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CHAPTER XVI FRIENDSHIP
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 See, God is everywhere,
 
Where, then, is care?
 
There is no night in Him,
 
Then how can we grow dim?
 
There is no room for pain or fear
 
Since God is Love, and Love is here.
 
The full cup lowered down into the sea,
 
Is full continually,
 
How can it lose one drop when all around
 
The endless floods abound1?
 
So we in Him no part of Life can lose,
 
For all is ours to use.
 
David found himself enjoying his holiday a good deal. Blue skies and shining air, clear cold of the snows and radiant warmth of the spring sun, sweet sleep by night and pleasant companionship by day—all these were his portion. His own content surprised him. He had been so long in the dark places that he could scarcely believe that the shadow was gone, and the day clear again. He had been prepared to struggle manfully against the feeling for Mary which had haunted and tormented2 him for so long. To his surprise, he found that this feeling fell into line with the other symptoms of his illness. He shrank from thinking of it, as he shrank from thinking of his craving3 for drink, his sleepless4 nights, and his dread5 of madness. It was all a part of the same bad dream—a shadow among shadows, in a world of gloom from which he had escaped.
 
Elizabeth was a very good companion. It was too early to climb, but they took long walks, shared picnic meals, and talked or were silent just as the spirit moved them. It was the old boy and girl companionship come back, and it was a very restful thing. One day, when they had been married about a fortnight, David said suddenly:
 
“How did you do it, Elizabeth?”
 
They were sitting on a grassy6 slope, looking over a wide valley where blue mists lay. A little wind was blowing, and the upper air was clear. The grass on which they sat was short. It was full of innumerable small white and purple anemones7. Elizabeth was sitting on the grass, watching the flowers, and touching8 first one and then another with the tips of her fingers.
 
“All these little white ones have a violet stain at the back of each petal,” was the last thing that she had said, but when David spoke9 she looked up, a little startled.
 
He was lying full length on a narrow ledge10 just above her, with his cap over his eyes to shield them from the sun, which was very bright.
 
“How did you do it, Elizabeth?” said David Blake.
 
Elizabeth hesitated. She could not see his face.
 
“What do you mean?”
 
“How did you do it? Was it hypnotism?”
 
“Oh, no—” There was real horror in her voice.
 
“It must have been.”
 
She was silent for a moment. Then she said:
 
“Do you remember how interested we used to be in hypnotism, David?”
 
“Yes, that’s partly what made me think of it.”
 
“We read everything we could lay hands on—all the books on psychic11 phenomena—Charcot’s experiments—everything. And do you remember the conclusion we came to?”
 
“What was it?”
 
“I don’t think you’ve forgotten. I can remember you stamping up and down my little room and saying, ‘It’s a damnable thing, Elizabeth, a perfectly12 damnable thing. There’s no end, absolutely none to the extent to which it undermines everything—I believe it is a much more real devil than any that the theologies produce.’ That’s what you said nine years ago, David, and I agreed with you. We used quite a lot of strong language between us, and I don’t feel called upon to retract13 any of it. Hypnotism is a damnable thing.”
 
David pushed the cap back from his eyes as Elizabeth spoke, and raised himself on his elbow, so that he could see her face.
 
“There are degrees,” he said, “and it’s very hard to define. How would you define it?”
 
“It’s not easy. ‘The unlawful influence of one mind over another’?”
 
“That’s begging the question. At what point does it become unlawful?—that’s the crux14.”
 
“I suppose at the point when force of will overbears sense—reason—conscience. You may persuade a man to lend you money, but you mayn’t pick his pocket or hypnotise him.”
 
David laughed.
 
“How practical!”
 
Then very suddenly:
 
“So it wasn’t hypnotism. Are you sure?”
 
“Yes, quite sure.”
 
“But can you be sure? There’s such a thing as the unconscious exercise of will power.”
 
Elizabeth shook her head.
 
“There is nothing in the least unconscious in what I do. I know very well what I am about, and I know enough about hypnotism to know that it is not that. I don’t use my will at all.”
 
“What do you do? How is it done?” His tone was interested.
 
“I think,” said Elizabeth slowly, “that it is done by realising, by getting into touch with Reality. Things like sleeplessness15, pain, and strain aren’t right—they aren’t normal. They are like bad dreams. If one wakes—if one sees the reality—the dream is gone.”
 
She spoke as if she were struggling to find words for some idea which filled her mind, but was hard to put into a communicable shape.
 
“It is life on the Fourth Dimension,” she said at last.
 
“Yes,” said David, “go on.” There was a slightly quizzical look in his eyes, but he was interested. “What do you mean by the Fourth Dimension?”
 
“We used to talk of that too, and lately I have thought about it a lot.”
 
“Yes?”
 
“It is so hard to put into words. Fourth Dimensional things won’t get into Third Dimensional words. One has to try and try, and then a little scrap16 of the meaning comes through. That is why there are so many creeds17, so many sects19. They are all an attempt to express—and one can’t really express the thing. I can’t say it, I can only feel it. It is limitless, and words are limited. There are no bounds or barriers. Take Thought, for instance—that is Fourth Dimensional—and Love. Religion is a purely20 Fourth Dimensional thing, and we all guess and translate as best we may. In all religions that have life, apprehension21 rises above the creed18 and reaches out to the Real—the untranslatable.”
 
“Yes, that’s true; but go on—define the Fourth Dimension.”
 
 
“I can see it, you know. It’s another plane. It is the plane which permeates22 and inter-penetrates all other planes—universal, eternal, unchanging. It’s like the Fire of God—searching all things. It is the plane of Reality. Nothing is real which is not universal and unchanging and eternal. If one can realise that plane, one is amongst the realities, and all that is unreal goes out. ‘There is no life but the Life of God, no consciousness but the Divine Consciousness.’ I think that is the best definition of all: ‘the Divine Consciousness.’”
 
He did not know that she was quoting, and he did not answer her or speak at all for some time. But at last he said:
 
“So I slept, because you saw me in the Divine Consciousness; is that it?”
 
“Something like that.”
 
“You didn’t will that I should sleep?”
 
“Oh, no.”
 
“Are you doing it still?”
 
“Yes.”
 
“Every night?”
 
“Yes,” said Elizabeth again.
 
David sat up. The mists in the valley beneath were golden, for the sun had dropped. As he looked, the gold turned grey, and the shadow of darkness to come rose out of the valley’s depths, though the hill-slope on which they sat was warm and sunny yet. David turned and saw that Elizabeth was watching him.
 
 
“I want you to stop whatever it is you do,” he said abruptly23.
 
“Very well.”
 
“I’m not as ungrateful as that sounds—” He broke off, and Elizabeth said quickly:
 
“Oh, no.”
 
“You don’t think it?”
 
“Why should I? You are well again. You don’t need my help any more.”
 
A shadow like the shadow of evening came over her as she spoke, but her smile betrayed nothing.
 
They walked back to the hotel in silence.
 
David had wondered if he would sleep. He slept all night, the sweet sound sleep of health and a mind unburdened.
 
 
It was Elizabeth who did not sleep. She had walked with him through the valley of the shadow and he had come out of it a whole man again. Was she to cling to the shadow, because in the shadow David had clung to her? It came to that. She drove the thought home, and did not shirk the pain of it. They were come out into the light, and in the light he had no need of her. But this was not full daylight in which they walked—it was only the first chill grey of the dawn, and there is always a need of Love. Love needs must give, and giving, blesses and is blessed, for Love is of the realities—a thing immutable24 and all-pervading. No man can shut out Love.

