ALL was hushed as the first words of the famous orator1 rang out. The eyes of the audience were fastened upon him. He began very simply and directly, with an air of conviction, but not the slightest trace of conceit2. He made no attempt at eloquence3, at pathos4, or emotional phrases. He was like a man speaking in a circle of intimate and sympathetic friends. His voice was a fine one, sonorous5 and sympathetic, and there was something genuine and simple in the very sound of it. But everyone realised at once that the speaker might suddenly rise to genuine pathos and “pierce the heart with untold6 power.” His language was perhaps more irregular than Ippolit Kirillovitch’s, but he spoke7 without long phrases, and indeed, with more precision. One thing did not please the ladies: he kept bending forward, especially at the beginning of his speech, not exactly bowing, but as though he were about to dart8 at his listeners, bending his long spine9 in half, as though there were a spring in the middle that enabled him to bend almost at right angles.
At the beginning of his speech he spoke rather disconnectedly, without system, one may say, dealing10 with facts separately, though, at the end, these facts formed a whole. His speech might be divided into two parts, the first consisting of criticism in refutation of the charge, sometimes malicious11 and sarcastic12. But in the second half he suddenly changed his tone, and even his manner, and at once rose to pathos. The audience seemed on the lookout13 for it, and quivered with enthusiasm.
He went straight to the point, and began by saying that although he practised in Petersburg, he had more than once visited provincial14 towns to defend prisoners, of whose innocence15 he had a conviction or at least a preconceived idea. “That is what has happened to me in the present case,” he explained. “From the very first accounts in the newspapers I was struck by something which strongly prepossessed me in the prisoner’s favour. What interested me most was a fact which often occurs in legal practice, but rarely, I think, in such an extreme and peculiar16 form as in the present case. I ought to formulate17 that peculiarity18 only at the end of my speech, but I will do so at the very beginning, for it is my weakness to go to work directly, not keeping my effects in reserve and economising my material. That may be imprudent on my part, but at least it’s sincere. What I have in my mind is this: there is an overwhelming chain of evidence against the prisoner, and at the same time not one fact that will stand criticism, if it is examined separately. As I followed the case more closely in the papers my idea was more and more confirmed, and I suddenly received from the prisoner’s relatives a request to undertake his defence. I at once hurried here, and here I became completely convinced. It was to break down this terrible chain of facts, and to show that each piece of evidence taken separately was unproved and fantastic, that I undertook the case.”
So Fetyukovitch began.
“Gentlemen of the jury,” he suddenly protested, “I am new to this district. I have no preconceived ideas. The prisoner, a man of turbulent and unbridled temper, has not insulted me. But he has insulted perhaps hundreds of persons in this town, and so prejudiced many people against him beforehand. Of course I recognise that the moral sentiment of local society is justly excited against him. The prisoner is of turbulent and violent temper. Yet he was received in society here; he was even welcome in the family of my talented friend, the prosecutor19.”
(N.B. At these words there were two or three laughs in the audience, quickly suppressed, but noticed by all. All of us knew that the prosecutor received Mitya against his will, solely20 because he had somehow interested his wife — a lady of the highest virtue21 and moral worth, but fanciful, capricious, and fond of opposing her husband, especially in trifles. Mitya’s visits, however, had not been frequent.)
“Nevertheless I venture to suggest,” Fetyukovitch continued, “that in spite of his independent mind and just character, my opponent may have formed a mistaken prejudice against my unfortunate client. Oh, that is so natural; the unfortunate man has only too well deserved such prejudice. Outraged22 morality, and still more outraged taste, is often relentless23. We have, in the talented prosecutor’s speech, heard a stern analysis of the prisoner’s character and conduct, and his severe critical attitude to the case was evident. And, what’s more, he went into psychological subtleties24 into which he could not have entered, if he had the least conscious and malicious prejudice against the prisoner. But there are things which are even worse, even more fatal in such cases, than the most malicious and consciously unfair attitude. It is worse if we are carried away by the artistic25 instinct, by the desire to create, so to speak, a romance, especially if God has endowed us with psychological insight. Before I started on my way here, I was warned in Petersburg, and was myself aware, that I should find here a talented opponent whose psychological insight and subtlety26 had gained him peculiar renown27 in legal circles of recent years. But profound as psychology28 is, it’s a knife that cuts both ways.” (Laughter among the public.) “You will, of course, forgive me my comparison; I can’t boast of eloquence. But I will take as an example any point in the prosecutor’s speech.
