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第12节

lay morals-第12节

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You belong; sir; to a sect … I believe my sect; and that in  which my ancestors laboured … which has enjoyed; and partly  failed to utilise; an exceptional advantage in the islands of  Hawaii。  The first missionaries came; they found the land  already self…purged of its old and bloody faith; they were  embraced; almost on their arrival; with enthusiasm; what  troubles they supported came far more from whites than from  Hawaiians; and to these last they stood (in a rough figure)  in the shoes of God。  This is not the place to enter into the  degree or causes of their failure; such as it is。  One  element alone is pertinent; and must here be plainly dealt  with。  In the course of their evangelical calling; they … or  too many of them … grew rich。  It may be news to you that the  houses of missionaries are a cause of mocking on the streets  of Honolulu。  It will at least be news to you; that when I  returned your civil visit; the driver of my cab commented on  the size; the taste; and the comfort of your home。  It would  have been news certainly to myself; had any one told me that  afternoon that I should live to drag such matter into print。   But you see; sir; how you degrade better men to your own  level; and it is needful that those who are to judge betwixt  you and me; betwixt Damien and the devil's advocate; should  understand your letter to have been penned in a house which  could raise; and that very justly; the envy and the comments  of the passers…by。  I think (to employ a phrase of yours  which I admire) it 'should be attributed' to you that you  have never visited the scene of Damien's life and death。  If  you had; and had recalled it; and looked about your pleasant  rooms; even your pen perhaps would have been stayed。

Your sect (and remember; as far as any sect avows me; it is  mine) has not done ill in a worldly sense in the Hawaiian  Kingdom。  When calamity befell their innocent parishioners;  when leprosy descended and took root in the Eight Islands; a  QUID PRO QUO was to be looked for。  To that prosperous  mission; and to you; as one of its adornments; God had sent  at last an opportunity。  I know I am touching here upon a  nerve acutely sensitive。  I know that others of your  colleagues look back on the inertia of your Church; and the  intrusive and decisive heroism of Damien; with something  almost to be called remorse。  I am sure it is so with  yourself; I am persuaded your letter was inspired by a  certain envy; not essentially ignoble; and the one human  trait to be espied in that performance。  You were thinking of  the lost chance; the past day; of that which should have been  conceived and was not; of the service due and not rendered。   Time was; said the voice in your ear; in your pleasant room;  as you sat raging and writing; and if the words written were  base beyond parallel; the rage; I am happy to repeat … it is  the only compliment I shall pay you … the rage was almost  virtuous。  But; sir; when we have failed; and another has  succeeded; when we have stood by; and another has stepped in;  when we sit and grow bulky in our charming mansions; and a  plain; uncouth peasant steps into the battle; under the eyes  of God; and succours the afflicted; and consoles the dying;  and is himself afflicted in his turn; and dies upon the field  of honour … the battle cannot be retrieved as your unhappy  irritation has suggested。  It is a lost battle; and lost for  ever。  One thing remained to you in your defeat … some rags  of common honour; and these you have made haste to cast away。

Common honour; not the honour of having done anything right;  but the honour of not having done aught conspicuously foul;  the honour of the inert: that was what remained to you。  We  are not all expected to be Damiens; a man may conceive his  duty more narrowly; he may love his comforts better; and none  will cast a stone at him for that。  But will a gentleman of  your reverend profession allow me an example from the fields  of gallantry?  When two gentlemen compete for the favour of a  lady; and the one succeeds and the other is rejected; and (as  will sometimes happen) matter damaging to the successful  rival's credit reaches the ear of the defeated; it is held by  plain men of no pretensions that his mouth is; in the  circumstance; almost necessarily closed。  Your Church and  Damien's were in Hawaii upon a rivalry to do well: to help;  to edify; to set divine examples。  You having (in one huge  instance) failed; and Damien succeeded; I marvel it should  not have occurred to you that you were doomed to silence;  that when you had been outstripped in that high rivalry; and  sat inglorious in the midst of your wellbeing; in your  pleasant room … and Damien; crowned with glories and horrors;  toiled and rotted in that pigsty of his under the cliffs of  Kalawao … you; the elect who would not; were the last man on  earth to collect and propagate gossip on the volunteer who  would and did。

I think I see you … for I try to see you in the flesh as I  write these sentences … I think I see you leap at the word  pigsty; a hyperbolical expression at the best。  'He had no  hand in the reforms;' he was 'a coarse; dirty man'; these  were your own words; and you may think it possible that I am  come to support you with fresh evidence。  In a sense; it is  even so。  Damien has been too much depicted with a  conventional halo and conventional features; so drawn by men  who perhaps had not the eye to remark or the pen to express  the individual; or who perhaps were only blinded and silenced  by generous admiration; such as I partly envy for myself …  such as you; if your soul were enlightened; would envy on  your bended knees。  It is the least defect of such a method  of portraiture that it makes the path easy for the devil's  advocate; and leaves for the misuse of the slanderer a  considerable field of truth。  For the truth that is  suppressed by friends is the readiest weapon of the enemy。   The world; in your despite; may perhaps owe you something; if  your letter be the means of substituting once for all a  credible likeness for a wax abstraction。  For; if that world  at all remember you; on the day when Damien of Molokai shall  be named Saint; it will be in virtue of one work: your letter  to the Reverend H。 B。 Gage。

You may ask on what authority I speak。  It was my inclement  destiny to become acquainted; not with Damien; but with Dr。  Hyde。  When I visited the lazaretto; Damien was already in  his resting grave。  But such information as I have; I  gathered on the spot in conversation with those who knew him  well and long: some indeed who revered his memory; but others  who had sparred and wrangled with him; who beheld him with no  halo; who perhaps regarded him with small respect; and  through whose unprepared and scarcely partial communications  the plain; human features of the man shone on me  convincingly。  These gave me what knowledge I possess; and I  learnt it in that scene where it could be most completely and  sensitively understood … Kalawao; which you have never  visited; about which you have never so much as endeavoured to  inform yourself; for; brief as your letter is; you have found  the means to stumble into that confession。  'LESS THAN ONE… HALF of the island;' you say; 'is devoted to the lepers。'  Molokai … 'MOLOKAI AHINA;' the 'grey;' lofty; and most  desolate island … along all its northern side plunges a front  of precipice into a sea of unusual profundity。  This range of  cliff is; from east to west; the true end and frontier of the  island。  Only in one spot there projects into the ocean a  certain triangular and rugged down; grassy; stony; windy; and  rising in the midst into a hill with a dead crater: the whole  bearing to the cliff that overhangs it somewhat the same  relation as a bracket to a wall。  With this hint you will now  be able to pick out the leper station on a map; you will be  able to judge how much of Molokai is thus cut off between the  surf and precipice; whether less than a half; or less than a  quarter; or a fifth; or a tenth … or; say; a twentieth; and  the next time you burst into print you will be in a position  to share with us the issue of your calculations。

I imagine you to be one of those persons who talk with  cheerfulness of that place which oxen and wain…ropes could  not drag you to behold。  You; who do not even know its  situation on the map; probably denounce sensational  descriptions; stretching your limbs the while in your  pleasant parlour on Beretania Street。  When I was pulled  ashore there one early morning; there sat with me in the boat  two sisters; bidding farewell (in humble imitation of Damien)  to the lights and joys of human life。  One of these wept  silently; I could not withhold myself from joining her。  Had  you been there; it is my belief that nature would have  triumphed even in you; and as the boat drew but a little  nearer; and you beheld the stairs crowded with abominable  deformations of our common manhood; and saw yourself landing  in the midst of such a population as only now and then  surrounds us in the horror of a nightmare … what a haggard  eye you would have rolled over your reluctant shoulder  towards the house on Beretania Street!  Had you gone on; had 

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