You know, perhaps, the moment when, brushing in front of the glass, you detected your first grey hair. You stopped brushing; then you resumed brushing, hastily; you pretended not to be shocked, but you were. Perhaps you know a more disturbing moment than that, the moment when it suddenly occurred to you that you had 'arrived' as far as you ever will arrive; and you had realised as much of your early dream as you ever will realise, and the realisation was utterly15 unlike the dream; the marriage was excessively prosaic16 and eternal, not at all what you expected it to be; and your illusions were dissipated; and games and hobbies had an unpleasant core of tedium17 and futility18; and the ideal tobacco-mixture did not exist; and one literary masterpiece resembled another; and all the days that are to come will more or less resemble the present day, until you die; and in an illuminating19 flash you understood what all those people were driving at when they wrote such unconscionably long letters to the Telegraph as to life being worth living or not worth living; and there was naught20 to be done but face the grey, monotonous21 future, and pretend to be cheerful with the worm of ennui22 gnawing23 at your heart! In a word, the moment when it occurred to you that yours is 'the common lot.' In that moment have you not wished—do you not continually wish—for an exhaustless machine, a machine that you could never get to the end of? Would you not give your head to be lying on the flat of your back, peering with a candle, dirty, foiled, catching24 cold—but absorbed in the pursuit of an object? Have you not gloomily regretted that you were born without a mechanical turn, because there is really something about a machine...?
It has never struck you that you do possess a machine! Oh, blind! Oh, dull! It has never struck you that you have at hand a machine wonderful beyond all mechanisms25 in sheds, intricate, delicately adjustable26, of astounding27 and miraculous28 possibilities, interminably interesting! That machine is yourself. 'This fellow is preaching. I won't have it!' you exclaim resentfully. Dear sir, I am not preaching, and, even if I were, I think you would have it. I think I can anyhow keep hold of your button for a while, though you pull hard. I am not preaching. I am simply bent29 on calling your attention to a fact which has perhaps wholly or partially30 escaped you—namely, that you are the most fascinating bit of machinery31 that ever was. You do yourself less than justice. It is said that men are only interested in themselves. The truth is that, as a rule, men are interested in every mortal thing except themselves. They have a habit of taking themselves for granted, and that habit is responsible for nine-tenths of the boredom32 and despair on the face of the planet.
A man will wake up in the middle of the night (usually owing to some form of delightful33 excess), and his brain will be very active indeed for a space ere he can go to sleep again. In that candid34 hour, after the exaltation of the evening and before the hope of the dawn, he will see everything in its true colours—except himself. There is nothing like a sleepless35 couch for a clear vision of one's environment. He will see all his wife's faults and the hopelessness of trying to cure them. He will momentarily see, though with less sharpness of outline, his own faults. He will probably decide that the anxieties of children outweigh36 the joys connected with children. He will admit all the shortcomings of existence, will face them like a man, grimly, sourly, in a sturdy despair. He will mutter: 'Of course I'm angry! Who wouldn't be? Of course I'm disappointed! Did I expect this twenty years ago? Yes, we ought to save more. But we don't, so there you are! I'm bound to worry! I know I should be better if I didn't smoke so much. I know there's absolutely no sense at all in taking liqueurs. Absurd to be ruffled37 with her when she's in one of her moods. I don't have enough exercise. Can't be regular, somehow. Not the slightest use hoping that things will be different, because I know they won't. Queer world! Never really what you may call happy, you know. Now, if things were different ...' He loses consciousness.
Observe: he has taken himself for granted, just glancing at his faults and looking away again. It is his environment that has occupied his attention, and his environment—'things'—that he would wish to have 'different,' did he not know, out of the fulness of experience, that it is futile38 to desire such a change? What he wants is a pipe that won't put itself into his mouth, a glass that won't leap of its own accord to his lips, money that won't slip untouched out of his pocket, legs that without asking will carry him certain miles every day in the open air, habits that practise themselves, a wife that will expand and contract according to his humours, like a Wernicke bookcase, always complete but never finished. Wise man, he perceives at once that he can't have these things. And so he resigns himself to the universe, and settles down to a permanent, restrained discontent. No one shall say he is unreasonable39.
You see, he has given no attention to the machine. Let us not call it a flying-machine. Let us call it simply an automobile40. There it is on the road, jolting41, screeching42, rattling43, perfuming. And there he is, saying: 'This road ought to be as smooth as velvet44. That hill in front is ridiculous, and the descent on the other side positively45 dangerous. And it's all turns—I can't see a hundred yards in front.' He has a wild idea of trying to force the County Council to sand-paper the road, or of employing the new Territorial46 Army to remove the hill. But he dismisses that idea—he is so reasonable. He accepts all. He sits clothed in reasonableness on the machine, and accepts all. 'Ass14!' you exclaim. 'Why doesn't he get down and inflate47 that tyre, for one thing? Anyone can see the sparking apparatus48 is wrong, and it's perfectly49 certain the gear-box wants oil.
Why doesn't he—?' I will tell you why he doesn't. Just because he isn't aware that he is on a machine at all. He has never examined what he is on. And at the back of his consciousness is a dim idea that he is perched on a piece of solid, immutable50 rock that runs on castors.
点击收听单词发音
1 sneer | |
v.轻蔑;嘲笑;n.嘲笑,讥讽的言语 | |
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2 distraction | |
n.精神涣散,精神不集中,消遣,娱乐 | |
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3 strand | |
vt.使(船)搁浅,使(某人)困于(某地) | |
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4 illustrated | |
adj. 有插图的,列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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5 yarns | |
n.纱( yarn的名词复数 );纱线;奇闻漫谈;旅行轶事 | |
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6 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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7 enthralled | |
迷住,吸引住( enthrall的过去式和过去分词 ); 使感到非常愉快 | |
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8 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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9 wreck | |
n.失事,遇难;沉船;vt.(船等)失事,遇难 | |
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10 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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11 oversight | |
n.勘漏,失察,疏忽 | |
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12 cynically | |
adv.爱嘲笑地,冷笑地 | |
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13 passionate | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,激昂的,易动情的,易怒的,性情暴躁的 | |
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14 ass | |
n.驴;傻瓜,蠢笨的人 | |
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15 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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16 prosaic | |
adj.单调的,无趣的 | |
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17 tedium | |
n.单调;烦闷 | |
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18 futility | |
n.无用 | |
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19 illuminating | |
a.富于启发性的,有助阐明的 | |
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20 naught | |
n.无,零 [=nought] | |
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21 monotonous | |
adj.单调的,一成不变的,使人厌倦的 | |
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22 ennui | |
n.怠倦,无聊 | |
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23 gnawing | |
a.痛苦的,折磨人的 | |
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24 catching | |
adj.易传染的,有魅力的,迷人的,接住 | |
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25 mechanisms | |
n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 );机械装置;[生物学] 机制;机械作用 | |
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26 adjustable | |
adj.可调整的,可校准的 | |
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27 astounding | |
adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊,使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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28 miraculous | |
adj.像奇迹一样的,不可思议的 | |
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29 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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30 partially | |
adv.部分地,从某些方面讲 | |
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31 machinery | |
n.(总称)机械,机器;机构 | |
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32 boredom | |
n.厌烦,厌倦,乏味,无聊 | |
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33 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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34 candid | |
adj.公正的,正直的;坦率的 | |
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35 sleepless | |
adj.不睡眠的,睡不著的,不休息的 | |
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36 outweigh | |
vt.比...更重,...更重要 | |
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37 ruffled | |
adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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38 futile | |
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的 | |
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39 unreasonable | |
adj.不讲道理的,不合情理的,过度的 | |
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40 automobile | |
n.汽车,机动车 | |
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41 jolting | |
adj.令人震惊的 | |
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42 screeching | |
v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 );发出粗而刺耳的声音;高叫 | |
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43 rattling | |
adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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44 velvet | |
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的 | |
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45 positively | |
adv.明确地,断然,坚决地;实在,确实 | |
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46 territorial | |
adj.领土的,领地的 | |
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47 inflate | |
vt.使膨胀,使骄傲,抬高(物价) | |
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48 apparatus | |
n.装置,器械;器具,设备 | |
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49 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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50 immutable | |
adj.不可改变的,永恒的 | |
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