The Young Men’s Debating Society was a newly formed branch of the multifarous activity of the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. It met on Sunday because Sunday was the only day that would suit everybody; and at six in the morning for two reasons. The obvious reason was that at any other hour its meetings would clash either with other activities or with the solemnity of Sabbath meals. This obvious reason could not have stood by itself; it was secretly supported by the recondite9 reason that the preposterous10 hour of 6 a.m. appealed powerfully to something youthful, perverse11, silly, fanatical, and fine in the youths. They discovered the ascetic12’s joy in robbing themselves of sleep and in catching13 chills, and in disturbing households and chapel-keepers. They thought it was a great thing to be discussing intellectual topics at an hour when a town that ignorantly scorned intellectuality was snoring in all its heavy brutishness. And it was a great thing. They considered themselves the salt of the earth, or of that part of the earth. And I have an idea that they were.
Edwin had joined this Society partly because he did not possess the art of refusing, partly because the notion of it appealed spectacularly to the martyr14 in him, and partly because it gave him an excuse for ceasing to attend the afternoon Sunday school, which he loathed15. Without such an excuse he could never have told his father that he meant to give up Sunday school. He could never have dared to do so. His father had what Edwin deemed to be a superstitious16 and hypocritical regard for the Sunday school. Darius never went near the Sunday school, and assuredly in business and in home life he did not practise the precepts17 inculcated at the Sunday school, and yet he always spoke18 of the Sunday school with what was to Edwin a ridiculous reverence19. Another of those problems in his father’s character which Edwin gave up in disgust!
Two.
The Society met in a small classroom. The secretary, arch ascetic, arrived at 5:45 and lit the fire which the chapel-keeper (a man with no enthusiasm whatever for flagellation, the hairshirt, or intellectuality) had laid but would not get up to light. The chairman of the Society, a little Welshman named Llewelyn Roberts, aged20 fifty, but a youth because a bachelor, sat on a chair at one side of the incipient21 fire, and some dozen members sat round the room on forms. A single gas jet flamed from the ceiling. Everybody wore his overcoat, and within the collars of overcoats could be seen glimpses of rich neckties; the hats, some glossy22, dotted the hat-rack which ran along two walls. A hymn23 was sung, and then all knelt, some spreading handkerchiefs on the dusty floor to protect fine trousers, and the chairman invoked24 the blessing25 of God on their discussions. The proper mental and emotional atmosphere was now established. The secretary read the minutes of the last meeting, while the chairman surreptitiously poked26 the fire with a piece of wood from the lower works of a chair, and then the chairman, as he signed the minutes with a pen dipped in an excise27 ink-bottle that stood on the narrow mantelpiece, said in his dry voice—
“I call upon our young friend, Mr Edwin Clayhanger, to open the debate, ‘Is Bishop28 Colenso, considered as a Biblical commentator29, a force for good?’”
“I’m a damned fool!” said Edwin to himself savagely30, as he stood on his feet. But to look at his wistful and nervously31 smiling face, no one would have guessed that he was thus blasphemously32 swearing in the privacy of his own brain.
He had been entrapped33 into the situation in which he found himself. It was not until after he had joined the Society that he had learnt of a rule which made it compulsory34 for every member to speak at every meeting attended, and for every member to open a debate at least once in a year. And this was not all; the use of notes while the orator35 was ‘up’ was absolutely forbidden. A drastic Society! It had commended itself to elders by claiming to be a nursery for ready speakers.
Three.
Edwin had chosen the subject of Bishop Colenso—the ultimate wording of the resolution was not his—because he had been reading about the intellectually adventurous36 Bishop in the “Manchester Examiner.” And, although eleven years had passed since the publication of the first part of “The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua Critically Examined,” the Colenso question was only just filtering down to the thinking classes of the Five Towns; it was an actuality in the Five Towns, if in abeyance37 in London. Even Hugh Miller’s “The Old Red Sandstone, or New Walks in an Old Field,” then over thirty years old, was still being looked upon as dangerously original in the Five Towns in 1873. However, the effect of its disturbing geological evidence that the earth could scarcely have been begun and finished in a little under a week, was happily nullified by the suicide of its author; that pistol-shot had been a striking proof of the literal inspiration of the Bible.
Bishop Colenso had, in Edwin, an ingenuous38 admirer. Edwin stammeringly39 and hesitatingly gave a preliminary sketch40 of his life; how he had been censured41 by Convocation and deposed42 from his See by his Metropolitan43; how the Privy44 Council had decided45 that the deposition46 was null and void; how the ecclesiastical authorities had then circumvented47 the Privy Council by refusing to pay his salary to the Bishop (which Edwin considered mean); how the Bishop had circumvented the ecclesiastical authorities by appealing to the Master of the Rolls, who ordered the ecclesiastical authorities to pay him his arrears48 of income with interest thereon, unless they were ready to bring him to trial for heresy49; how the said authorities would not bring him to trial for heresy (which Edwin considered to be miserable50 cowardice51 on their part); how the Bishop had then been publicly excommunicated, without authority; and how his friends, among whom were some very respectable and powerful people, had made him a present of over three thousand pounds. After this graphic52 historical survey, Edwin proceeded to the Pentateuchal puzzles, and, without pronouncing an opinion thereon, argued that any commentator who was both learned and sincere must be a force for good, as the Bible had nothing to fear from honest inquiry53, etcetera, etcetera. Five-sixths of his speech was coloured by phrases and modes of thought which he had picked up in the Wesleyan community, and the other sixth belonged to himself. The speech was moderately bad, but not inferior to many other speeches. It was received in absolute silence. This rather surprised Edwin, because the tone in which the leading members of the Society usually spoke to him indicated that (for reasons which he knew not) they regarded him as a very superior intellect indeed; and Edwin was not entirely54 ashamed of the quality of his speech; in fact, he had feared worse from himself, especially as, since his walk with Mr Orgreave, he had been quite unable to concentrate his thoughts on Bishop Colenso at all, and had been exceedingly unhappy and apprehensive55 concerning an affair that bore no kind of relation to the Pentateuch.
Four.
The chairman began to speak at once. His function was to call upon the speakers in the order arranged, and to sum up before putting the resolution to the vote. But now he produced surprisingly a speech of his own. He reminded the meeting that in 1860 Bishop Colenso had memorialised the Archbishop of Canterbury against compelling natives who had already more than one wife to renounce56 polygamy as a condition to baptism in the Christian57 religion; he stated that, though there were young men present who were almost infants in arms at that period, he for his part could well remember all the episode, and in particular Bishop Colenso’s amazing allegation that he could find no disapproval58 of polygamy either in the Bible or in the writings of the Ancient Church. He also pointed59 out that in 1861 Bishop Colenso had argued against the doctrine60 of Eternal Punishment. He warned the meeting to beware of youthful indiscretions. Every one there assembled of course meant well, and believed what it was a duty to believe, but at the same time...
“I shall write father a letter!” said Edwin to himself. The idea came to him in a flash like a divine succour; and it seemed to solve all his difficulties—difficulties unconnected with the subject of debate.
Five.
The chairman went on crossing t’s and dotting i’s. And soon even Edwin perceived that the chairman was diplomatically and tactfully, yet very firmly, bent61 upon saving the meeting from any possibility of scandalising itself and the Wesleyan community. Bishop Colenso must not be approved beneath those roofs. Evidently Edwin had been more persuasive62 than he dreamt of; and daring beyond precedent63. He had meant to carry his resolution if he could, whereas, it appeared, he ought to have meant to be defeated, in the true interests of revealed religion. The chairman kept referring to his young friend the proposer’s brilliant brains, and to the grave danger that lurked64 in brilliant brains, and the inability of brilliant brains to atone65 for lack of experience. The meeting had its cue. Young man after young man arose to snub Bishop Colenso, to hope charitably that Bishop Colenso was sincere, and to insist that no Bishop Colenso should lead him to the awful abyss of polygamy, and that no Bishop Colenso should deprive him of that unique incentive66 to righteousness—the doctrine of an everlasting67 burning hell. Moses was put on his legs again as a serious historian, and the subject of the resolution utterly68 lost to view. The Chairman then remarked that his impartial69 rôle forbade him to support either side, and the voting showed fourteen against one. They all sang the Doxology, and the Chairman pronounced a benediction70. The fourteen forgave the one, as one who knew not what he did; but their demeanour rather too patently showed that they were forgiving under difficulty; and that it would be as well that this kind of youthful temerariousness was not practised too often. Edwin, in the language of the district, was ‘sneaped.’ Wondering what on earth he after all had said to raise such an alarm, he nevertheless did not feel resentful, only very depressed—about the debate and about other things. He knew in his heart that for him attendance at the meetings of the Young Men’s Debating Society was ridiculous.
Six.
He allowed all the rest to precede him from the room. When he was alone he smiled sheepishly, and also disdainfully; he knew that the chasm71 between himself and the others was a real chasm, and not a figment of his childish diffidence, as he had sometimes suspected it to be. Then he turned the gas out. A beautiful faint silver surged through the window. While the debate was in progress, the sun had been going about its business of the dawn, unperceived.
“I shall write a letter!” he kept saying to himself. “He’ll never let me explain myself properly if I start talking. I shall write a letter. I can write a very good letter, and he’ll be bound to take notice of it. He’ll never be able to get over my letter.”
In the school-yard daylight reigned. The debaters had already disappeared. Trafalgar Road and Duck Bank were empty and silent under rosy72 clouds. Instead of going straight home Edwin went past the Town Hall and through the Market Place to the Sytch Pottery73. Astounding74 that he had never noticed for himself how beautiful the building was! It was a simply lovely building!
“Yes,” he said, “I shall write him a letter, and this very day, too! May I be hung, drawn75, and quartered if he doesn’t have to read my letter to-morrow morning!”
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1
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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2
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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3
converging
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| adj.收敛[缩]的，会聚的，趋同的v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的现在分词 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集 | |
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4
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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5
flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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flannels
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| 法兰绒男裤； 法兰绒( flannel的名词复数 ) | |
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8
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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9
recondite
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| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
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10
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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11
perverse
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| adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的 | |
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12
ascetic
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| adj.禁欲的；严肃的 | |
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13
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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14
martyr
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| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
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15
loathed
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| v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的过去式和过去分词 )；极不喜欢 | |
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16
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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17
precepts
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| n.规诫，戒律，箴言( precept的名词复数 ) | |
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18
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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19
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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20
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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21
incipient
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| adj.起初的，发端的，初期的 | |
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22
glossy
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| adj.平滑的；有光泽的 | |
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23
hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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24
invoked
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| v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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25
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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26
poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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27
excise
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| n.(国产)货物税；vt.切除，删去 | |
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28
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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29
commentator
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| n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员 | |
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30
savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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31
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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32
blasphemously
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33
entrapped
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| v.使陷入圈套，使入陷阱( entrap的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34
compulsory
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| n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的 | |
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35
orator
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| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
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36
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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37
abeyance
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| n.搁置，缓办，中止，产权未定 | |
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38
ingenuous
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| adj.纯朴的，单纯的；天真的；坦率的 | |
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39
stammeringly
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| adv.stammering（口吃的）的变形 | |
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40
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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41
censured
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| v.指责，非难，谴责( censure的过去式 ) | |
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42
deposed
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| v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证 | |
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43
metropolitan
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| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
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44
privy
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| adj.私用的；隐密的 | |
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45
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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46
deposition
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| n.免职，罢官；作证；沉淀；沉淀物 | |
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47
circumvented
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| v.设法克服或避免（某事物），回避( circumvent的过去式和过去分词 )；绕过，绕行，绕道旅行 | |
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48
arrears
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| n.到期未付之债，拖欠的款项；待做的工作 | |
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49
heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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50
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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51
cowardice
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| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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52
graphic
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| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
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53
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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54
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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55
apprehensive
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| adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的 | |
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56
renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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57
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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58
disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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59
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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60
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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61
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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62
persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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63
precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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64
lurked
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| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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65
atone
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| v.赎罪，补偿 | |
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66
incentive
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| n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机 | |
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67
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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68
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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69
impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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70
benediction
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| n.祝福；恩赐 | |
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71
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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72
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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73
pottery
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| n.陶器，陶器场 | |
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74
astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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75
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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