Thou who art full of virtue7, what is this rumor8 of thy defection in Eden, thy remote causing of all contemporaneous woe9? Thou who art fair without as a cherub's cheek, how couldst thou be abettor to the treacherous10 spirit? Shall the fault of our frail11 ancestress rest upon thy rosy12 head? "That the forbidden fruit of Paradise was an apple," saith a grave and learned author, "is commonly believed, confirmed by tradition, perpetuated13 by writings, verses, pictures; and some are so bad prosodians as thence to derive15 the Latin word malum, because that fruit was the first occasion of evil: wherein, notwithstanding determinations are presumptuous16, many, I perceive, are of another belief." Let the personal argument stand, in default of a bolder plea. Mephisto, who hath had no chance of reformation, and who may be supposed to keep his early leanings, is in modern times no frequenter of-11- orchards17. Not by farmer, nor wayside knight18, nor loitering sweethearts at dusk, hath he ever been detected prowling about an innocent apple-tree.
It hath, on the other hand, been affirmed by an ingenious clerk, that apple-eating is a masculine passion, and that no woman hath a dominating natural relish19 for this hearty20 fruit; which, proven, would seem to indicate (as a burnt child dreads21 the fire, according to the proverb) that Eve's mindful daughters shun22 by instinct the immemorial enemy. If, indeed, it needs must be demonstrated by some unborn logician23, that our primal24 happiness was forfeited25 by nought26 else, beyond the serpent's wiles27, than a Gilliflower or a Greening, hanging on the representative tree, and criterion of obedience,—then there exist myriads28 of her descendants with the ancestral weakness, who shall look on our abused common mother with new and tender consideration, such as her disastrous29 connection with a plum, or a currant, or a quince, could never have evoked30.
The apple is the only fruit which deserveth the name of genial31. A peach is but a Capuan dish; the lime approacheth with cold infrequency; the amiable32 pear hath too little character; the grape is chiefly suggestive, anticipatory33 of its hereafter, as the larva of the gorgeous butterfly. But Apple standeth on her own merits. Tart34, jelly, fritters, dumpling, enter not into the imagination of her possessor. Nay35, nor even cider, that fretful disempurpled wine,—wine, as it were, with the bar sinister36. Apple hath not the flippant gayety of the cherry; her glad humor is somewhat dashed with cynicism: she warmeth the heart, and trippeth up the tongue, and is, in the accepted phrase of artists, "a good fellow;" foe37 to unrighteous melancholy38, as Laurentius writ14, and frankly39 compassionate40. She should have had Horace for her court-poet. One can conceive of poor, manly41 Fielding loving her at the modest ratio of three dozen a day; and of little Mr. Pope brushing her aside with fastidious petulance42.
The friends of Apple, your sworn familiars, who offend not her sun-mottled exterior43 with barbaric divisions of the knife, may be known by their ready wit and their bright glances. Hath not the wholesome44 autumn light, which filtered into the fruit they affect, permeated45 their moral temperament46? They must needs be sound, consolatory47, humane48, and fit to wrestle49 with every wind that blows. "Man is that he eats," we read among the bewilderments of German speculation50. But of her chaste51 and subtle cup, rimmed52 with gold or crimson53, as Nature willed, the elect drink invigoration.
"Encompass54 me about with apples," saith the Canticle, "for I am sick with love;" which, driven to its bare and literal sense, implies that apples are antidotes55 to languor56 and over-fondness. Apple, be it said, is a Platonist.
Bake her not. Take her in her gypsy wildness, in the homespun, lovelier so than pomegranates in their velvet57: not too untimely, either, lest she be vindictive58, and become the apothecary's friend rather than thine. Learn to trace her maiden59 growth among her cheery sisters, from some gnarled seat. Deny her not the arm-chair with thee before the flickering60 hearth-fire; and in thy most solitary61 meditations62, thy rapt brooding--14-hours, trust her that she shall not distract thee. Out of celestial63 gardens, in the tender Cappadocian legend, maid Dorothy's angel brought apples to Theophilus; to him, indeed, the fruit of salvation64. Yet, having lost the sweet symbolic65 grace of yore, she comes ever benignly66, and without malice67. Lavish68 October's legacy69, foretelling70 to thy fancy other seasons yet to make glad the earth, she, more than any other, is the staunch stand-by, the winter friend. Her native orchards droop71 lifelessly in snows; but, like a fair deed, she surviveth mortality, a kind and vital influence still. Darling of the tourist and the huntsman that she is, never was there creature so absolutely adapted to the student. Her happy moisture fructifieth the brain.
Only our neighboring Concord72 sages73, far back in the Athenian beginnings of the present school, sought her intellectual aid in vain. They, and the listening element, met for conversation,—Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, Curtis, even Hawthorne, with his sylvan74 shyness about him. There were appalling75 breaks, pertinacious76 "flashes of silence," such as were indigenous77 to Macaulay. The philosophers sat erect78, and struggled; then the narrator tells us how, with Olympic sweetness, the host, Ralph Waldo Emerson, brought out a dish of russets,—magna spes altera, genius having failed,—which were consumed, unavailingly, in silence. The ally was wistfully courted on after occasions; but the club solemnly dispersed79 on the third night.
If Apple, alas80! hath her freaks, let them be expended81 on philosophers. For her humbler adherents82, she hath too constant a good-will. To us, at least, she is faithful, recompensing our old affection for every branch of her house. We are no specialist, but cherish her to the twentieth remove: all her pale and soured graftings, her pungent83 windfalls, her eccentric hangers-on, her disregarded poor relations.
"Candles we'll give to thee,
And a new altar."
点击收听单词发音
1 discord | |
n.不和,意见不合,争论,(音乐)不和谐 | |
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2 enchanted | |
adj. 被施魔法的,陶醉的,入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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3 renascent | |
adj.新生的 | |
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4 mythologic | |
神话学的,神话的,虚构的 | |
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5 lauded | |
v.称赞,赞美( laud的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6 belie | |
v.掩饰,证明为假 | |
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7 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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8 rumor | |
n.谣言,谣传,传说 | |
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9 woe | |
n.悲哀,苦痛,不幸,困难;int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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10 treacherous | |
adj.不可靠的,有暗藏的危险的;adj.背叛的,背信弃义的 | |
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11 frail | |
adj.身体虚弱的;易损坏的 | |
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12 rosy | |
adj.美好的,乐观的,玫瑰色的 | |
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13 perpetuated | |
vt.使永存(perpetuate的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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14 writ | |
n.命令状,书面命令 | |
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15 derive | |
v.取得;导出;引申;来自;源自;出自 | |
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16 presumptuous | |
adj.胆大妄为的,放肆的,冒昧的,冒失的 | |
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17 orchards | |
(通常指围起来的)果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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18 knight | |
n.骑士,武士;爵士 | |
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19 relish | |
n.滋味,享受,爱好,调味品;vt.加调味料,享受,品味;vi.有滋味 | |
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20 hearty | |
adj.热情友好的;衷心的;尽情的,纵情的 | |
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21 dreads | |
n.恐惧,畏惧( dread的名词复数 );令人恐惧的事物v.害怕,恐惧,担心( dread的第三人称单数 ) | |
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22 shun | |
vt.避开,回避,避免 | |
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23 logician | |
n.逻辑学家 | |
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24 primal | |
adj.原始的;最重要的 | |
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25 forfeited | |
(因违反协议、犯规、受罚等)丧失,失去( forfeit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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26 nought | |
n./adj.无,零 | |
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27 wiles | |
n.(旨在欺骗或吸引人的)诡计,花招;欺骗,欺诈( wile的名词复数 ) | |
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28 myriads | |
n.无数,极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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29 disastrous | |
adj.灾难性的,造成灾害的;极坏的,很糟的 | |
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30 evoked | |
[医]诱发的 | |
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31 genial | |
adj.亲切的,和蔼的,愉快的,脾气好的 | |
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32 amiable | |
adj.和蔼可亲的,友善的,亲切的 | |
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33 anticipatory | |
adj.预想的,预期的 | |
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34 tart | |
adj.酸的;尖酸的,刻薄的;n.果馅饼;淫妇 | |
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35 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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36 sinister | |
adj.不吉利的,凶恶的,左边的 | |
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37 foe | |
n.敌人,仇敌 | |
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38 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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39 frankly | |
adv.坦白地,直率地;坦率地说 | |
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40 compassionate | |
adj.有同情心的,表示同情的 | |
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41 manly | |
adj.有男子气概的;adv.男子般地,果断地 | |
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42 petulance | |
n.发脾气,生气,易怒,暴躁,性急 | |
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43 exterior | |
adj.外部的,外在的;表面的 | |
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44 wholesome | |
adj.适合;卫生的;有益健康的;显示身心健康的 | |
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45 permeated | |
弥漫( permeate的过去式和过去分词 ); 遍布; 渗入; 渗透 | |
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46 temperament | |
n.气质,性格,性情 | |
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47 consolatory | |
adj.慰问的,可藉慰的 | |
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48 humane | |
adj.人道的,富有同情心的 | |
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49 wrestle | |
vi.摔跤,角力;搏斗;全力对付 | |
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50 speculation | |
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机 | |
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51 chaste | |
adj.贞洁的;有道德的;善良的;简朴的 | |
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52 rimmed | |
adj.有边缘的,有框的v.沿…边缘滚动;给…镶边 | |
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53 crimson | |
n./adj.深(绯)红色(的);vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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54 encompass | |
vt.围绕,包围;包含,包括;完成 | |
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55 antidotes | |
解药( antidote的名词复数 ); 解毒剂; 对抗手段; 除害物 | |
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56 languor | |
n.无精力,倦怠 | |
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57 velvet | |
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的 | |
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58 vindictive | |
adj.有报仇心的,怀恨的,惩罚的 | |
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59 maiden | |
n.少女,处女;adj.未婚的,纯洁的,无经验的 | |
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60 flickering | |
adj.闪烁的,摇曳的,一闪一闪的 | |
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61 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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62 meditations | |
默想( meditation的名词复数 ); 默念; 沉思; 冥想 | |
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63 celestial | |
adj.天体的;天上的 | |
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64 salvation | |
n.(尤指基督)救世,超度,拯救,解困 | |
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65 symbolic | |
adj.象征性的,符号的,象征主义的 | |
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66 benignly | |
adv.仁慈地,亲切地 | |
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67 malice | |
n.恶意,怨恨,蓄意;[律]预谋 | |
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68 lavish | |
adj.无节制的;浪费的;vt.慷慨地给予,挥霍 | |
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69 legacy | |
n.遗产,遗赠;先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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70 foretelling | |
v.预言,预示( foretell的现在分词 ) | |
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71 droop | |
v.低垂,下垂;凋萎,萎靡 | |
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72 concord | |
n.和谐;协调 | |
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73 sages | |
n.圣人( sage的名词复数 );智者;哲人;鼠尾草(可用作调料) | |
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74 sylvan | |
adj.森林的 | |
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75 appalling | |
adj.骇人听闻的,令人震惊的,可怕的 | |
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76 pertinacious | |
adj.顽固的 | |
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77 indigenous | |
adj.土产的,土生土长的,本地的 | |
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78 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
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79 dispersed | |
adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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80 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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81 expended | |
v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 );使用(钱等)做某事;用光;耗尽 | |
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82 adherents | |
n.支持者,拥护者( adherent的名词复数 );党羽;徒子徒孙 | |
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83 pungent | |
adj.(气味、味道)刺激性的,辛辣的;尖锐的 | |
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84 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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85 forsake | |
vt.遗弃,抛弃;舍弃,放弃 | |
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86 deity | |
n.神,神性;被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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87 vow | |
n.誓(言),誓约;v.起誓,立誓 | |
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88 wilfully | |
adv.任性固执地;蓄意地 | |
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89 subscribe | |
vi.(to)订阅,订购;同意;vt.捐助,赞助 | |
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