I got hold of Scott’s poems, too, in that cabin loft4, and read most of the tales which were yet unknown to me after those earlier readings of my father’s. I could not say why “Harold the Dauntless” most took my fancy; the fine, strongly flowing rhythm of the verse had a good deal to do with it, I believe. I liked these things, all of them, and in after years I liked the “Lady of the Lake” more and more, and from mere5 love of it got great lengths of it by heart; but I cannot say that Scott was then or ever a great passion with me. It was a sobered affection at best, which came from my sympathy with his love of nature, and the whole kindly6 and humane7 keeping of his genius. Many years later, during the month when I was waiting for my passport as Consul8 for Venice, and had the time on my hands, I passed it chiefly in reading all his novels, one after another, without the interruption of other reading. ‘Ivanhoe’ I had known before, and the ‘Bride of Lammermoor’ and ‘Woodstock’, but the rest had remained in that sort of abeyance9 which is often the fate of books people expect to read as a matter of course, and come very near not reading at all, or read only very late. Taking them in this swift sequence, little or nothing of them remained with me, and my experience with them is against that sort of ordered and regular reading, which I have so often heard advised for young people by their elders. I always suspect their elders of not having done that kind of reading themselves.
For my own part I believe I have never got any good from a book that I did not read lawlessly and wilfully10, out of all leading and following, and merely because I wanted to read it; and I here make bold to praise that way of doing. The book which you read from a sense of duty, or because for any reason you must, does not commonly make friends with you. It may happen that it will yield you an unexpected delight, but this will be in its own unentreated way and in spite of your good intentions. Little of the book read for a purpose stays with the reader, and this is one reason why reading for review is so vain and unprofitable. I have done a vast deal of this, but I have usually been aware that the book was subtly withholding13 from me the best a book can give, since I was not reading it for its own sake and because I loved it, but for selfish ends of my own, and because I wished to possess myself of it for business purposes, as it were. The reading that does one good, and lasting14 good, is the reading that one does for pleasure, and simply and unselfishly, as children do. Art will still withhold12 herself from thrift15, and she does well, for nothing but love has any right to her.
Little remains16 of the events of any period, however vivid they were in passing. The memory may hold record of everything, as it is believed, but it will not be easily entreated11 to give up its facts, and I find myself striving in vein17 to recall the things that I must have read that year in the country. Probably I read the old things over; certainly I kept on with Cervantes, and very likely with Goldsmith. There was a delightful18 history of Ohio, stuffed with tales of the pioneer times, which was a good deal in the hands of us boys; and there was a book of Western Adventure, full of Indian fights and captivities, which we wore to pieces. Still, I think that it was now that I began to have a literary sense of what I was reading. I wrote a diary, and I tried to give its record form and style, but mostly failed. The versifying which I was always at was easier, and yielded itself more to my hand. I should be very glad to, know at present what it dealt with.
点击收听单词发音
1 arrears | |
n.到期未付之债,拖欠的款项;待做的工作 | |
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2 moor | |
n.荒野,沼泽;vt.(使)停泊;vi.停泊 | |
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3 moors | |
v.停泊,系泊(船只)( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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4 loft | |
n.阁楼,顶楼 | |
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5 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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6 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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7 humane | |
adj.人道的,富有同情心的 | |
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8 consul | |
n.领事;执政官 | |
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9 abeyance | |
n.搁置,缓办,中止,产权未定 | |
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10 wilfully | |
adv.任性固执地;蓄意地 | |
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11 entreated | |
恳求,乞求( entreat的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12 withhold | |
v.拒绝,不给;使停止,阻挡 | |
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13 withholding | |
扣缴税款 | |
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14 lasting | |
adj.永久的,永恒的;vbl.持续,维持 | |
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15 thrift | |
adj.节约,节俭;n.节俭,节约 | |
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16 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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17 vein | |
n.血管,静脉;叶脉,纹理;情绪;vt.使成脉络 | |
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18 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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