IN less than an hour from that time, Seth Bede was walking by Dinah’s side along the hedgerow-path that skirted the pastures and green corn-fields which lay between the village and the Hall Farm. Dinah had taken off her little Quaker bonnet1 again, and was holding it in her hands that she might have a freer enjoyment2 of the cool evening twilight3, and Seth could see the expression of her face quite clearly as he walked by her side, timidly revolving4 something he wanted to say to her. It was an expression of unconscious placid5 gravity — of absorption in thoughts that had no connection with the present moment or with her own personality — an expression that is most of all discouraging to a lover. Her very walk was discouraging: it had that quiet elasticity6 that asks for no support. Seth felt this dimly; he said to himself, “She’s too good and holy for any man, let alone me,” and the words he had been summoning rushed back again before they had reached his lips. But another thought gave him courage: “There’s no man could love her better and leave her freer to follow the Lord’s work.” They had been silent for many minutes now, since they had done talking about Bessy Cranage; Dinah seemed almost to have forgotten Seth’s presence, and her pace was becoming so much quicker that the sense of their being only a few minutes’ walk from the yard-gates of the Hall Farm at last gave Seth courage to speak.
“You’ve quite made up your mind to go back to Snowfield o’ Saturday, Dinah?”
“Yes,” said Dinah, quietly. “I’m called there. It was borne in upon my mind while I was meditating7 on Sunday night, as Sister Allen, who’s in a decline, is in need of me. I saw her as plain as we see that bit of thin white cloud, lifting up her poor thin hand and beckoning8 to me. And this morning when I opened the Bible for direction, the first words my eyes fell on were, ‘And after we had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia.’ If it wasn’t for that clear showing of the Lord’s will, I should be loath9 to go, for my heart yearns10 over my aunt and her little ones, and that poor wandering lamb Hetty Sorrel. I’ve been much drawn11 out in prayer for her of late, and I look on it as a token that there may be mercy in store for her.”
“God grant it,” said Seth. “For I doubt Adam’s heart is so set on her, he’ll never turn to anybody else; and yet it ’ud go to my heart if he was to marry her, for I canna think as she’d make him happy. It’s a deep mystery — the way the heart of man turns to one woman out of all the rest he’s seen i’ the world, and makes it easier for him to work seven year for HER, like Jacob did for Rachel, sooner than have any other woman for th’ asking. I often think of them words, ‘And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed to him but a few days for the love he had to her.’ I know those words ’ud come true with me, Dinah, if so be you’d give me hope as I might win you after seven years was over. I know you think a husband ’ud be taking up too much o’ your thoughts, because St. Paul says, ‘She that’s married careth for the things of the world how she may please her husband’; and may happen you’ll think me overbold to speak to you about it again, after what you told me o’ your mind last Saturday. But I’ve been thinking it over again by night and by day, and I’ve prayed not to be blinded by my own desires, to think what’s only good for me must be good for you too. And it seems to me there’s more texts for your marrying than ever you can find against it. For St. Paul says as plain as can be in another place, ‘I will that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary12 to speak reproachfully’; and then ‘two are better than one’; and that holds good with marriage as well as with other things. For we should be o’ one heart and o’ one mind, Dinah. We both serve the same Master, and are striving after the same gifts; and I’d never be the husband to make a claim on you as could interfere13 with your doing the work God has fitted you for. I’d make a shift, and fend14 indoor and out, to give you more liberty — more than you can have now, for you’ve got to get your own living now, and I’m strong enough to work for us both.”
