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sartor resartus-第31部分

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uffered; bearing testimony; through life and through death; of the Godlike that is in Man; and how in the Godlike only has he Strength and Freedom?  Which God…inspiredd Doctrine art thou also honored to be taught; O Heavens! and broken with manifold merciful Afflictions; even till thou become contrite and learn it!  Oh; thank thy Destiny for these; thankfully bear what yet remain:  thou hadst need of them; the Self in thee needed to be annihilated。  By benignant fever…paroxysms is Life rooting out the deep…seated chronic Disease; and triumphs over Death。  On the roaring billows of Time; thou art not engulfed; but borne aloft into the azure of Eternity。  Love not Pleasure; love God。  This is the EVERLASTING YEA; wherein all contradiction is solved:  wherein whoso walks and works; it is well with him。〃

And again:  〃Small is it that thou canst trample the Earth with its injuries under thy feet; as old Greek Zeno trained thee:  thou canst love the Earth while it injures thee; and even because it injures thee; for this a Greater than Zeno was needed; and he too was sent。  Knowest thou that '_Worship of Sorrow_'?  The Temple thereof; founded some eighteen centuries ago; now lies in ruins; overgrown with jungle; the habitation of doleful creatures:  nevertheless; venture forward; in a low crypt; arched out of falling fragments; thou findest the Altar still there; and its sacred Lamp perennially burning。〃

Without pretending to comment on which strange utterances; the Editor will only remark; that there lies beside them much of a still more questionable character; unsuited to the general apprehension; nay wherein he himself does not see his way。  Nebulous disquisitions on Religion; yet not without bursts of splendor; on the 〃perennial continuance of Inspiration;〃 on Prophecy; that there are 〃true Priests; as well as Baal…Priests; in our own day:〃  with more of the like sort。  We select some fractions; by way of finish to this farrago。

〃Cease; my much…respected Herr von Voltaire;〃 thus apostrophizes the Professor:  〃shut thy sweet voice; for the task appointed thee seems finished。  Sufficiently hast thou demonstrated this proposition; considerable or otherwise:  That the Mythus of the Christian Religion looks not in the eighteenth century as it did in the eighth。  Alas; were thy six…and…thirty quartos; and the six…and…thirty thousand other quartos and folios; and flying sheets or reams; printed before and since on the same subject; all needed to convince us of so little!  But what next?  Wilt thou help us to embody the divine Spirit of that Religion in a new Mythus; in a new vehicle and vesture; that our Souls; otherwise too like perishing; may live?  What! thou hast no faculty in that kind?  Only a torch for burning; no hammer for building?  Take our thanks; then; andthyself away。

〃Meanwhile what are antiquated Mythuses to me?  Or is the God present; felt in my own heart; a thing which Herr von Voltaire will dispute out of me; or dispute into me?  To the '_Worship of Sorrow_' ascribe what origin and genesis thou pleasest; _has_ not that Worship originated; and been generated; is it not _here_?  Feel it in thy heart; and then say whether it is of God!  This is Belief; all else is Opinion;for which latter whoso will; let him worry and be worried。〃

〃Neither;〃 observes he elsewhere; 〃shall ye tear out one another's eyes; struggling over 'Plenary Inspiration;' and such like:  try rather to get a little even Partial Inspiration; each of you for himself。  One BIBLE I know; of whose Plenary Inspiration doubt is not so much as possible; nay with my own eyes I saw the God's…Hand writing it:  thereof all other Bibles are but Leaves;say; in Picture…Writing to assist the weaker faculty。〃

Or; to give the wearied reader relief; and bring it to an end; let him take the following perhaps more intelligible passage:

〃To me; in this our life;〃 says the Professor; 〃which is an internecine warfare with the Time…spirit; other warfare seems questionable。  Hast thou in any way a contention with thy brother; I advise thee; think well what the meaning thereof is。  If thou gauge it to the bottom; it is simply this: 'Fellow; see! thou art taking more than thy share of Happiness in the world; something from my share:  which; by the Heavens; thou shalt not; nay I will fight thee rather。'Alas; and the whole lot to be divided is such a beggarly matter; truly a 'feast of shells;' for the substance has been spilled out:  not enough to quench one Appetite; and the collective human species clutching at them!Can we not; in all such cases; rather say: 'Take it; thou too…ravenous individual; take that pitiful additional fraction of a share; which I reckoned mine; but which thou so wantest; take it with a blessing:  would to Heaven I had enough for thee!'If Fichte's _Wissenschaftslehre_ be; 'to a certain extent; Applied Christianity;' surely to a still greater extent; so is this。  We have here not a Whole Duty of Man; yet a Half Duty; namely the Passive half:  could we but do it; as we can demonstrate it!

