I went to Rendle's. I just missed getting into college; I was two places below the lowest successful boy. I was Maxton's fag to begin with, and my chief chum was Raymond, who is your friend also, and who comes so often to this house. I preferred water to land, boats to cricket, because of that difficulty about pitch I have already mentioned. But I was no great sportsman. Raymond and I shared a boat, and spent most of the time we gave to it under the big trees near Dartpool Lock, reading or talking. We would pull up to Sandy Hall perhaps once a week. I never rowed in any of the eights, though I was urged to do so. I swam fairly well, and got my colors on the strength of my diving.
On the whole I found Harbury a satisfactory and amusing place, I was neither bullied9 nor do I think I greatly bullied, and of all that furtive10 and puerile11 lasciviousness12 of which one hears so many hints nowadays—excitable people talk of it as though it was the most monstrous13 and singular of vices14 instead of a slightly debasing but almost unavoidable and very obvious result of heaping boys together under the inefficient15 control of a timid pretentious16 class of men—of such uncleanness as I say, scarcely more than a glimpse and a whisper and a vague tentative talk or so reached me. Little more will reach you, for that kind of thing, like the hells of Swedenborg, finds its own.
I had already developed my growing instinct for observance to a very considerable extent under Siddons, and at Harbury I remember myself, and people remember me, as an almost stiffly correct youth. I was pretty good at most of the work, and exceptionally so at history, geology, and the biological side of natural science. I had to restrain my interest in these latter subjects lest I should appear to be a "swat," and a modern-side swat at that. I was early in the sixth, and rather a favorite with old Latimer. He incited17 me to exercise what he called a wholesome18 influence on the younger boys, and I succeeded in doing this fairly well without any gross interventions19. I implied rather than professed20 soundly orthodox views about things in general, and I was extremely careful to tilt21 my straw hat forward over my nose so as just not to expose the crown of my head behind, and to turn up my trousers with exactly that width of margin22 which the judgment23 of my fellow-creatures had decided24 was correct. My socks were spirited without [Pg 35]being vulgar, and the ties I wore were tied with a studious avoidance of either slovenliness25 or priggish neatness. I wrote two articles in the Harburonian, became something of a debater in the Literacy and Political, conducted many long conversations with my senior contemporaries upon religion, politics, sport and social life, and concealed26 my inmost thoughts from every human being. Indeed, so effective had been the training of Harbury and Mr. Siddons, that I think at that time I came very near concealing27 them from myself. I could suppress wonder, I could pass by beauty as if I did not see it, almost I think I did not see it for a time, and yet I remember it in those years too—a hundred beautiful things.
Harbury itself is a very beautiful place. The country about it has all the charm of river scenery in a settled and ancient land, and the great castle and piled town of Wetmore, cliffs of battlemented grey wall rising above a dense28 cluster of red roofs, form the background to innumerable gracious prospects29 of great stream-fed trees, level meadows of buttercups, sweeping30 curves of osier and rush-rimmed river, the playing fields and the sedgy, lily-spangled levels of Avonlea. The college itself is mostly late Tudor and Stuart brickwork, very ripe and mellow31 now, but the great grey chapel32 with its glorious east window floats over the whole like a voice singing in the evening. And the evening cloudscapes of Harbury are a perpetual succession of glorious effects, now serene33, now mysteriously threatening and profound, now towering to incredible heights, now revealing undreamt-of distances of luminous34 color. Assuredly I must have delighted in all those aspects, or why should I remember them so well? But I recall, I mean, no confessed recognition of[Pg 36] them; no deliberate going-out of my spirit, open and unashamed, to such things.
I suppose one's early adolescence35 is necessarily the period of maximum shyness in one's life. Even to Raymond I attempted no extremities36 of confidence. Even to myself I tried to be the thing that was expected of me. I professed a modest desire for temperate37 and tolerable achievement in life, though deep in my lost depths I wanted passionately38 to excel; I worked hard, much harder than I allowed to appear, and I said I did it for the credit of the school; I affected39 a dignified40 loyalty41 to queen and country and church; I pretended a stoical disdain42 for appetites and delights and all the arts, though now and then a chance fragment of poetry would light me like a fire, or a lovely picture stir unwonted urgencies, though visions of delight haunted the shadows of my imagination and did not always fly when I regarded them. But on the other hand I affected an interest in games that I was far from feeling. Of some boys I was violently jealous, and this also I masked beneath a generous appreciation43. Certain popularities I applauded while I doubted. Whatever my intimate motives44 I became less and less disposed to obey them until I had translated them into a plausible45 rendering46 of the accepted code. If I could not so translate them I found it wise to control them. When I wanted urgently one summer to wander by night over the hills towards Kestering and lie upon heather and look up at the stars and wonder about them, I cast about and at last hit upon the well-known and approved sport of treacling for moths47, as a cloak for so strange an indulgence.
I must have known even then what a mask and front I was, because I knew quite well how things were with other people. I listened politely and respected and understood the admirable explanations of my friends. When some fellow got a scholarship unexpectedly and declared it was rotten bad luck on the other chap, seeing the papers he had done, and doubted whether he shouldn't resign, I had an intuitive knowledge that he wouldn't resign, and I do not remember any time in my career as the respectful listener to Mr. Siddons' aspirations48 for service and devotion, when I did not perceive quite clearly his undeviating eye upon a bishopric. He thought of gaiters though he talked of wings.
How firmly the bonds of an old relationship can hold one! I remember when a few years ago he reached that toiled-for goal, I wrote in a tone of gratified surprise that in this blatant49 age, such disinterested50 effort as his should receive even so belated a recognition. Yet what else was there for me to write? We all have our Siddonses, with whom there are no alternatives but insincerity or a disproportionate destructiveness. I am still largely Siddonsized, little son, and so, I fear, you will have to be.
点击收听单词发音
1 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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2 cuticle | |
n.表皮 | |
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3 texture | |
n.(织物)质地;(材料)构造;结构;肌理 | |
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4 instinctive | |
adj.(出于)本能的;直觉的;(出于)天性的 | |
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5 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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6 marvels | |
n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 );令人惊奇的事物(或事例);不平凡的成果;成就v.惊奇,对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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7 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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8 reassuring | |
a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的,使人放心的 | |
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9 bullied | |
adj.被欺负了v.恐吓,威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10 furtive | |
adj.鬼鬼崇崇的,偷偷摸摸的 | |
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11 puerile | |
adj.幼稚的,儿童的 | |
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12 lasciviousness | |
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13 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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14 vices | |
缺陷( vice的名词复数 ); 恶习; 不道德行为; 台钳 | |
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15 inefficient | |
adj.效率低的,无效的 | |
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16 pretentious | |
adj.自命不凡的,自负的,炫耀的 | |
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17 incited | |
刺激,激励,煽动( incite的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18 wholesome | |
adj.适合;卫生的;有益健康的;显示身心健康的 | |
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19 interventions | |
n.介入,干涉,干预( intervention的名词复数 ) | |
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20 professed | |
公开声称的,伪称的,已立誓信教的 | |
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21 tilt | |
v.(使)倾侧;(使)倾斜;n.倾侧;倾斜 | |
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22 margin | |
n.页边空白;差额;余地,余裕;边,边缘 | |
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23 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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24 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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25 slovenliness | |
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26 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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27 concealing | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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28 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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29 prospects | |
n.希望,前途(恒为复数) | |
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30 sweeping | |
adj.范围广大的,一扫无遗的 | |
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31 mellow | |
adj.柔和的;熟透的;v.变柔和;(使)成熟 | |
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32 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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33 serene | |
adj. 安详的,宁静的,平静的 | |
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34 luminous | |
adj.发光的,发亮的;光明的;明白易懂的;有启发的 | |
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35 adolescence | |
n.青春期,青少年 | |
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36 extremities | |
n.端点( extremity的名词复数 );尽头;手和足;极窘迫的境地 | |
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37 temperate | |
adj.温和的,温带的,自我克制的,不过分的 | |
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38 passionately | |
ad.热烈地,激烈地 | |
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39 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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40 dignified | |
a.可敬的,高贵的 | |
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41 loyalty | |
n.忠诚,忠心 | |
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42 disdain | |
n.鄙视,轻视;v.轻视,鄙视,不屑 | |
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43 appreciation | |
n.评价;欣赏;感谢;领会,理解;价格上涨 | |
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44 motives | |
n.动机,目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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45 plausible | |
adj.似真实的,似乎有理的,似乎可信的 | |
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46 rendering | |
n.表现,描写 | |
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47 moths | |
n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
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48 aspirations | |
强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 ); 志向; 发送气音; 发 h 音 | |
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49 blatant | |
adj.厚颜无耻的;显眼的;炫耀的 | |
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50 disinterested | |
adj.不关心的,不感兴趣的 | |
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