“The prisoner, running away in the garden in the dark, climbed over the fence, was seized by the servant, and knocked him down with a brass29 pestle30. Then he jumped back into the garden and spent five minutes over the man, trying to discover whether he had killed him or not. And the prosecutor refuses to believe the prisoner’s statement that he ran to old Grigory out of pity. ‘No,’ he says, ‘such sensibility is impossible at such a moment, that’s unnatural31; he ran to find out whether the only witness of his crime was dead or alive, and so showed that he had committed the murder, since he would not have run back for any other reason.’
“Here you have psychology; but let us take the same method and apply it to the case the other way round, and our result will be no less probable. The murderer, we are told, leapt down to find out, as a precaution, whether the witness was alive or not, yet he had left in his murdered father’s study, as the prosecutor himself argues, an amazing piece of evidence in the shape of a torn envelope, with an inscription32 that there had been three thousand roubles in it. ‘If he had carried that envelope away with him, no one in the world would have known of that envelope and of the notes in it, and that the money had been stolen by the prisoner.’ Those are the prosecutor’s own words. So on one side you see a complete absence of precaution, a man who has lost his head and run away in a fright, leaving that clue on the floor, and two minutes later, when he has killed another man, we are entitled to assume the most heartless and calculating foresight33 in him. But even admitting this was so, it is psychological subtlety, I suppose, that discerns that under certain circumstances I become as bloodthirsty and keen-sighted as a Caucasian eagle, while at the next I am as timid and blind as a mole34. But if I am so bloodthirsty and cruelly calculating that when I kill a man I only run back to find out whether he is alive to witness against me, why should I spend five minutes looking after my victim at the risk of encountering other witnesses? Why soak my handkerchief, wiping the blood off his head so that it may be evidence against me later? If he were so cold-hearted and calculating, why not hit the servant on the head again and again with the same pestle so as to kill him outright35 and relieve himself of all anxiety about the witness?
“Again, though he ran to see whether the witness was alive, he left another witness on the path, that brass pestle which he had taken from the two women, and which they could always recognise afterwards as theirs, and prove that he had taken it from them. And it is not as though he had forgotten it on the path, dropped it through carelessness or haste, no, he had flung away his weapon, for it was found fifteen paces from where Grigory lay. Why did he do so? just because he was grieved at having killed a man, an old servant; and he flung away the pestle with a curse, as a murderous weapon. That’s how it must have been, what other reason could he have had for throwing it so far? And if he was capable of feeling grief and pity at having killed a man, it shows that he was innocent of his father’s murder. Had he murdered him, he would never have run to another victim out of pity; then he would have felt differently; his thoughts would have been centred on self-preservation. He would have had none to spare for pity, that is beyond doubt. On the contrary, he would have broken his skull36 instead of spending five minutes looking after him. There was room for pity and good-feeling just because his conscience had been clear till then. Here we have a different psychology. I have purposely resorted to this method, gentlemen of the jury, to show that you can prove anything by it. It all depends on who makes use of it. Psychology lures37 even most serious people into romancing, and quite unconsciously. I am speaking of the abuse of psychology, gentlemen.”
Sounds of approval and laughter, at the expense of the prosecutor, were again audible in the court. I will not repeat the speech in detail; I will only quote some passages from it, some leading points.
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orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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conceit
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| n.自负，自高自大 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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sonorous
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| adj.响亮的，回响的；adv.圆润低沉地；感人地；n.感人，堂皇 | |
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untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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spoke
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| 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 | |
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dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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spine
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| n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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formulate
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| v.用公式表示；规划；设计；系统地阐述 | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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prosecutor
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| n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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relentless
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| adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的 | |
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subtleties
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| 细微( subtlety的名词复数 )； 精细； 巧妙； 细微的差别等 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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renown
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| n.声誉，名望 | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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pestle
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| n.杵 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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mole
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| n.胎块；痣；克分子 | |
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outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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lures
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| 吸引力，魅力（lure的复数形式） | |
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