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the uncommercial traveller-第34节

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and then to glance in at the lodge over the spiked wicket; and see

the fire and light of the watching turnkeys; on the white wall。

Not an inappropriate time either; to linger by that wicked little

Debtors' Door … shutting tighter than any other door one ever saw …

which has been Death's Door to so many。  In the days of the

uttering of forged one…pound notes by people tempted up from the

country; how many hundreds of wretched creatures of both sexes …

many quite innocent … swung out of a pitiless and inconsistent

world; with the tower of yonder Christian church of Saint Sepulchre

monstrously before their eyes!  Is there any haunting of the Bank

Parlour; by the remorseful souls of old directors; in the nights of

these later days; I wonder; or is it as quiet as this degenerate

Aceldama of an Old Bailey?



To walk on to the Bank; lamenting the good old times and bemoaning

the present evil period; would be an easy next step; so I would

take it; and would make my houseless circuit of the Bank; and give

a thought to the treasure within; likewise to the guard of soldiers

passing the night there; and nodding over the fire。  Next; I went

to Billingsgate; in some hope of market…people; but it proving as

yet too early; crossed London…bridge and got down by the water…side

on the Surrey shore among the buildings of the great brewery。

There was plenty going on at the brewery; and the reek; and the

smell of grains; and the rattling of the plump dray horses at their

mangers; were capital company。  Quite refreshed by having mingled

with this good society; I made a new start with a new heart;

setting the old King's Bench prison before me for my next object;

and resolving; when I should come to the wall; to think of poor

Horace Kinch; and the Dry Rot in men。



A very curious disease the Dry Rot in men; and difficult to detect

the beginning of。  It had carried Horace Kinch inside the wall of

the old King's Bench prison; and it had carried him out with his

feet foremost。  He was a likely man to look at; in the prime of

life; well to do; as clever as he needed to be; and popular among

many friends。  He was suitably married; and had healthy and pretty

children。  But; like some fair…looking houses or fair…looking

ships; he took the Dry Rot。  The first strong external revelation

of the Dry Rot in men; is a tendency to lurk and lounge; to be at

street…corners without intelligible reason; to be going anywhere

when met; to be about many places rather than at any; to do nothing

tangible; but to have an intention of performing a variety of

intangible duties to…morrow or the day after。  When this

manifestation of the disease is observed; the observer will usually

connect it with a vague impression once formed or received; that

the patient was living a little too hard。  He will scarcely have

had leisure to turn it over in his mind and form the terrible

suspicion 'Dry Rot;' when he will notice a change for the worse in

the patient's appearance:  a certain slovenliness and

deterioration; which is not poverty; nor dirt; nor intoxication;

nor ill…health; but simply Dry Rot。  To this; succeeds a smell as

of strong waters; in the morning; to that; a looseness respecting

money; to that; a stronger smell as of strong waters; at all times;

to that; a looseness respecting everything; to that; a trembling of

the limbs; somnolency; misery; and crumbling to pieces。  As it is

in wood; so it is in men。  Dry Rot advances at a compound usury

quite incalculable。  A plank is found infected with it; and the

whole structure is devoted。  Thus it had been with the unhappy

Horace Kinch; lately buried by a small subscription。  Those who

knew him had not nigh done saying; 'So well off; so comfortably

established; with such hope before him … and yet; it is feared;

with a slight touch of Dry Rot!' when lo! the man was all Dry Rot

and dust。



From the dead wall associated on those houseless nights with this

too common story; I chose next to wander by Bethlehem Hospital;

partly; because it lay on my road round to Westminster; partly;

because I had a night fancy in my head which could be best pursued

within sight of its walls and dome。  And the fancy was this:  Are

not the sane and the insane equal at night as the sane lie a

dreaming?  Are not all of us outside this hospital; who dream; more

or less in the condition of those inside it; every night of our

lives?  Are we not nightly persuaded; as they daily are; that we

associate preposterously with kings and queens; emperors and

empresses; and notabilities of all sorts?  Do we not nightly jumble

events and personages and times and places; as these do daily?  Are

we not sometimes troubled by our own sleeping inconsistencies; and

do we not vexedly try to account for them or excuse them; just as

these do sometimes in respect of their waking delusions?  Said an

afflicted man to me; when I was last in a hospital like this; 'Sir;

I can frequently fly。'  I was half ashamed to reflect that so could

I … by night。  Said a woman to me on the same occasion; 'Queen

Victoria frequently comes to dine with me; and her Majesty and I

dine off peaches and maccaroni in our night…gowns; and his Royal

Highness the Prince Consort does us the honour to make a third on

horseback in a Field…Marshal's uniform。'  Could I refrain from

reddening with consciousness when I remembered the amazing royal

parties I myself had given (at night); the unaccountable viands I

had put on table; and my extraordinary manner of conducting myself

on those distinguished occasions?  I wonder that the great master

who knew everything; when he called Sleep the death of each day's

life; did not call Dreams the insanity of each day's sanity。



By this time I had left the Hospital behind me; and was again

setting towards the river; and in a short breathing space I was on

Westminster…bridge; regaling my houseless eyes with the external

walls of the British Parliament … the perfection of a stupendous

institution; I know; and the admiration of all surrounding nations

and succeeding ages; I do not doubt; but perhaps a little the

better now and then for being pricked up to its work。  Turning off

into Old Palace…yard; the Courts of Law kept me company for a

quarter of an hour; hinting in low whispers what numbers of people

they were keeping awake; and how intensely wretched and horrible

they were rendering the small hours to unfortunate suitors。

Westminster Abbey was fine gloomy society for another quarter of an

hour; suggesting a wonderful procession of its dead among the dark

arches and pillars; each century more amazed by the century

following it than by all the centuries going before。  And indeed in

those houseless night walks … which even included cemeteries where

watchmen went round among the graves at stated times; and moved the

tell…tale handle of an index which recorded that they had touched

it at such an hour … it was a solemn consideration what enormous

hosts of dead belong to one old great city; and how; if they were

raised while the living slept; there would not be the space of a

pin's point in all the streets and ways for the living to come out

into。  Not only that; but the vast armies of dead would overflow

the hills and valleys beyond the city; and would stretch away all

round it; God knows how far。



When a church clock strikes; on houseless ears in the dead of the

night; it may be at first mistaken for company and hailed as such。

But; as the spreading circles of vibration; which you may perceive

at such a time with great clearness; go opening out; for ever and

ever afterwards widening perhaps (as the philosopher has suggested)

in eternal space; the mistake is rectified and the sense of

loneliness is profounder。  Once … it was after leaving the Abbey

and turning my face north … I came to the great steps of St。

Martin's church as the clock was striking Three。  Suddenly; a thing

that in a moment more I should have trodden upon without seeing;

rose up at my feet with a cry of loneliness and houselessness;

struck out of it by the bell; the like of which I never heard。  We

then stood face to face looking at one another; frightened by one

another。  The creature was like a beetle…browed hair…lipped youth

of twenty; and it had a loose bundle of rags on; which it held

together with one of its hands。  It shivered from head to foot; and

its teeth chattered; and as it stared at me … persecutor; devil;

ghost; whatever it thought me … it made with its whining mouth as

if it were snapping at me; like a worried dog。  Intending to give

this ugly object money; I put out my hand to stay it … for it

recoiled as it whined and snapped … and laid my hand upon its

shoulder。  Instantly; it twisted out of its garment; like the young

man in the New Testament; and left me standing alone with its rags

in my hands。



Covent…garden Market; when it was market morning; was wonderful

company。  The great w

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