〃But indeed Conviction; were it never so excellent; is worthless till it convert itself into Conduct。  Nay properly Conviction is not possible till then; inasmuch as all Speculation is by nature endless; formless; a vortex amid vortices; only by a felt indubitable certainty of Experience does it find any centre to revolve round; and so fashion itself into a system。 Most true is it; as a wise man teaches us; that 'Doubt of any sort cannot be removed except by Action。' On which ground; too; let him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light; and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day; lay this other precept well to heart; which to me was of invaluable service:  '_Do the Duty which lies nearest thee_;' which thou knowest to be a Duty!  Thy second Duty will already have become clearer。

〃May we not say; however; that the hour of Spiritual Enfranchisement is even this:  When your Ideal World; wherein the whole man has been dimly struggling and inexpressibly languishing to work; becomes revealed; and thrown open; and you discover; with amazement enough; like the Lothario in _Wilhelm Meister_; that your 'America is here or nowhere'?  The Situation that has not its Duty; its Ideal; was never yet occupied by man。  Yes here; in this poor; miserable; hampered; despicable Actual; wherein thou even now standest; here or nowhere is thy Ideal:  work it out therefrom; and working; believe; live; be free。  Fool! the Ideal is in thyself; the impediment too is in thyself:  thy Condition is but the stuff thou art to shape that same Ideal out of:  what matters whether such stuff be of this sort or that; so the Form thou give it be heroic; be poetic? O thou that pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual; and criest bitterly to the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create; know this of a truth:  the thing thou seekest is already with thee; 'here or nowhere;' couldst thou only see!

〃But it is with man's Soul as it was with Nature:  the beginning of Creation isLight。  Till the eye have vision; the whole members are in bonds。  Divine moment; when over the tempest…tost Soul; as once over the wild…weltering Chaos; it is spoken:  Let there be Light!  Ever to the greatest that has felt such moment; is it not miraculous and God…announcing; even as; under simpler figures; to the simplest and least。 The mad primeval Discord is hushed; the rudely jumbled conflicting elements bind themselves into separate Firmaments:  deep silent rock…foundations are built beneath; and the skyey vault with its everlasting Luminaries above: instead of a dark wasteful Chaos; we have a blooming; fertile; heaven…encompassed World。

〃I too could now say to myself:  Be no longer a Chaos; but a World; or even Worldkin。  Produce!  Produce!  Were it but the pitifullest infinitesimal fraction of a Product; produce it; in God's name!  'Tis the utmost thou hast in thee:  out with it; then。  Up; up!  Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do; do it with thy whole might。  Work while it is called To…day; for the Night cometh; wherein no man can work。〃


CHAPTER X。 PAUSE。

Thus have we; as closely and perhaps satisfactorily as; in such circumstances; might be; followed Teufelsdrockh; through the various successive states and stages of Growth; Entanglement; Unbelief; and almost Reprobation; into a certain clearer state of what he himself seems to consider as Conversion。  〃Blame not the word;〃 says he; 〃rejoice rather that such a word; signifying such a thing; has come to light in our modern Era; though hidden from the wisest Ancients。  The Old World knew nothing of Conversion; instead of an _Ecce Homo_; they had only some _Choice of Hercules_。  It was a new…attained progress in the Moral Development of man: hereby has the Highest come home to the bosoms of the most Limited; what to Plato was but a hallucination; and to Socrates a chimera; is now clear and certain to your Zinzendorfs; your Wesleys; and the poorest of their Pietists and Methodists。〃

It is here; then; that the spiritual majority of Teufelsdrockh commences: we are henceforth to see him 〃work in well…doing;〃 with the spirit and clear aims of a Man。  He has discovered that the Ideal Workshop he so panted for is even this same Actual ill…furnished Workshop he has so long been stumbling in。  He can say to himself:  〃Tools?  Thou hast no Tools? Why; there is not a Man; or a Thing; now alive but has tools。  The basest of created animalcules; the Spider itself; has a spinning…jenny; and warping…mill; and power…loom within its head:  the stupidest of Oysters has a Papin's…Digester; with stone…and…lime house to hold it in:  every being that can live can do something:  this let him _do_。 Tools?  Hast thou not a Brain; furnished; furnishable with some glimmerings of Light; and three fingers to hold a Pen withal?  Never since Aaron's Rod went out of practice; or even before it; was there such a wonder…working Tool:  greater than all recorded miracles have been performed by Pens。  For strangely in this so solid…seeming World; which nevertheless is in continual restless flux; it is appointed that _Sound_; to appearance the most fleeting; should be the most continuing of all things。  The WORD is well said to be omnipotent in this world; man; thereby divine

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