【国外英文文学】英国人的特性.doc
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1、【国外英文文学】英国人的特性 ENGLISH TRAITS by Ralph Waldo Emerson Chapter I _First Visit to England_ I have been twice in England. In 1833, on my return from ashort tour in Sicily, Italy, and France, I crossed from Boulogne, andlanded in London at the Tower stairs. It was a dark Sunday morning;there were few peo
2、ple in the streets; and I remember the pleasure ofthat first walk on English ground, with my companion, an Americanartist, from the Tower up through Cheapside and the Strand, to ahouse in Russell Square, whither we had been recommended to goodchambers. For the first time for many months we were forc
3、ed to checkthe saucy habit of travellers criticism, as we could no longer speakaloud in the streets without being understood. The shop-signs spokeour language; our country names were on the door-plates; and thepublic and private buildings wore a more native and wonted front. Like most young men at t
4、hat time, I was much indebted to themen of Edinburgh, and of the Edinburgh Review, - to Jeffrey,Mackintosh, Hallam, and to Scott, Playfair, and De Quincey; and mynarrow and desultory reading had inspired the wish to see the facesof three or four writers, - Coleridge, Wordsworth, Landor, DeQuincey, a
5、nd the latest and strongest contributor to the criticaljournals, Carlyle; and I suppose if I had sifted the reasons that ledme to Europe, when I was ill and was advised to travel, it was mainlythe attraction of these persons. If Goethe had been still living, Imight have wandered into Germany also. B
6、esides those I have named,(for Scott was dead,) there was not in Britain the man living whom Icared to behold, unless it were the Duke of Wellington, whom Iafterwards saw at Westminster Abbey, at the funeral of Wilberforce.The young scholar fancies it happiness enough to live with people whocan give
7、 an inside to the world; without reflecting that they areprisoners, too, of their own thought, and cannot apply themselves toyours. The conditions of literary success are almost destructive ofthe best social power, as they do not leave that frolic liberty whichonly can encounter a companion on the b
8、est terms. It is probable youleft some obscure comrade at a tavern, or in the farms, with rightmother-wit, and equality to life, when you crossed sea and land toplay bo-peep with celebrated scribes. I have, however, found writerssuperior to their books, and I cling to my first belief, that astrong h
9、ead will dispose fast enough of these impediments, and giveone the satisfaction of reality, the sense of having been met, and alarger horizon. On looking over the diary of my journey in 1833, I find nothingto publish in my memoranda of visits to places. But I have copiedthe few notes I made of visit
10、s to persons, as they respect partiesquite too good and too transparent to the whole world to make itneedful to affect any prudery of suppression about a few hints ofthose bright personalities. At Florence, chief among artists I found Horatio Greenough, theAmerican sculptor. His face was so handsome
11、, and his person so wellformed, that he might be pardoned, if, as was alleged, the face ofhis Medora, and the figure of a colossal Achilles in clay, wereidealizations of his own. Greenough was a superior man, ardent andeloquent, and all his opinions had elevation and magnanimity. Hebelieved that the
12、 Greeks had wrought in schools or fraternities, -the genius of the master imparting his design to his friends, andinflaming them with it, and when his strength was spent, a new hand,with equal heat, continued the work; and so by relays, until it wasfinished in every part with equal fire. This was ne
13、cessary in sorefractory a material as stone; and he thought art would neverprosper until we left our shy jealous ways, and worked in society asthey. All his thoughts breathed the same generosity. He was anaccurate and a deep man. He was a votary of the Greeks, andimpatient of Gothic art. His paper o
14、n Architecture, published in1843, announced in advance the leading thoughts of Mr. Ruskin on the_morality_ in architecture, notwithstanding the antagonism in theirviews of the history of art. I have a private letter from him, -later, but respecting the same period, - in which he roughlysketches his
15、own theory. Here is my theory of structure: Ascientific arrangement of spaces and forms to functions and to site;an emphasis of features proportioned to their _gradated_ importancein function; color and ornament to be decided and arranged and variedby strictly organic laws, having a distinct reason
16、for each decision;the entire and immediate banishment of all make-shift andmake-believe. Greenough brought me, through a common friend, an invitationfrom Mr. Landor, who lived at San Domenica di Fiesole. On the 15thMay I dined with Mr. Landor. I found him noble and courteous, livingin a cloud of pic
17、tures at his Villa Gherardesca, a fine housecommanding a beautiful landscape. I had inferred from his books, ormagnified from some anecdotes, an impression of Achillean wrath, -an untamable petulance. I do not know whether the imputation werejust or not, but certainly on this May day his courtesy ve
18、iled thathaughty mind, and he was the most patient and gentle of hosts. Hepraised the beautiful cyclamen which grows all about Florence; headmired Washington; talked of Wordsworth, Byron, Massinger, Beaumontand Fletcher. To be sure, he is decided in his opinions, likes tosurprise, and is well conten
19、t to impress, if possible, his Englishwhim upon the immutable past. No great man ever had a great son, ifPhilip and Alexander be not an exception; and Philip he calls thegreater man. In art, he loves the Greeks, and in sculpture, themonly. He prefers the Venus to every thing else, and, after that, t
20、hehead of Alexander, in the gallery here. He prefers John of Bolognato Michael Angelo; in painting, Raffaelle; and shares the growingtaste for Perugino and the early masters. The Greek histories hethought the only good; and after them, Voltaires. I could not makehim praise Mackintosh, nor my more re
21、cent friends; Montaigne verycordially, - and Charron also, which seemed undiscriminating. Hethought Degerando indebted to Lucas on Happiness and Lucas onHoliness! He pestered me with Southey; but who is Southey? He invited me to breakfast on Friday. On Friday I did not failto go, and this time with
22、Greenough. He entertained us at once withreciting half a dozen hexameter lines of Julius Caesars! - fromDonatus, he said. He glorified Lord Chesterfield more than wasnecessary, and undervalued Burke, and undervalued Socrates;designated as three of the greatest of men, Washington, Phocion, andTimoleo
23、n; much as our pomologists, in their lists, select the threeor the six best pears for a small orchard; and did not even omit toremark the similar termination of their names. A great man, hesaid, should make great sacrifices, and kill his hundred oxen,without knowing whether they would be consumed by
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