V FROM DANE KEMPTON TO HERBERT WACE

 London,        

3 a Queen's Road, Chelsea, S.W.

November 16, 19—.    

 

You sigh "Poesy and Economics," supplying the cause and thereby¹ admitting the fact. I wish you had shown some reluctance² to see my meaning, that you had preferred to waive³ the matter on the ground of insufficient⁴ data, that you had been less eager to ferret out the science of the thing. Do you remember how your boy's respect rose for little Barbara whenever she cried when too readily forgiven? "She dreads⁵ a double standard," you explained to me with generous heat. You sympathised with her fear lest I demand less of her than of you, honouring her insistence⁶ on an equality of duty as well as of privilege. Is the man Herbert less proud than the child Barbara, that you speak of a temperamental difference and ask for a special dispensation?

 

You are not in love (this you say in not gainsaying⁷ my attack on you, and so far I understand), because you are a student of Economics. At the last I stop. What is this about economics and poesy? About your emancipation⁸ from my riotously⁹ lyric¹⁰ sway? The hand of the forces by which you have been moulded cannot detain you from going out upon the love-quest. The fact of your preference for Draper cannot forestall¹¹ your spirit's need of love. There are many codes, but there is one law, binding¹² alike on the economist¹³ and poet. It springs out of the common and unappeasable hunger, commanding that love seek love through night to day and through day to night.

 

Yet it is possible to put oneself outside the pale of the law, to refuse the gift of life and snap the tie between time and space and creature. It is possible to be too emaciated¹⁴ for interest or feeling. The men and women of the People know neither love nor art because they are too weary. They lie in sleep prostrate¹⁵ from great fatigue¹⁶. Their bodies are too much tried with the hungers of the body and their spirits too dimly illumined with the hope of fair chances. It is also possible to fill oneself so full with an interest that all else is crowded out. You have done this. Like the cobbler who is a cobbler typically, the teacher who is a pedagogue¹⁷, the physician and the lawyer who are pathologists merely, you are a fanatic¹⁸ of a text. You are in the toils¹⁹ of an idea, the idea of selection, as I well know, and you exploit it like a drudge²⁰. When a man finds that he cannot deal in petroleum²¹ without smelling of it, it is time that he turn to something else. Every man is engaged in the cause of keeping himself whole, in watching himself lest his man turn machine, in watching lest the outside world assail²² the inner. Nature spares the type, but the individual must spare himself. He is strong who is sensitive and who responds subtly to everything in his environment, but his response must be characteristic; he must sustain his personality and become more himself through the years. He alone is vital in the social scheme who lets nothing in him atrophy²³ and who persists in being varied²⁴ from all others in the scale of character to the degree of variability that was his at the beginning.

 

I read in your letter nothing but a decision to stop short and give over, as if you had strength for no more than your book and your theory! You have become slave to a small point of inquiry²⁵, and you call it the advance to a new time. "The crusade is on," you say. Coronation rites²⁶ for the commoners and destruction to superstition²⁷. I put my hand out to you in joy. The joy is in unholy worship of a fetish, the pain that there is no joy also deference²⁸ to a fetish. Your creed²⁹ thunders "Thou shalt not." Love is a thing of yesterday. No room for anything that intimately concerns the self. But what are the apostles of the young thought preaching if it is not the right of men to their own, and what would it avail them to come into their own if life be stripped of romance?

 

I am dissatisfied because you are willing to live as others must live. You should stay aristocrat³⁰. Ferdinand Lassalle dressed with elegance³¹ for his working-men audiences, with the hope, he said, of reminding them that there was something better than their shabbiness. You are of the favoured, Herbert. It devolves upon you to endear your life to yourself. You do not agree with me. You do not believe that love is the law which controls freedom and life. Slave to your theory and rebel to the law, you lose your soul and imperil another's.

 

"Gently! Gently!" I say to myself. Old sorrows and wrongs oppress me and I grow harsh. My heat only helps to convince you that my position is not based on the rational rightness you hold so essential and that therefore it is unlivable. I will state calmly, then, that it is wrong to marry without love. "For the perpetuation³² of the species"—that is noble of you! So you strip yourself of the thousand years of civilisation³³ that have fostered you, you abandon your prerogative³⁴ as a creature high in the scale of existence to obey an instinct and fulfil a function? You say: "These men and women will marry, and the work of the world go on just as it did before. Shuffle³⁵ them about and the work of the world would yet go on." And you are content. You feel no need of anything different from this condition.

 

Believe me, Herbert, these million men and women will not let you shuffle them about. There are forces stronger than force, shadows more real than reality. We know that the need of the unhungered for the one friend, one comrade, one mate, is good. We honour the love that persists in loving. More beautiful than starlight is the face of the lover when the Voice and the Vision enfold him. The race is consecrated³⁶ to the worship of idea, and the lover who[Pg 28] lays his all on the altar of romance (which is idea) is at one with the race. The arms of the unloved girl close about the formless air and more real than her loneliness and her sorrow is the imagined embrace, the awaited warm, close pressure of the hands, the fancied gaze. What does it mean? What secret was there for Leonardo in Mona Lisa's smile, what for him in the motion of waters? You cannot explain the bloom, the charm, the smile of life, that which rains sunshine into our hearts, which tells us we are wise to hope and to have faith, which buckles³⁷ on us an armour³⁸ of activity, which lights the fires of the spirit, which gives us Godhead and renders us indomitable. Comparative anatomy³⁹ cannot reason it down. It is sensibility, romance, idea. It is a fact of life toward which all other facts make. For the flush of rose-light in the heavens, the touch of a hand, the colour and shape of fruit, the tears that come for unnamed sorrows, the regrets of old men, are more significant than all the building and inventing done since the first social compact.

 

Forgive my tediousness. I have flaunted⁴⁰ these truisms before you in order to exorcise that modern slang of yours which is more false than the overstrained forms of a feudal⁴¹ France. To shut out glory is not to be practical. You are not adjusting your life artistically⁴²; there is too much strain, too little warmth, too much self-complacence. I see that you are really younger than I thought. The world never censures⁴³ the crimes of the spirit. You are safe from the world's tongue lashings, and in that safety is the danger against which my friendship warns you.

 

I have been reading Hester's poems, and I know that she is like them, nervous, vibrant⁴⁴, throbbing⁴⁵, sensitive. I have been reading your letters, and I think her soul will escape yours. If you have not love like hers, you have nothing with which to keep her. This I have undertaken to say to you. It is a strange role, yet conventional. I am the father whose matrimonial whims⁴⁶ are not met by the son. The stock measure is to disinherit. But the cause of our quarrel is somewhat unusual, and I can be neither so practical nor so vulgar as to set about making codicils⁴⁷. Love is of no value to financiers; there is no bank for it nor may it be made over in a will. Rather is it carried on in the blood, even as Barbara carried it on into the life of her girl-babe. Your sister keeps me strong with the faith of love. May God be good to her! It was five years ago that she came to me and whispered, "Earl." When she saw I could not turn to her in joy, she leaned her little head back against the roses of the porch and wept, more than was right, I fear, for a girl just betrothed⁴⁸. Earl was a cripple and poor and helpless, but Barbara knew better than we, for she knew how to give herself. Poor little one, whom nobody congratulated! She sends you and Hester her love, unfolding you both in her eager tenderness.

 

Dane.

1 thereby   

adv.因此，从而

参考例句：

• I have never been to that city,,ereby I don't know much about it.我从未去过那座城市，因此对它不怎么熟悉。
• He became a British citizen,thereby gaining the right to vote.他成了英国公民，因而得到了投票权。

2 reluctance   

n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿

参考例句：

• The police released Andrew with reluctance.警方勉强把安德鲁放走了。
• He showed the greatest reluctance to make a reply.他表示很不愿意答复。

3 waive   

vt.放弃，不坚持(规定、要求、权力等)

参考例句：

• I'll record to our habitat office waive our claim immediately.我立即写信给咱们的总公司提出放弃索赔。
• In view of the unusual circumstances,they agree to waive their requirement.鉴于特殊情况，他们同意放弃他们的要求。

4 insufficient   

adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的

参考例句：

• There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
• In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代，科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。

5 dreads   

n.恐惧，畏惧( dread的名词复数 )；令人恐惧的事物v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The little boy dreads going to bed in the dark. 这孩子不敢在黑暗中睡觉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A burnt child dreads the fire. [谚]烧伤过的孩子怕火（惊弓之鸟，格外胆小）。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 insistence   

n.坚持；强调；坚决主张

参考例句：

• They were united in their insistence that she should go to college.他们一致坚持她应上大学。
• His insistence upon strict obedience is correct.他坚持绝对服从是对的。

7 gainsaying   

v.否认，反驳( gainsay的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• There is no gainsaying his honesty. 他的诚实是不可否认的。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• There is no gainsaying the fact that brinkmanship is a dangerous game. 不可能否认这样的事实：即战争的边缘政策是一种危险的游戏。 来自辞典例句

