Lady Coomber joined them in the spring. Jim’s regiment1 had been detained at Malta longer than had been anticipated. Her presence passed hardly noticed in the house. Anthony had seen to it that her little pensioners2, the birds, had been well cared for, they began to gather round her the first moment that they saw her, as if they had been waiting for her, hoping for her return. She herself could not explain her secret. She had only to stretch out her hand for them to come to her. She took more interest in the child than Eleanor had expected. She stole him away one morning, and was laughing when she brought him back. She had shown him to her birds and they had welcomed him with much chirruping and fluttering; and after that, whenever he saw her with her basket on her arm, he would stretch out his arms to her for her to take him with her.
Another child was born to them in the winter. They called him after Eleanor’s brother Jim; and later came a girl. They called her Norah. And then Eleanor fell ill. Anthony was terror-stricken. He had never been able to accept the popular idea[Pg 202] of God as a sort of kindly3 magician to whom appeal might be made for miraculous4 benefits in exchange for praise and adulation—who would turn aside sickness, stay death’s hand in response for importunity5. His common sense had revolted against it. But suddenly his reasoning faculties6 seemed to have deserted7 him. Had he been living in the Middle Ages he would have offered God a pilgrimage or a church. As it was, he undertook to start without further delay his various schemes to benefit the poor of Millsborough. He would set to work at once upon those model-dwellings8. It was always easy for him now to find financial backing for his plans. He remembered Betty’s argument: “I wouldn’t have anything started that couldn’t be made to pay its own way in the long run. If it can’t do that it isn’t real. It isn’t going to last.” She was right. As a sound business proposition, the thing would live and grow. It was justice not charity that the world stood most in need of. He worked it out. For the rent these slum landlords were exacting9 for insanitary hovels the workers could be housed in decent flats. Eleanor’s illness had been pronounced dangerous. No time was to be lost. The ground was bought and cleared. Landripp, the architect, threw himself into his labours with enthusiasm.
[Pg 203]
Landripp belonged to the new school of materialists. His religion was the happiness of humanity. Man to him was a mere10 chance product of the earth’s crust, evolved in common with all other living things by chemical process. With the cooling of the earth—or may be its over-heating, it really did not matter which—the race would disappear—be buried, together with the history of its transient passing, beneath the eternal silences. Its grave might still roll on—to shape itself anew, to form out of its changed gases another race that in some future æon might be interested in examining the excavated11 evidences of a former zoological period.
Meanwhile the thing to do was to make man as happy as possible for so long as he lasted. This could best be accomplished12 by developing his sense of brotherhood13 out of which would be born justice and good will. Man was a gregarious14 animal. For his happiness he depended as much upon his fellows as upon his own exertions15. The misery16 and suffering of any always, sooner or later, resulted in evil to the whole body. In society, as it had come to be constituted, the happiness of all was as much a practical necessity as was the health of all. For its own sake, a civilized17 community could no more disregard equity18 than it dare tolerate an[Pg 204] imperfect drainage system. If the city was to be healthy and happy it must be seen to that each individual citizen was healthy and happy. The pursuit of happiness for ourselves depended upon our making others happy. It was for this purpose that the moral law had developed itself within us. So soon as the moral law within us came to be acknowledged as the only safe guide to all our actions, so soon would Man’s road to happiness lie clear before him.
That something not material, that something impossible to be defined in material terms had somehow entered into the scheme, Mr. Landripp was forced to admit. In discussion, he dismissed it—this unknown quantity—as “superfluous19 energy.” But to himself the answer was not satisfactory. By this reasoning the superfluous became the indispensible, which was absurd. There was his own favourite phrase: The preservation20 of the species; the moral law within, compelling all creatures to sacrifice themselves for the good of their progeny21. To Mr. Arnold S. Landripp, aware of his indebtedness for his own existence to the uninterrupted working of this law; aware that his own paternal22 affections had for their object the decoying of Mr. Arnold S. Landripp into guarding and cherishing and providing for the future of Miss Emily[Pg 205] Landripp; who in her turn would rejoice in labour for her children, and so ad infinitum, the phrase might have significance. His reason, perceiving the necessity of the law, justified23 its obligations.
But those others? Unpleasant-looking insects—myriads of them—who wear themselves out for no other purpose than to leave behind them an egg, the hatching of which they will not live to see. Why toil24 in darkness? Why not spend their few brief hours of existence basking25 in their beloved sunshine? What to them the future of the Hymenoptera? The mother bird with outstretched wings above the burning nest, content to die herself if only she may hope to save her young. Natural affection, necessary for the preservation of the species. Whence comes it? Whence the origin of this blind love—this blind embracing of pain that an unknown cause may triumph.
Or take the case of Mr. Arnold S. Landripp’s own particular family. That hairy ancestor, fear-haunted, hunger-driven, fighting against monstrous26 odds27 to win a scanty28 living for himself. Why burden himself still further with a squalling brood that Mr. Arnold S. Landripp may eventually evolve? Why not knock them all on the head and eat the pig himself? Who whispered to him of the men of thought and knowledge who should one day[Pg 206] come, among whom Mr. Arnold S. Landripp, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, should mingle29 and have his being?
