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第15节

sartor resartus-第15节

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 Persian silk; saying only: _Ihr lieben Leute; hier bringe ein unschatzbares Verleihen; nehmt es in aller Acht; sorgfaltigst benutzt es:  mit hohem Lohn; oder wohl mit schweren Zinsen; wird's einst zuruckgefordert_。  'Good Christian people; here lies for you an invaluable Loan; take all heed thereof; in all carefulness employ it:  with high recompense; or else with heavy penalty; will it one day be required back。'  Uttering which singular words; in a clear; bell…like; forever memorable tone; the Stranger gracefully withdrew; and before Andreas or his wife; gazing in expectant wonder; had time to fashion either question or answer; was clean gone。  Neither out of doors could aught of him be seen or heard; he had vanished in the thickets; in the dusk; the Orchard…gate stood quietly closed:  the Stranger was gone once and always。  So sudden had the whole transaction been; in the autumn stillness and twilight; so gentle; noiseless; that the Futterals could have fancied it all a trick of Imagination; or some visit from an authentic Spirit。  Only that the green…silk Basket; such as neither Imagination nor authentic Spirits are wont to carry; still stood visible and tangible on their little parlor…table。  Towards this the astonished couple; now with lit candle; hastily turned their attention。  Lifting the green veil; to see what invaluable it hid; they descried there; amid down and rich white wrappages; no Pitt Diamond or Hapsburg Regalia; but; in the softest sleep; a little red…colored Infant!  Beside it; lay a roll of gold Friedrichs; the exact amount of which was never publicly known; also a _Taufschein_ (baptismal certificate); wherein unfortunately nothing but the Name was decipherable; other document or indication none whatever。

〃To wonder and conjecture was unavailing; then and always thenceforth。 Nowhere in Entepfuhl; on the morrow or next day; did tidings transpire of any such figure as the Stranger; nor could the Traveller; who had passed through the neighboring Town in coach…and…four; be connected with this Apparition; except in the way of gratuitous surmise。  Meanwhile; for Andreas and his wife; the grand practical problem was:  What to do with this little sleeping red…colored Infant?  Amid amazements and curiosities; which had to die away without external satisfying; they resolved; as in such circumstances charitable prudent people needs must; on nursing it; though with spoon…meat; into whiteness; and if possible into manhood。  The Heavens smiled on their endeavor:  thus has that same mysterious Individual ever since had a status for himself in this visible Universe; some modicum of victual and lodging and parade…ground; and now expanded in bulk; faculty and knowledge of good and evil; he; as HERR DIOGENES TEUFELSDROCKH; professes or is ready to profess; perhaps not altogether without effect; in the new University of Weissnichtwo; the new Science of Things in General。〃

Our Philosopher declares here; as indeed we should think he well might; that these facts; first communicated; by the good Gretchen Futteral; In his twelfth year; 〃produced on the boyish heart and fancy a quite indelible impression。  Who this reverend Personage;〃 he says; 〃that glided into the Orchard Cottage when the Sun was in Libra; and then; as on spirit's wings; glided out again; might be?  An inexpressible desire; full of love and of sadness; has often since struggled within me to shape an answer。  Ever; in my distresses and my loneliness; has Fantasy turned; full of longing (_sehnsuchtsvoll_); to that unknown Father; who perhaps far from me; perhaps near; either way invisible; might have taken me to his paternal bosom; there to lie screened from many a woe。  Thou beloved Father; dost thou still; shut out from me only by thin penetrable curtains of earthly Space; wend to and fro among the crowd of the living?  Or art thou hidden by those far thicker curtains of the Everlasting Night; or rather of the Everlasting Day; through which my mortal eye and outstretched arms need not strive to reach?  Alas; I know not; and in vain vex myself to know。  More than once; heart…deluded; have I taken for thee this and the other noble…looking Stranger; and approached him wistfully; with infinite regard; but he too had to repel me; he too was not thou。

〃And yet; O Man born of Woman;〃 cries the Autobiographer; with one of his sudden whirls; 〃wherein is my case peculiar?  Hadst thou; any more than I; a Father whom thou knowest?  The Andreas and Gretchen; or the Adam and Eve; who led thee into Life; and for a time suckled and pap…fed thee there; whom thou namest Father and Mother; these were; like mine; but thy nursing…father and nursing…mother:  thy true Beginning and Father is in Heaven; whom with the bodily eye thou shalt never behold; but only with the spiritual。。。。

〃The little green veil;〃 adds he; among much similar moralizing; and embroiled discoursing; 〃I yet keep; still more inseparably the Name; Diogenes Teufelsdrockh。  From the veil can nothing be inferred:  a piece of now quite faded Persian silk; like thousands of others。  On the Name I have many times meditated and conjectured; but neither in this lay there any clew。  That it was my unknown Father's name I must hesitate to believe。  To no purpose have I searched through all the Herald's Books; in and without the German Empire; and through all manner of Subscriber…Lists (_Pranumeranten_); Militia…Rolls; and other Name…catalogues; extraordinary names as we have in Germany; the name Teufelsdrockh; except as appended to my own person; nowhere occurs。  Again; what may the unchristian rather than Christian 'Diogenes' mean?  Did that reverend Basket…bearer intend; by such designation; to shadow forth my future destiny; or his own present malign humor?  Perhaps the latter; perhaps both。  Thou ill…starred Parent; who like an Ostrich hadst to leave thy ill…starred offspring to be hatched into self…support by the mere sky…influences of Chance; can thy pilgrimage have been a smooth one?  Beset by Misfortune thou doubtless hast been; or indeed by the worst figure of Misfortune; by Misconduct。  Often have I fancied how; in thy hard life…battle; thou wert shot at; and slung at; wounded; hand…fettered; hamstrung; browbeaten and bedevilled by the Time…Spirit (_Zeitgeist_) in thyself and others; till the good soul first given thee was seered into grim rage; and thou hadst nothing for it but to leave in me an indignant appeal to the Future; and living speaking Protest against the Devil; as that same Spirit not of the Time only; but of Time itself; is well named!  Which Appeal and Protest; may I now modestly add; was not perhaps quite lost in air。

〃For indeed; as Walter Shandy often insisted; there is much; nay almost all; in Names。  The Name is the earliest Garment you wrap round the earth…visiting ME; to which it thenceforth cleaves; more tenaciously (for there are Names that have lasted nigh thirty centuries) than the very skin。 And now from without; what mystic influences does it not send inwards; even to the centre; especially in those plastic first…times; when the whole soul is yet infantine; soft; and the invisible seedgrain will grow to be an all overshadowing tree!  Names?  Could I unfold the influence of Names; which are the most important of all Clothings; I were a second greater Trismegistus。  Not only all common Speech; but Science; Poetry itself is no other; if thou consider it; than a right _Naming_。  Adam's first task was giving names to natural Appearances:  what is ours still but a continuation of the same; be the Appearances exotic…vegetable; organic; mechanic; stars; or starry movements (as in Science); or (as in Poetry) passions; virtues; calamities; God…attributes; Gods?In a very plain sense the Proverb says; _Call one a thief; and he will steal_; in an almost similar sense may we not perhaps say; _Call one Diogenes Teufelsdrockh; and he will open the Philosophy of Clothes_?〃


〃Meanwhile the incipient Diogenes; like others; all ignorant of his Why; his How or Whereabout; was opening his eyes to the kind Light; sprawling out his ten fingers and toes; listening; tasting; feeling; in a word; by all his Five Senses; still more by his Sixth Sense of Hunger; and a whole infinitude of inward; spiritual; half…awakened Senses; endeavoring daily to acquire for himself some knowledge of this strange Universe where he had arrived; be his task therein what it might。  Infinite was his progress; thus in some fifteen months; he could perform the miracle ofSpeech!  To breed a fresh Soul; is it not like brooding a fresh (celestial) Egg; wherein as yet all is formless; powerless; yet by degrees organic elements and fibres shoot through the watery albumen; and out of vague Sensation grows Thought; grows Fantasy and Force; and we have Philosophies; Dynasties; nay Poetries and Religions!

〃Young Diogenes; or rather young Gneschen; for by such diminutive had they in their fondness named him; travelled forward to those high consummations; by quick yet easy stages。  The Futterals; to avoid vain talk; and moreover keep the roll of gold Friedrichs safe; gave out that he was a grandnephew; the orphan of some sister's daughter; suddenly deceased; in Andreas's distant Prussian birthland; of whom; as of her indigent sorrowing w

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