【英文读物】Philistia.docx
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1、【英文读物】PhilistiaCHAPTER I. CHILDREN OF LIGHT.It was Sunday evening, and on Sundays Max Schurz, the chief of the London Socialists, always held his weekly receptions. That night his cosmopolitan refugee friends were all at liberty; his French disciples could pour in from the little lanes and courts in
2、 Soho, where, since the Commune, they had plied their peaceful trades as engravers, picture-framers, artists-colourmen, models, pointers, and so forthfor most of them were hangers-on in one way or another of the artistic world; his German adherents could stroll round, pipe in mouth, from their print
3、ing-houses, their ham-and-beef shops, or their naturalists chambers, where they stuffed birds or set up exotic butterflies in little cabinetsfor most of them were more or less literary or scientific in their pursuits; and his few English sympathisers, chiefly dissatisfied philosophical Radicals of t
4、he upper classes, could drop in casually for a chat and a smoke, on their way home from the churches to which they had been dutifully escorting their un-emancipated wives and sisters. Max Schurz kept open house for all on Sunday evenings, and there was not a drawing-room in London better filled than
5、 his with the very advanced and not undistinguished set who alone had the much-prized entre of his exclusive salon.The salon itself did not form any component part of Max Schurzs own private residence in any way. The great Socialist, the man whose mandates shook the thrones of Russia and Austria, wh
6、ose movements spread terror in Paris and Berlin, whose dictates were even obeyed in Kerry and in Chicago, occupied for his own use two small rooms at the top of a shabby composite tenement in a doubtful district of Marylebone. The little parlour where he carried on his trade of a microscope-lens gri
7、nder would not have sufficed to hold one-tenth of the eager half-washed crowd that pressed itself enthusiastically upon him every Sunday. But a large room on the ground floor of the tenement, opening towards the main street, was used during the week by one of his French refugee friends as a dancing-
8、saloon; and in this room on every Sunday evening the uncrowned king of the proletariate Socialists was permitted to hold his royal levees. Thither all that was best and truest in the socially rebellions classes domiciled in London used to make its way; and there men calmly talked over the ultimate c
9、hances of social revolutions which would have made the hair of respectable Philistine Marylebone stand stiffly on end, had it only known the rank political heresies that were quietly hatching in its unconscious midst.While Max Schurzs hall was rapidly filling with the polyglot crowd of democratic so
10、lidarists, Ernest Le Breton and his brother were waiting in the chilly little drawing-room at Epsilon Terrace, Bayswater, for the expected arrival of Harry Oswald. Ernest had promised to introduce Oswald to Max Schurzs reception; and it was now past eight oclock, getting rather a late hour for those
11、 simple-minded, early-rising Communists. Im afraid, Herbert, said Ernest to his brother, he forgets that Max is a working-man who has to be at his trade again punctually by seven oclock to-morrow. He thinks hes going out to a regular society At Home, where ten oclocks considered just the beginning o
12、f the evening. Max wont at all like his turning up so late; it smells of non-productivity.If Herr Schurz wants to convert the world, Herbert answered chillily, rolling himself a tiny cigarette, he must convince the unproductive as well as the proletariate before he can set things fairly on the roll
13、for better arrangement. The proletariates all very well in its way, no doubt, but the unproductive happen to hold the key of the situation. One convert like you or me is worth a thousand ignorant East-end labourers, with nothing but their hands and their votes to count upon.But you are not a convert
14、, Herbert.I didnt say I was. Im a critic. Theres no necessity to throw oneself open-armed into the embrace of either party. The wise man can wait and watch the progress of the game, backing the winner for the time being at all the critical moments, and hedging if necessary when the chances turn mome
15、ntarily against the favourite. Theres a ring at the bell: thats Oswald; lets go down to the door to meet him.Ernest ran down the stairs rapidly, as was his wont; Herbert followed in a more leisurely fashion, still rolling the cigarette between his delicate finger and thumb. Goodness gracious, Oswald
16、! Ernest exclaimed as his friend stepped in, why, youve actually come in evening dress! A white tie and all! What on earth will Max say? Hell be perfectly scandalised at such a shocking and unprecedented outrage. This will never do; you must dissemble somehow or other.Oswald laughed. I had no idea,
17、he said, Herr Schurz was such a truculent sans-culotte as that comes to. As it was an evening reception I thought, of course, one ought to turn up in evening clothes.Evening clothes! My dear fellow, how on earth do you suppose a set of poor Leicester Square outlaws are going to get themselves correc
18、tly set up in black broadcloth coats and trousers? They might wash their white ties themselves, to be sure; they mostly do their own washing, I believe, in their own basins. (And not much at that either, put in Herbert, parenthetically.) But as to evening clothes, why, theyd as soon think of arrayin
19、g themselves for dinner in full court dress as of putting on an obscurantist swallow-tail. Its the badge of a class, a distinct aristocratic outrage; we must alter it at once, I assure you, Oswald.At any rate, said Oswald laughing, Ive had the pleasure of finding myself accused for the first time in
20、 the course of my existence of being aristocratic. Its quite worth while going to Max Schurzs once in ones life, if it were only for the sake of that single new sensation.Well, my dear fellow, we must rectify you, anyhow, before you go. Let me see; luckily youve got your dust-coat on, and you neednt
21、 take that off; itll do splendidly to hide your coat and waistcoat. Ill lend you a blue tie, which will at once transform your upper man entirely. But you show the cloven hoof below; the trousers will surely betray you. Theyre absolutely inadmissible under any circumstances whatsoever, as the Court
22、Circular says, and you must positively wear a coloured pair of Herberts instead of them. Run upstairs quickly, theres a good fellow, and get rid of the mark of the Beast as fast as you can.Oswald did as he was told without demur, and in about a minute more presented himself again, with the mark of t
23、he Beast certainly most effectually obliterated, at least so far as outer appearance went. His blue tie, light dust-coat, and borrowed grey trousers, made up an ensemble much more like an omnibus conductor out for a holiday than a gentleman of the period in correct evening dress. Now mind, Ernest sa
24、id seriously, as he opened the door, whatever you do, Oswald, if you stew to death for itand Schurzs rooms are often very close and hot, I can assure youdont for heavens sake go and unbutton your dust-coat. If you do theyll see at once youre a wolf in sheeps clothing, and I shouldnt be at all surpri
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