Why does the present Mr. Landripp impair30 his digestion31 by working long into the night that Millsborough slums may be the sooner swept away and room be made in Millsborough town for the building of decent dwellings for Mr. Landripp’s poorer brethren? The benefiting of future generations! The preservation and improvement of the species? To what end? What sensible man can wax enthusiastic concerning the progress of a race whose final goal is a forgotten grave beneath the debris32 of a derelict planet.
To Mr. Landripp came also the reflection that a happiness that is not and cannot by its nature be confined to the individual, but is a part of the happiness of all; that can be marred33 by a withered34 flower and deepened by contemplation of the stars must, of necessity, have kinship with the Universal. That a happiness, the seeds of which must have been coeval35 with creation, that is not bounded by death must, of necessity, be linked with the Eternal.
Working together of an evening upon the plans for the new dwellings, Anthony and he would often break off to pursue the argument. Landripp[Pg 207] would admit that his own religion failed to answer all his questions. But Anthony’s religion contented36 him still less. Why should a just God, to whom all things were possible, have made man a creature of “low intelligence and evil instincts,” leaving him to welter through the ages amid cruelty, blood and lust37, instead of fashioning him from the beginning a fit and proper heir for the kingdom of eternity38? That he might work out his own salvation39! That a few scattered40 fortunates, less predisposed to evil than their fellows or possessed41 of greater powers of resistance, might struggle out of the mire—enter into their inheritance: the great bulk cursed from their birth, be left to sink into destruction. The Christ legend he found himself unable to accept. If true, then God was fallible, His omniscience42 a myth—a God who made mistakes and sought to rectify43 them. Even so, He had not succeeded. The number of true Christians—the number of those who sought to live according to Christ’s teaching were fewer today than under the reign44 of the Cæsars. During the Middle Ages the dying embers of Christianity had burnt up anew. Saint Francis had insisted upon the necessity of poverty, of love—had preached the brotherhood of all things living. Men and women in increasing numbers had for a brief period [Pg 208]accepted Christ not as their scapegoat45 but as their leader. There had been men like Millsborough’s own Saint Aldys—a successful business man, as business was understood in his day—who on his conversion46 had offered to the service of God not ten per cent. of his booty but his whole life. Any successful business man of today who attempted to follow his example would be certified47 by the family doctor as fit candidate for the lunatic asylum48. Two thousand years after Christ’s death one man, so far as knowledge went, the Russian writer Tolstoy, had made serious attempt to live the life commanded by Christ. And all Christendom stood staring at him in stupefied amazement49. If Christ had been God’s scheme for the reformation of a race that He Himself had created prone50 to evil then it had tragically51 failed. Christianity, a feeble flame from the beginning, had died out, leaving the world darker, its last hope extinguished.
They had been working long into the short June night. Landripp had drawn52 back the curtains and thrown open the window. There came from the east a faint pale dawn.
“There is a God I could believe in, worship and work for,” he said. “Not the builder of the heaven and of the earth, who made the stars also. Such there may be. The watch presupposes the[Pg 209] watchmaker. I grant all that. But such is outside my conception—a force, a law, whatever it may be, existing before the beginning of Time, having its abiding53 place beyond Space. The thing is too unhuman ever to be understood by man. The God I could love and serve is something lesser54 and yet perhaps greater than such.”
He turned from the window and leaning against the mantelpiece continued:
“There is a story by Jean Paul Richter, I think. I read the book when I was a student in Germany. There was rather a fine idea in it: at least so it seemed to me. The man in the story dies and beyond the grave he meets Christ. And the Christ is still sad and troubled. The man asks why, and Christ confesses to him. He has been looking for God and cannot find Him. And the man comforts Him. Together they will seek God, and will yet find Him. I think it was a dream, I am not sure. It is the dream of the world, I suppose. Personally I have given up the search, thinking it hopeless. But I am not sure. Christ’s God I could believe in, could accept. He is the God—the genius, if you prefer the word, of the human race. He is seeking—still seeking to make man in His own image. He has given man thought, consciousness, a soul. It has been slow work and He is still only[Pg 210] at the beginning of His labours. He is the spirit of love. It is by love, working for its kind, working for its species, that man has evolved. It is only by love of his kind, of his species, that man can hope to raise himself still further. He is no God of lightnings and of thunders. The moral law within us, the voice of pity, of justice is His only means of helping55 us. The Manichæans believed that Mankind was devil created. The evidence is certainly in their favour. The God that I am seeking is not the Omnipotent56 Master of the universe who could in the twinkling of an eye reshape man to His will. But a spirit, fighting against powerful foes57, whom I can help or hinder—the spirit of love, knocking softly without ceasing at the door of a deaf world. The wonder of Christ is that He was the first man to perceive the nature of God. The gods that the world had worshipped up till then—that the world still worships—are the gods man has made in his own image: gods glorying in their strength and power, clamouring for worship, insisting on their ‘rights’; gods armed with punishments and rewards. Christ was the first man who conceived of God as the spirit of love, of service, a fellow labourer with man for the saving of the world.”
[Pg 211]
Anthony was still seated at the long table, facing the light.
“May it not be that you have found Him?” he said. “May He not be the God we are all seeking?”
Landripp gave a short laugh.
“He wouldn’t be popular,” he answered. “Not from Him would Job have obtained those fourteen thousand sheep and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke58 of oxen and a thousand she asses59 as a reward for his patience. ‘The God from whom all blessings60 flow,’ that is the God man will praise and worship. The God I am seeking asks, not gives.”
The plans were finished; the builders got to work. On the very day of the laying of the foundation-stone the doctors pronounced Eleanor out of danger. Anthony forgot his talks with Landripp. God had heard his prayer and had accepted his offering. He would continue to love and serve Him, and surely goodness and mercy would follow him all the days of his life. One of the minor61 steel foundries happened to be on the market. He obtained control and re-established it on a new profit-sharing principle that he had carefully worked out. His system would win through by[Pg 212] reason of its practicability; the long warfare62 between capital and labour end in peace. His business genius should not be only for himself. God also should be benefited. He got together a small company for the opening of co-operative shops, where the poor should be able to purchase at fair prices. There should be no end of his activities for God.
Eleanor came back to him more beautiful, it seemed to him, than she had ever been. They walked together, hand in hand, on the moor63. She wanted to show him how strong she was. And coming to the old white thorn at the parting of the ways, she had raised her face to his; and he had drawn her to him and their lips had met, as if it had been for the first time.
She would be unable to bear more children, but that did not trouble them. Little Jim and Norah grew and waxed strong and healthy. Norah promised to be the living image of her mother. She had her mother’s faults and failings that Anthony so loved: her mother’s wilfulness64 with just that look of regal displeasure when any one offended or opposed her. But also with suggestion of her mother’s graciousness and kindness.
Jim, likewise, took after the Coomber family. He had his uncle’s laughing eyes and all his [Pg 213]obstinacy, so Eleanor declared. He was full of mischief65, but had coaxing66 ways and was the idol67 of the servants’ hall.
John was more of the dreamer. Lady Coomber had taught him to read. She had grown strangely fond of the child. In summertime they would take their books into the garden. They had green hiding-places known only to themselves. And in winter they had their “cave” behind the great carved screen in the library.
As time went by, Eleanor inclined more towards the two younger children. They were full of life and frolic, and were always wanting to do things. But Anthony’s heart yearned68 more towards John, his first-born.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
regiment
|
|
| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
pensioners
|
|
| n.领取退休、养老金或抚恤金的人( pensioner的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
miraculous
|
|
| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
importunity
|
|
| n.硬要，强求 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
faculties
|
|
| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
deserted
|
|
| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
dwellings
|
|
| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
exacting
|
|
| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
excavated
|
|
| v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
accomplished
|
|
| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
brotherhood
|
|
| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
gregarious
|
|
| adj.群居的，喜好群居的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
exertions
|
|
| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
misery
|
|
| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
civilized
|
|
| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
equity
|
|
| n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
superfluous
|
|
| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
preservation
|
|
| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
progeny
|
|
| n.后代，子孙；结果 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
paternal
|
|
| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
justified
|
|
| a.正当的，有理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
toil
|
|
| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
basking
|
|
| v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的现在分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
monstrous
|
|
| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
odds
|
|
| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
scanty
|
|
| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
mingle
|
|
| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
impair
|
|
| v.损害，损伤；削弱，减少 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
digestion
|
|
| n.消化，吸收 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
debris
|
|
| n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
marred
|
|
| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
withered
|
|
| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
coeval
|
|
| adj.同时代的；n.同时代的人或事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
contented
|
|
| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
lust
|
|
| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
eternity
|
|
| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
salvation
|
|
| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
scattered
|
|
| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
possessed
|
|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
omniscience
|
|
| n.全知，全知者，上帝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
rectify
|
|
| v.订正，矫正，改正 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
reign
|
|
| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
scapegoat
|
|
| n.替罪的羔羊，替人顶罪者；v.使…成为替罪羊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
conversion
|
|
| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
certified
|
|
| a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
asylum
|
|
| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
amazement
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
prone
|
|
| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
tragically
|
|
| adv. 悲剧地，悲惨地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
abiding
|
|
| adj.永久的，持久的，不变的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
lesser
|
|
| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
helping
|
|
| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
omnipotent
|
|
| adj.全能的，万能的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
foes
|
|
| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
yoke
|
|
| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
asses
|
|
| n. 驴，愚蠢的人，臀部 adv. (常用作后置)用于贬损或骂人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
blessings
|
|
| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
minor
|
|
| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
warfare
|
|
| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
moor
|
|
| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
wilfulness
|
|
| 任性；倔强 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
mischief
|
|
| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
coaxing
|
|
| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱；“锻炼”效应 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
idol
|
|
| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
yearned
|
|
| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |