In those talks that did so much towards shaping me into the likeness1 of a modest, reserved, sporting, seemly, clean and brave, patriotic2 and decently slangy young Englishman, he was constantly reverting3 to that view of existence. He spoke4 of failures and successes, talked of statesmen and administrators5, peerages and Westminster Abbey. "Nelson," he said, "was once a clergyman's son like you."
He talked of the things that led to failure and the things that had made men prominent and famous.
"Discursiveness7 ruins a man," I remember him saying. "Choose your goal and press to it."
"Never do anything needlessly odd. It's a sort of impertinence to all the endless leaders of the past who created our traditions. Do not commit yourself hastily to opinions, but once you have done so, stick to them. The world would far rather have a firm man wrong, than a weak man hesitatingly right. Stick to them."
"One has to remember," I recall him meditating8, far over my head with his face upturned, "that Institutions are more important than Views. Very often one adopts a View only to express one's belief in an Institution.... Men can do with almost all sorts of Views, but only with certain Institutions. All this Doubt doesn't touch a truth like that. One does not refuse to live in a house because of the old symbols one finds upon the door.... If they are old symbols...."
"What are you going to do with your life, Steve?" he would ask.
"There is no happiness in life without some form of service. Where do you mean to serve? With your bent10 for science and natural history, it wouldn't be difficult for you to get into the I.C.S. I doubt if you'd do anything at the law; it's a rough game, Steve, though the prizes are big. Big prizes the lawyers get. I've known a man in the Privy11 Council under forty—and that without anything much in the way of a family.... But always one must concentrate. The one thing England will not stand is a loafer, a wool-gatherer, a man who goes about musing12 and half-awake. It's our energy. We're western. It's that has made us all we are."
I knew whither that pointed13. Never so far as I can remember did Mr. Siddons criticize either myself or my father directly, but I understood with the utmost clearness that he found my father indolent and hesitating, and myself more than a little bit of a mollycoddle14, and in urgent need of pulling together.
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1 likeness | |
n.相像,相似(之处) | |
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2 patriotic | |
adj.爱国的,有爱国心的 | |
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3 reverting | |
恢复( revert的现在分词 ); 重提; 回到…上; 归还 | |
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4 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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5 administrators | |
n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 );有管理(或行政)才能的人;(由遗嘱检验法庭指定的)遗产管理人;奉派暂管主教教区的牧师 | |
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6 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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7 discursiveness | |
n.漫谈离题,推论 | |
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8 meditating | |
a.沉思的,冥想的 | |
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9 descend | |
vt./vi.传下来,下来,下降 | |
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10 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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11 privy | |
adj.私用的;隐密的 | |
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12 musing | |
n. 沉思,冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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13 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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14 mollycoddle | |
v.溺爱,娇养 | |
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