8 emancipation   

n.（从束缚、支配下）解放

参考例句：

• We must arouse them to fight for their own emancipation. 我们必须唤起他们为其自身的解放而斗争。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They rejoiced over their own emancipation. 他们为自己的解放感到欢欣鼓舞。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 riotously   

adv.骚动地，暴乱地

参考例句：

• Humboldt riotously picketed Von Trenk but the play was a hit. 尽管洪堡肆意破坏《冯·特伦克》的上演，然而这个剧还是轰动一时。 来自辞典例句
• Flung roses, roses, riotously with the throng. 随着人群欢舞，狂热地抛撒玫瑰，玫瑰。 来自互联网

10 lyric   

n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的

参考例句：

• This is a good example of Shelley's lyric poetry.这首诗是雪莱抒情诗的范例。
• His earlier work announced a lyric talent of the first order.他的早期作品显露了一流的抒情才华。

11 forestall   

vt.抢在…之前采取行动；预先阻止

参考例句：

• I left the room to forestall involvements.我抢先离开了这房间以免受牵累。
• He followed this rule in order to forestall rumors.他遵守这条规矩是为了杜绝流言蜚语。

12 binding   

有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的

参考例句：

• The contract was not signed and has no binding force. 合同没有签署因而没有约束力。
• Both sides have agreed that the arbitration will be binding. 双方都赞同仲裁具有约束力。

13 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

14 emaciated   

adj.衰弱的，消瘦的

参考例句：

• A long time illness made him sallow and emaciated.长期患病使他面黄肌瘦。
• In the light of a single candle,she can see his emaciated face.借着烛光，她能看到他的被憔悴的面孔。

15 prostrate   

v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的

参考例句：

• She was prostrate on the floor.她俯卧在地板上。
• The Yankees had the South prostrate and they intended to keep It'so.北方佬已经使南方屈服了,他们还打算继续下去。

16 fatigue   

n.疲劳，劳累

参考例句：

• The old lady can't bear the fatigue of a long journey.这位老妇人不能忍受长途旅行的疲劳。
• I have got over my weakness and fatigue.我已从虚弱和疲劳中恢复过来了。

17 pedagogue   

n.教师

参考例句：

• The pedagogue is correcting the paper with a new pen.这位教师正用一支新笔批改论文。
• Misfortune is a good pedagogue.不幸是良好的教师。

18 fanatic   

n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的

参考例句：

• Alexander is a football fanatic.亚历山大是个足球迷。
• I am not a religious fanatic but I am a Christian.我不是宗教狂热分子，但我是基督徒。

19 toils   

网

参考例句：

• It did not declare him to be still in Mrs. Dorset's toils. 这并不表明他仍陷于多赛特夫人的情网。
• The thief was caught in the toils of law. 这个贼陷入了法网。

20 drudge   

n.劳碌的人；v.做苦工，操劳

参考例句：

• I feel like a real drudge--I've done nothing but clean all day!我觉得自己像个做苦工的--整天都在做清洁工作！
• I'm a poor,miserable,forlorn drudge;I shall only drag you down with me.我是一个贫穷，倒运，走投无路的苦力，只会拖累你。

21 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

22 assail   

v.猛烈攻击，抨击，痛斥

参考例句：

• The opposition's newspapers assail the government each day.反对党的报纸每天都对政府进行猛烈抨击。
• We should assist parents not assail them.因此我们应该帮助父母们，而不是指责他们。

23 atrophy   

n./v.萎缩，虚脱，衰退

参考例句：

• Patients exercised their atrophied limbs in the swimming pool.病人们在泳池里锻炼萎缩的四肢。
• Many hoped he would renew the country's atrophied political system.很多人都期望他能使该国萎靡的政治体系振作起来。

24 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

25 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

26 rites   

仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• to administer the last rites to sb 给某人举行临终圣事
• He is interested in mystic rites and ceremonies. 他对神秘的仪式感兴趣。

27 superstition   

n.迷信，迷信行为

参考例句：

• It's a common superstition that black cats are unlucky.认为黑猫不吉祥是一种很普遍的迷信。
• Superstition results from ignorance.迷信产生于无知。

28 deference   

n.尊重，顺从；敬意

参考例句：

• Do you treat your parents and teachers with deference?你对父母师长尊敬吗？
• The major defect of their work was deference to authority.他们的主要缺陷是趋从权威。

29 creed   

n.信条；信念，纲领

参考例句：

• They offended against every article of his creed.他们触犯了他的每一条戒律。
• Our creed has always been that business is business.我们的信条一直是公私分明。

30 aristocrat   

n.贵族，有贵族气派的人，上层人物

参考例句：

• He was the quintessential english aristocrat.他是典型的英国贵族。
• He is an aristocrat to the very marrow of his bones.他是一个道道地地的贵族。

31 elegance   

n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙

参考例句：

• The furnishings in the room imparted an air of elegance.这个房间的家具带给这房间一种优雅的气氛。
• John has been known for his sartorial elegance.约翰因为衣着讲究而出名。

32 perpetuation   

n.永存，不朽

参考例句：

• Are there some on going policies that encourage its perpetuation? 现在是否有一些持续的政策令这会根深蒂固？ 来自互联网
• Does the mental perpetuation exist? 存在心理的永恒吗？ 来自互联网

33 civilisation   

n.文明，文化，开化，教化

参考例句：

• Energy and ideas are the twin bases of our civilisation.能源和思想是我们文明的两大基石。
• This opera is one of the cultural totems of Western civilisation.这部歌剧是西方文明的文化标志物之一。

34 prerogative   

n.特权

参考例句：

• It is within his prerogative to do so.他是有权这样做的。
• Making such decisions is not the sole prerogative of managers.作这类决定并不是管理者的专有特权。

35 shuffle   

n.拖著脚走，洗纸牌；v.拖曳，慢吞吞地走

参考例句：

• I wish you'd remember to shuffle before you deal.我希望在你发牌前记得洗牌。
• Don't shuffle your feet along.别拖着脚步走。

36 consecrated   

adj.神圣的，被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 )；奉献

参考例句：

• The church was consecrated in 1853. 这座教堂于1853年祝圣。
• They consecrated a temple to their god. 他们把庙奉献给神。 来自《简明英汉词典》

37 buckles   

搭扣，扣环( buckle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She gazed proudly at the shiny buckles on her shoes. 她骄傲地注视着鞋上闪亮的扣环。
• When the plate becomes unstable, it buckles laterally. 当板失去稳定时，就发生横向屈曲。

38 armour   

（=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队

参考例句：

• His body was encased in shining armour.他全身披着明晃晃的甲胄。
• Bulletproof cars sheathed in armour.防弹车护有装甲。

39 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

40 flaunted   

v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的过去式和过去分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来

参考例句：

• She flaunted the school rules by not wearing the proper uniform. 她不穿规定的校服，以示对校规的藐视。 来自互联网
• Ember burning with reeds flaunted to the blue sky. 芦苇燃烧成灰烬，撒向蔚蓝的苍穹。 来自互联网

41 feudal   

adj.封建的，封地的，领地的

参考例句：

• Feudal rulers ruled over the country several thousand years.封建统治者统治这个国家几千年。
• The feudal system lasted for two thousand years in China.封建制度在中国延续了两千年之久。

42 artistically   

adv.艺术性地

参考例句：

• The book is beautifully printed and artistically bound. 这本书印刷精美，装帧高雅。
• The room is artistically decorated. 房间布置得很美观。

43 censures   

v.指责，非难，谴责( censure的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• With such censures I cannot profess that I completely agree. 对于这些指责，我不能说我完全同意。 来自辞典例句
• This is a review containing unfair censures of a new book. 这是对一本新书进行非难的文章。 来自互联网

44 vibrant   

adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的

参考例句：

• He always uses vibrant colours in his paintings. 他在画中总是使用鲜明的色彩。
• She gave a vibrant performance in the leading role in the school play.她在学校表演中生气盎然地扮演了主角。

45 throbbing   

a. 跳动的,悸动的

参考例句：

• My heart is throbbing and I'm shaking. 我的心在猛烈跳动，身子在不住颤抖。
• There was a throbbing in her temples. 她的太阳穴直跳。

46 WHIMS   

虚妄，禅病

参考例句：

• The mate observed regretfully that he could not account for that young fellow's whims. 那位伙伴很遗憾地说他不能说出那年轻人产生怪念头的原因。
• The rest she had for food and her own whims. 剩下的钱她用来吃饭和买一些自己喜欢的东西。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

47 codicils   

n.遗嘱的附件( codicil的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The content of a book or document exclusive of prefatory matter, codicils, indexes, or appendices. 正文除去序言、补遗、索引和附录的书或文献的主要部分。 来自《简明英汉词典》

48 betrothed   

n. 已订婚者 动词betroth的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She is betrothed to John. 她同约翰订了婚。
• His daughter was betrothed to a teacher. 他的女儿同一个教师订了婚。