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第26节

sartor resartus-第26节

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 Earth held but one and not several of these!

He says that; in Town; they met again:  〃day after day; like his heart's sun; the blooming Blumine shone on him。  Ah! a little while ago; and he was yet in all darkness:  him what Graceful (_Holde_) would ever love? Disbelieving all things; the poor youth had never learned to believe in himself。  Withdrawn; in proud timidity; within his own fastnesses; solitary from men; yet baited by night…spectres enough; he saw himself; with a sad indignation; constrained to renounce the fairest hopes of existence。  And now; O now!  'She looks on thee;' cried he:  'she the fairest; noblest; do not her dark eyes tell thee; thou art not despised?  The Heaven's…Messenger!  All Heaven's blessings be hers!'  Thus did soft melodies flow through his heart; tones of an infinite gratitude; sweetest intimations that he also was a man; that for him also unutterable joys had been provided。

〃In free speech; earnest or gay; amid lambent glances; laughter; tears; and often with the inarticulate mystic speech of Music:  such was the element they now lived in; in such a many…tinted; radiant Aurora; and by this fairest of Orient Light…bringers must our Friend be blandished; and the new Apocalypse of Nature enrolled to him。  Fairest Blumine!  And; even as a Star; all Fire and humid Softness; a very Light…ray incarnate!  Was there so much as a fault; a 'caprice;' he could have dispensed with?  Was she not to him in very deed a Morning…star; did not her presence bring with it airs from Heaven?  As from AEolian Harps in the breath of dawn; as from the Memnon's Statue struck by the rosy finger of Aurora; unearthly music was around him; and lapped him into untried balmy Rest。  Pale Doubt fled away to the distance; Life bloomed up with happiness and hope。  The past; then; was all a haggard dream; he had been in the Garden of Eden; then; and could not discern it!  But lo now! the black walls of his prison melt away; the captive is alive; is free。  If he loved his Disenchantress?  _Ach Gott_! His whole heart and soul and life were hers; but never had he named it Love:  existence was all a Feeling; not yet shaped into a Thought。〃

Nevertheless; into a Thought; nay into an Action; it must be shaped; for neither Disenchanter nor Disenchantress; mere 〃Children of Time;〃 can abide by Feeling alone。  The Professor knows not; to this day; 〃how in her soft; fervid bosom the Lovely found determination; even on hest of Necessity; to cut asunder these so blissful bonds。〃  He even appears surprised at the 〃Duenna Cousin;〃 whoever she may have been; 〃in whose meagre hunger…bitten philosophy; the religion of young hearts was; from the first; faintly approved of。〃  We; even at such distance; can explain it without necromancy。  Let the Philosopher answer this one question:  What figure; at that period; was a Mrs。 Teufelsdrockh likely to make in polished society? Could she have driven so much as a brass…bound Gig; or even a simple iron…spring one?  Thou foolish 〃absolved Auscultator;〃 before whom lies no prospect of capital; will any yet known 〃religion of young hearts〃 keep the human kitchen warm?  Pshaw! thy divine Blumine; when she 〃resigned herself to wed some richer;〃 shows more philosophy; though but 〃a woman of genius;〃 than thou; a pretended man。

Our readers have witnessed the origin of this Love…mania; and with what royal splendor it waxes; and rises。  Let no one ask us to unfold the glories of its dominant state; much less the horrors of its almost instantaneous dissolution。  How from such inorganic masses; henceforth madder than ever; as lie in these Bags; can even fragments of a living delineation be organized?  Besides; of what profit were it?  We view; with a lively pleasure; the gay silk Montgolfier start from the ground; and shoot upwards; cleaving the liquid deeps; till it dwindle to a luminous star:  but what is there to look longer on; when once; by natural elasticity; or accident of fire; it has exploded?  A hapless air…navigator; plunging; amid torn parachutes; sand…bags; and confused wreck; fast enough into the jaws of the Devil!  Suffice it to know that Teufelsdrockh rose into the highest regions of the Empyrean; by a natural parabolic track; and returned thence in a quick perpendicular one。  For the rest; let any feeling reader; who has been unhappy enough to do the like; paint it out for himself:  considering only that if he; for his perhaps comparatively insignificant mistress; underwent such agonies and frenzies; what must Teufelsdrockh's have been; with a fire…heart; and for a nonpareil Blumine! We glance merely at the final scene:

〃One morning; he found his Morning…star all dimmed and dusky…red; the fair creature was silent; absent; she seemed to have been weeping。  Alas; no longer a Morning…star; but a troublous skyey Portent; announcing that the Doomsday had dawned!  She said; in a tremulous voice; They were to meet no more。〃  The thunder…struck Air…sailor is not wanting to himself in this dread hour:  but what avails it?  We omit the passionate expostulations; entreaties; indignations; since all was vain; and not even an explanation was conceded him; and hasten to the catastrophe。  〃'Farewell; then; Madam!' said he; not without sternness; for his stung pride helped him。  She put her hand in his; she looked in his face; tears started to her eyes; in wild audacity he clasped her to his bosom; their lips were joined; their two souls; like two dew…drops; rushed into one;for the first time and for the last!〃  Thus was Teufelsdrockh made immortal by a kiss。  And then?  Why; then〃thick curtains of Night rushed over his soul; as rose the immeasurable Crash of Doom; and through the ruins as of a shivered Universe was he falling; falling; towards the Abyss。〃


CHAPTER VI。 SORROWS OF TEUFELSDROCKH。

We have long felt that; with a man like our Professor; matters must often be expected to take a course of their own; that in so multiplex; intricate a nature; there might be channels; both for admitting and emitting; such as the Psychologist had seldom noted; in short; that on no grand occasion and convulsion; neither in the joy…storm nor in the woe…storm could you predict his demeanor。

To our less philosophical readers; for example; it is now clear that the so passionate Teufelsdrockh precipitated through 〃a shivered Universe〃 in this extraordinary way; has only one of three things which he can next do: Establish himself in Bedlam; begin writing Satanic Poetry; or blow out his brains。  In the progress towards any of which consummations; do not such readers anticipate extravagance enough; breast…beating; brow…beating (against walls); lion…bellowings of blasphemy and the like; stampings; smitings; breakages of furniture; if not arson itself?

Nowise so does Teufelsdrockh deport him。  He quietly lifts his _Pilgerstab_ (Pilgrim…staff); 〃old business being soon wound up;〃 and begins a perambulation and circumambulation of the terraqueous Globe!  Curious it is; indeed; how with such vivacity of conception; such intensity of feeling; above all; with these unconscionable habits of Exaggeration in speech; he combines that wonderful stillness of his; that stoicism in external procedure。  Thus; if his sudden bereavement; in this matter of the Flower…goddess; is talked of as a real Doomsday and Dissolution of Nature; in which light doubtless it partly appeared to himself; his own nature is nowise dissolved thereby; but rather is compressed closer。  For once; as we might say; a Blumine by magic appliances has unlocked that shut heart of his; and its hidden things rush out tumultuous; boundless; like genii enfranchised from their glass vial:  but no sooner are your magic appliances withdrawn; than the strange casket of a heart springs to again; and perhaps there is now no key extant that will open it; for a Teufelsdrockh as we remarked; will not love a second time。  Singular Diogenes!  No sooner has that heart…rending occurrence fairly taken place; than he affects to regard it as a thing natural; of which there is nothing more to be said。  〃One highest hope; seemingly legible in the eyes of an Angel; had recalled him as out of Death…shadows into celestial Life:  but a gleam of Tophet passed over the face of his Angel; he was rapt away in whirlwinds; and heard the laughter of Demons。  It was a Calenture;〃 adds he; 〃whereby the Youth saw green Paradise…groves in the waste Ocean…waters: a lying vision; yet not wholly a lie; for _he_ saw it。〃  But what things soever passed in him; when he ceased to see it; what ragings and despairings soever Teufelsdrockh's soul was the scene of; he has the goodness to conceal under a quite opaque cover of Silence。  We know it well; the first mad paroxysm past; our brave Gneschen collected his dismembered philosophies; and buttoned himself together; he was meek; silent; or spoke of the weather and the Journals:  only by a transient knitting of those shaggy brows; by some deep flash of those eyes; glancing one knew not whether with tear…dew or with fierce fire;might you have guessed what a Gehenna was within:  that a whole Satanic School were spouting; though inaudibly; there。  To consume your own choler; as some chimneys consume their own smoke; to keep a whole Satanic School spouting; if it mu

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