TWO-LEGS’ FUTURE

 1

Two-Legs still lives.

 

He will not die as long as the world exists.

 

He lives now in one country and now in another. No one knows for certain where he is; and there are not many who think of him in the ordinary course of things. Only very few have seen him, but those who have will never forget him either, so old is he and venerable, so clever and radiant his eyes.

 

He is the same that he always was.

 

In the beginning, he supplied himself with food and clothes, shelter against the weather and defence against his foes¹. He built himself huts and houses, killed some of the wild animals and tamed others. He taught his children to sow and reap. Misfortune overtook him and he conquered it. His descendants multiplied and filled the earth.

 

Since then he conquered the wind and Steam and Electricity. He bound them and gave them to man for his servants. And man trained them, even as he had trained the horse and the ox and the dog.

 

The steam-engine gives bread to many times more people than all the beasts of the field. The electric spirit does a thousand times more tricks in man’s service than the horse or the dog.

 

In the evening, when Two-Legs sits outside his house, the voices speak to him as before:

 

“Two-Legs ... the vanquisher² of the animals ... the lord of the ox and the horse and the dog ... the strongest of all creatures.”

 

“Two-Legs ... who conquered the wind and took him into his service.... He made him turn the mill ... made him carry the ship over the sea.”

 

“Two-Legs ... the lord of Steam.... He forced him into his engine and told him to do the tasks which men put him to.”

 

“Two-Legs, the wisest, the strongest.... He explored the lightning and bound it.... He compelled it to draw the greatest weights and to shine calmly and gently in men’s small rooms and to carry their messages from one end of the world to the other.”

 

Two-Legs listened to the voices, but only for a moment. He was examining a piece of metal which he held in his hand and into which he had been long and secretly enquiring³:

 

“Look,” he said to the young man who was now his pupil. “I wish I knew what the queer rays are that come out of this substance. It shall be called Radium; that means the thing that beams. I will search until I know its nature. Who knows what secret forces it conceals⁴ and what benefits it can perform for mankind?”

 

2

Two-Legs explored the new force.

 

The world round about him went its course. Each year brought new incidents, new discoveries, new wealth and new happiness. Two-Legs paid no heed⁵. He sat with his radium and would not let it go until he knew it through and through.

 

There were clever people who knew he must succeed some time and who waited eagerly and gladly for him to make mankind the master of a new power, mightier⁶, perhaps, than any of those which he had yet conquered.

 

There were fools who said that it was all very well with Steam and Electricity and the rest. They could understand that. But this new thing here was quite senseless and absurd. Besides, one must not tempt⁷ God. There were mysteries in nature which mankind should never seek to explore. There was a limit to what was allowed to men; and the man who overstepped that limit was either a fool or a presumptuous⁸ person who ought to be locked up or punished.

 

Two-Legs listened just as little to them now as he had done in the old days.

 

Their folly⁹ was the same now as then. What they saw before their eyes and felt with their hands they believed in. The new thing which was in its first stages, they mocked at and condemned¹⁰.

 

But, sometimes, a man would come to Two-Legs with his little son, so that the boy might see the wisest man in the world. Then, if he had the luck to find words that could divert Two-Legs’ attention from his work, Two-Legs would look up and fix his steady glance on the boy, lay his hand on the boy’s head and say:

 

“Do not grow up to be a fool, my lad. The fool is he who judges what he does not understand.”

该作者的其它作品
《My Little Boy我的小儿子》
《The Pond》

1 foes   

敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They steadily pushed their foes before them. 他们不停地追击敌人。
• She had fought many battles, vanquished many foes. 她身经百战，挫败过很多对手。

2 vanquisher   

征服者，胜利者

参考例句：

• Petty assignments often signal the end of a Vanquisher's career. 琐碎的任务常常代表着征服者职业生涯的结束。 来自互联网
• Gate of the Vanquisher of all Evil Spells, Hearken and Open! 一切邪咒征服者之门，聆听并开启！ 来自互联网

3 enquiring   

a.爱打听的，显得好奇的

参考例句：

• a child with an enquiring mind 有好奇心的孩子
• Paul darted at her sharp enquiring glances. 她的目光敏锐好奇，保罗飞快地朝她瞥了一眼。

4 conceals   

v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He conceals his worries behind a mask of nonchalance. 他装作若无其事，借以掩饰内心的不安。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Drunkenness reveals what soberness conceals. 酒醉吐真言。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 heed   

v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心

参考例句：

• You must take heed of what he has told.你要注意他所告诉的事。
• For the first time he had to pay heed to his appearance.这是他第一次非得注意自己的外表不可了。

6 mightier   

adj. 强有力的，强大的，巨大的 adv. 很，极其

参考例句：

• But it ever rises up again, stronger, firmer, mightier. 但是，这种组织总是重新产生，并且一次比一次更强大，更坚固，更有力。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言
• Do you believe that the pen is mightier than the sword? 你相信笔杆的威力大于武力吗？

7 tempt   

vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣

参考例句：

• Nothing could tempt him to such a course of action.什么都不能诱使他去那样做。
• The fact that she had become wealthy did not tempt her to alter her frugal way of life.她有钱了，可这丝毫没能让她改变节俭的生活习惯。

8 presumptuous   

adj.胆大妄为的，放肆的，冒昧的，冒失的

参考例句：

• It would be presumptuous for anybody to offer such a view.任何人提出这种观点都是太放肆了。
• It was presumptuous of him to take charge.他自拿主张，太放肆了。

9 folly   

n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话

参考例句：

• Learn wisdom by the folly of others.从别人的愚蠢行动中学到智慧。
• Events proved the folly of such calculations.事情的进展证明了这种估计是愚蠢的。

10 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。