When Seth had once begun to urge his suit, he went on earnestly and almost hurriedly, lest Dinah should speak some decisive word before he had poured forth15 all the arguments he had prepared. His cheeks became flushed as he went on his mild grey eyes filled with tears, and his voice trembled as he spoke16 the last sentence. They had reached one of those very narrow passes between two tall stones, which performed the office of a stile in Loamshire, and Dinah paused as she turned towards Seth and said, in her tender but calm treble notes, “Seth Bede, I thank you for your love towards me, and if I could think of any man as more than a Christian17 brother, I think it would be you. But my heart is not free to marry. That is good for other women, and it is a great and a blessed thing to be a wife and mother; but ‘as God has distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every man, so let him walk.’ God has called me to minister to others, not to have any joys or sorrows of my own, but to rejoice with them that do rejoice, and to weep with those that weep. He has called me to speak his word, and he has greatly owned my work. It could only be on a very clear showing that I could leave the brethren and sisters at Snowfield, who are favoured with very little of this world’s good; where the trees are few, so that a child might count them, and there’s very hard living for the poor in the winter. It has been given me to help, to comfort, and strengthen the little flock there and to call in many wanderers; and my soul is filled with these things from my rising up till my lying down. My life is too short, and God’s work is too great for me to think of making a home for myself in this world. I’ve not turned a deaf ear to your words, Seth, for when I saw as your love was given to me, I thought it might be a leading of Providence18 for me to change my way of life, and that we should be fellow-helpers; and I spread the matter before the Lord. But whenever I tried to fix my mind on marriage, and our living together, other thoughts always came in — the times when I’ve prayed by the sick and dying, and the happy hours I’ve had preaching, when my heart was filled with love, and the Word was given to me abundantly. And when I’ve opened the Bible for direction, I’ve always lighted on some clear word to tell me where my work lay. I believe what you say, Seth, that you would try to be a help and not a hindrance19 to my work; but I see that our marriage is not God’s will — He draws my heart another way. I desire to live and die without husband or children. I seem to have no room in my soul for wants and fears of my own, it has pleased God to fill my heart so full with the wants and sufferings of his poor people.”
Seth was unable to reply, and they walked on in silence. At last, as they were nearly at the yard-gate, he said, “Well, Dinah, I must seek for strength to bear it, and to endure as seeing Him who is invisible. But I feel now how weak my faith is. It seems as if, when you are gone, I could never joy in anything any more. I think it’s something passing the love of women as I feel for you, for I could be content without your marrying me if I could go and live at Snowfield and be near you. I trusted as the strong love God has given me towards you was a leading for us both; but it seems it was only meant for my trial. Perhaps I feel more for you than I ought to feel for any creature, for I often can’t help saying of you what the hymn20 says —
In darkest shades if she appear,
My dawning is begun;
She is my soul’s bright morning-star,
And she my rising sun.
That may be wrong, and I am to be taught better. But you wouldn’t be displeased21 with me if things turned out so as I could leave this country and go to live at Snowfield?”
“No, Seth; but I counsel you to wait patiently, and not lightly to leave your own country and kindred. Do nothing without the Lord’s clear bidding. It’s a bleak22 and barren country there, not like this land of Goshen you’ve been used to. We mustn’t be in a hurry to fix and choose our own lot; we must wait to be guided.”
“But you’d let me write you a letter, Dinah, if there was anything I wanted to tell you?”
“Yes, sure; let me know if you’re in any trouble. You’ll be continually in my prayers.”
They had now reached the yard-gate, and Seth said, “I won’t go in, Dinah, so farewell.” He paused and hesitated after she had given him her hand, and then said, “There’s no knowing but what you may see things different after a while. There may be a new leading.”
“Let us leave that, Seth. It’s good to live only a moment at a time, as I’ve read in one of Mr. Wesley’s books. It isn’t for you and me to lay plans; we’ve nothing to do but to obey and to trust. Farewell.”
Dinah pressed his hand with rather a sad look in her loving eyes, and then passed through the gate, while Seth turned away to walk lingeringly home. But instead of taking the direct road, he chose to turn back along the fields through which he and Dinah had already passed; and I think his blue linen23 handkerchief was very wet with tears long before he had made up his mind that it was time for him to set his face steadily24 homewards. He was but three-and-twenty, and had only just learned what it is to love — to love with that adoration25 which a young man gives to a woman whom he feels to be greater and better than himself. Love of this sort is hardly distinguishable from religious feeling. What deep and worthy26 love is so, whether of woman or child, or art or music. Our caresses27, our tender words, our still rapture28 under the influence of autumn sunsets, or pillared vistas29, or calm majestic30 statues, or Beethoven symphonies all bring with them the consciousness that they are mere31 waves and ripples32 in an unfathomable ocean of love and beauty; our emotion in its keenest moment passes from expression into silence, our love at its highest flood rushes beyond its object and loses itself in the sense of divine mystery. And this blessed gift of venerating33 love has been given to too many humble34 craftsmen35 since the world began for us to feel any surprise that it should have existed in the soul of a Methodist carpenter half a century ago, while there was yet a lingering after-glow from the time when Wesley and his fellow-labourer fed on the hips36 and haws of the Cornwall hedges, after exhausting limbs and lungs in carrying a divine message to the poor.