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 abound wykz4     
vi.大量存在;(in,with)充满,富于
参考例句:
  • Oranges abound here all the year round.这里一年到头都有很多橙子。
  • But problems abound in the management of State-owned companies.但是在国有企业的管理中仍然存在不少问题。
2 tormented b017cc8a8957c07bc6b20230800888d0     
饱受折磨的
参考例句:
  • The knowledge of his guilt tormented him. 知道了自己的罪责使他非常痛苦。
  • He had lain awake all night, tormented by jealousy. 他彻夜未眠,深受嫉妒的折磨。
3 craving zvlz3e     
n.渴望,热望
参考例句:
  • a craving for chocolate 非常想吃巧克力
  • She skipped normal meals to satisfy her craving for chocolate and crisps. 她不吃正餐,以便满足自己吃巧克力和炸薯片的渴望。
4 sleepless oiBzGN     
adj.不睡眠的,睡不著的,不休息的
参考例句:
  • The situation gave her many sleepless nights.这种情况害她一连好多天睡不好觉。
  • One evening I heard a tale that rendered me sleepless for nights.一天晚上,我听说了一个传闻,把我搞得一连几夜都不能入睡。
5 dread Ekpz8     
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧
参考例句:
  • We all dread to think what will happen if the company closes.我们都不敢去想一旦公司关门我们该怎么办。
  • Her heart was relieved of its blankest dread.她极度恐惧的心理消除了。
6 grassy DfBxH     
adj.盖满草的;长满草的
参考例句:
  • They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
  • Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。
7 anemones 5370d49d360c476ee5fcc43fea3fa7ac     
n.银莲花( anemone的名词复数 );海葵
参考例句:
  • With its powerful tentacles, it tries to prise the anemones off. 它想用强壮的触角截获海葵。 来自互联网
  • Density, scale, thickness are still influencing the anemones shape. 密度、大小、厚度是受最原始的那股海葵的影响。 来自互联网
8 touching sg6zQ9     
adj.动人的,使人感伤的
参考例句:
  • It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
  • His letter was touching.他的信很感人。
9 spoke XryyC     
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
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
10 ledge o1Mxk     
n.壁架,架状突出物;岩架,岩礁
参考例句:
  • They paid out the line to lower him to the ledge.他们放出绳子使他降到那块岩石的突出部分。
  • Suddenly he struck his toe on a rocky ledge and fell.突然他的脚趾绊在一块突出的岩石上,摔倒了。
11 psychic BRFxT     
n.对超自然力敏感的人;adj.有超自然力的
参考例句:
  • Some people are said to have psychic powers.据说有些人有通灵的能力。
  • She claims to be psychic and to be able to foretell the future.她自称有特异功能,能预知未来。
12 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
13 retract NWFxJ     
vt.缩回,撤回收回,取消
参考例句:
  • The criminals should stop on the precipice, retract from the wrong path and not go any further.犯罪分子应当迷途知返,悬崖勒马,不要在错误的道路上继续走下去。
  • I don't want to speak rashly now and later have to retract my statements.我不想现在说些轻率的话,然后又要收回自己说过的话。
14 crux 8ydxw     
adj.十字形;难事,关键,最重要点
参考例句:
  • The crux of the matter is how to comprehensively treat this trend.问题的关键是如何全面地看待这种趋势。
  • The crux of the matter is that attitudes have changed.问题的要害是人们的态度转变了。
15 sleeplessness niXzGe     
n.失眠,警觉
参考例句:
  • Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness. 现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The doctors were puzzled by this strange continuous sleeplessness. 医生们对他的奇异的不眠感到疑惑。 来自英语晨读30分(高三)
16 scrap JDFzf     
n.碎片;废料;v.废弃,报废
参考例句:
  • A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
  • Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。
17 creeds 6087713156d7fe5873785720253dc7ab     
(尤指宗教)信条,教条( creed的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • people of all races, colours and creeds 各种种族、肤色和宗教信仰的人
  • Catholics are agnostic to the Protestant creeds. 天主教徒对于新教教义来说,是不可知论者。
18 creed uoxzL     
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。
19 sects a3161a77f8f90b4820a636c283bfe4bf     
n.宗派,教派( sect的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Members of these sects are ruthlessly persecuted and suppressed. 这些教派的成员遭到了残酷的迫害和镇压。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He had subdued the religious sects, cleaned up Saigon. 他压服了宗教派别,刷新了西贡的面貌。 来自辞典例句
20 purely 8Sqxf     
adv.纯粹地,完全地
参考例句:
  • I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
  • This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。
21 apprehension bNayw     
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑
参考例句:
  • There were still areas of doubt and her apprehension grew.有些地方仍然存疑,于是她越来越担心。
  • She is a girl of weak apprehension.她是一个理解力很差的女孩。
22 permeates 290eb451e7da5dcf5bb4b8041c3d79fa     
弥漫( permeate的第三人称单数 ); 遍布; 渗入; 渗透
参考例句:
  • Studies show that water vapor quickly permeates plastic packaging material. 研究证明水蒸汽能迅速渗入塑料封装材料。
  • Democracy permeates the whole country. 民主主义(的思想)普及全国。
23 abruptly iINyJ     
adv.突然地,出其不意地
参考例句:
  • He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
  • I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。
24 immutable ma9x3     
adj.不可改变的,永恒的
参考例句:
  • Nothing in the world is immutable.世界没有一成不变的东西。
  • They free our minds from considering our world as fixed and immutable.它们改变着人们将世界看作是永恒不变的观点。


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