行好了。他想到了那位从未有一面之缘的姑父，表姊妹苏珊娜的父亲，他是做教会金属圣物的工匠。裘德也有个奇想，要学到中古时期用各种材料制作器物的工艺。他要是步姑父后尘，一时把工夫花在装学问家灵魂的壳子一类东西上，想来出不了什么大纸漏吧。
金属材料一时还找不到，他弄到些小块易切石，乘每次半个钟头的空闲，就到自己的教区的教堂去模刻柱顶和柱头，作为学手艺的第一步，至于读书做学问暂时先放一放。
阿尔夫瑞顿有个没名气的石匠，裘德一给姑婆的面包生意找到自己的替工，就上他那儿去打杂，只拿一点点工钱。不过在那儿总算有机会学到练到基本功了。过了一段时间，他又在同一地方的一家教堂营造商那儿找到差使，在建筑师指导下，为周围几座乡村教堂修复颓圮的石造物，由此把本事练出来了。
他当然没忘他学这门手艺无非做暂时糊口之计，他还要为将来伟大的事业做准备，而且自命不凡，堪当如此重任；不过对眼下求个职业，他的确也兴味浓厚。每个礼拜干活儿那几天，他住在镇上自己的地方；逢礼拜六晚上就回马利格林。就这样他到了十九岁，又过了十九岁。
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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callous
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| adj.无情的，冷淡的，硬结的，起老茧的 | |
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glorifying
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| 赞美( glorify的现在分词 )； 颂扬； 美化； 使光荣 | |
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obstinacies
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| n.顽固( obstinacy的名词复数 )；顽强；（病痛等的）难治；顽固的事例 | |
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piqued
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| v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的过去式和过去分词 )；激起（好奇心） | |
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subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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piecemeal
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| adj.零碎的；n.片，块；adv.逐渐地；v.弄成碎块 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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baker
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| n.面包师 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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tilt
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| v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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conveyance
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| n.(不动产等的)转让，让与；转让证书；传送；运送；表达；（正）运输工具 | |
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reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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strap
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| n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎 | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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purblind
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| adj.半盲的；愚笨的 | |
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expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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pedagogue
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| n.教师 | |
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beholding
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| v.看，注视( behold的现在分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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itinerant
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| adj.巡回的；流动的 | |
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conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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groove
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| n.沟，槽；凹线，（刻出的）线条，习惯 | |
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woes
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| 困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉 | |
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pedestrians
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| n.步行者( pedestrian的名词复数 ) | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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murmurs
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| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
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accosted
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| 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 | |
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loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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luminary
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| n.名人，天体 | |
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hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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dabbled
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| v.涉猎( dabble的过去式和过去分词 )；涉足；浅尝；少量投资 | |
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testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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second-hand
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| adj.用过的，旧的，二手的 | |
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onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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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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insolvent
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| adj.破产的，无偿还能力的 | |
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inscriptions
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| （作者）题词( inscription的名词复数 )； 献词； 碑文； 证劵持有人的登记 | |
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brasses
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| n.黄铜( brass的名词复数 )；铜管乐器；钱；黄铜饰品（尤指马挽具上的黄铜圆片） | |
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lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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subsist
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| vi.生存，存在，供养 | |
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requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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rudiments
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| n.基础知识，入门 | |
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prop
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| vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山 | |
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lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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