That afterglow has long faded away; and the picture we are apt to make of Methodism in our imagination is not an amphitheatre of green hills, or the deep shade of broad-leaved sycamores, where a crowd of rough men and weary-hearted women drank in a faith which was a rudimentary culture, which linked their thoughts with the past, lifted their imagination above the sordid37 details of their own narrow lives, and suffused38 their souls with the sense of a pitying, loving, infinite Presence, sweet as summer to the houseless needy39. It is too possible that to some of my readers Methodism may mean nothing more than low-pitched gables up dingy40 streets, sleek41 grocers, sponging preachers, and hypocritical jargon42 — elements which are regarded as an exhaustive analysis of Methodism in many fashionable quarters.
That would be a pity; for I cannot pretend that Seth and Dinah were anything else than Methodists — not indeed of that modern type which reads quarterly reviews and attends in chapels43 with pillared porticoes44, but of a very old-fashioned kind. They believed in present miracles, in instantaneous conversions45, in revelations by dreams and visions; they drew lots, and sought for Divine guidance by opening the Bible at hazard; having a literal way of interpreting the Scriptures46, which is not at all sanctioned by approved commentators47; and it is impossibie for me to represent their diction as correct, or their instruction as liberal. Still — if I have read religious history aright — faith, hope, and charity have not always been found in a direct ratio with a sensibility to the three concords48, and it is possible — thank Heaven!— to have very erroneous theories and very sublime49 feelings. The raw bacon which clumsy Molly spares from her own scanty50 store that she may carry it to her neighbour’s child to “stop the fits,” may be a piteously inefficacious remedy; but the generous stirring of neighbourly kindness that prompted the deed has a beneficent radiation that is not lost.
Considering these things, we can hardly think Dinah and Seth beneath our sympathy, accustomed as we may be to weep over the loftier sorrows of heroines in satin boots and crinoline, and of heroes riding fiery51 horses, themselves ridden by still more fiery passions.
Poor Seth! He was never on horseback in his life except once, when he was a little lad, and Mr. Jonathan Burge took him up bebind, telling him to “hold on tight”; and instead of bursting out into wild accusing apostrophes to God and destiny, he is resolving, as he now walks homewards under the solemn starlight, to repress his sadness, to be less bent52 on having his own will, and to live more for others, as Dinah does.
收听单词发音 |
1
bonnet
|
|
| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
enjoyment
|
|
| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
twilight
|
|
| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
revolving
|
|
| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
placid
|
|
| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
elasticity
|
|
| n.弹性，伸缩力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
meditating
|
|
| a.沉思的，冥想的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
beckoning
|
|
| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
loath
|
|
| adj.不愿意的；勉强的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
yearns
|
|
| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
adversary
|
|
| adj.敌手，对手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
interfere
|
|
| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
fend
|
|
| v.照料（自己），（自己）谋生，挡开，避开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
spoke
|
|
| 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： |
|
|
|
|
17
Christian
|
|
| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
providence
|
|
| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
hindrance
|
|
| n.妨碍，障碍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
hymn
|
|
| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
displeased
|
|
| a.不快的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
bleak
|
|
| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
linen
|
|
| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
steadily
|
|
| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
adoration
|
|
| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
worthy
|
|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
caresses
|
|
| 爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
rapture
|
|
| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
vistas
|
|
| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
majestic
|
|
| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
ripples
|
|
| 逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
venerating
|
|
| 敬重（某人或某事物），崇敬( venerate的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
humble
|
|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
craftsmen
|
|
| n. 技工 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
hips
|
|
| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
sordid
|
|
| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
suffused
|
|
| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
needy
|
|
| adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
dingy
|
|
| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
sleek
|
|
| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
jargon
|
|
| n.术语，行话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
chapels
|
|
| n.小教堂， （医院、监狱等的）附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 )；（在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的）礼拜仪式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
porticoes
|
|
| n.柱廊，（有圆柱的）门廊( portico的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
45
conversions
|
|
| 变换( conversion的名词复数 )； （宗教、信仰等）彻底改变； （尤指为居住而）改建的房屋； 橄榄球（触地得分后再把球射中球门的）附加得分 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
scriptures
|
|
| 经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
commentators
|
|
| n.评论员( commentator的名词复数 )；时事评论员；注释者；实况广播员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
concords
|
|
| n.和谐，一致，和睦( concord的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
49
sublime
|
|
| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
scanty
|
|
| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
fiery
|
|
| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |