sartor resartus-第39部分
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ike to choose it。 More than once have I said to myself; of some perhaps whimsically strutting Figure; such as provokes whimsical thoughts: 'Wert thou; my little Brotherkin; suddenly covered up within the largest imaginable Glass bell;what a thing it were; not for thyself only; but for the world! Post Letters; more or fewer; from all the four winds; impinge against thy Glass walls; but have to drop unread: neither from within comes there question or response into any Post…bag; thy Thoughts fall into no friendly ear or heart; thy Manufacture into no purchasing hand: thou art no longer a circulating venous…arterial Heart; that; taking and giving; circulatest through all Space and all Time: there has a Hole fallen out in the immeasurable; universal World…tissue; which must be darned up again!'
〃Such venous…arterial circulation; of Letters; verbal Messages; paper and other Packages; going out from him and coming in; are a blood…circulation; visible to the eye: but the finer nervous circulation; by which all things; the minutest that he does; minutely influence all men; and the very look of his face blesses or curses whomso it lights on; and so generates ever new blessing or new cursing: all this you cannot see; but only imagine。 I say; there is not a red Indian; hunting by Lake Winnipeg; can quarrel with his squaw; but the whole world must smart for it: will not the price of beaver rise? It is a mathematical fact that the casting of this pebble from my hand alters the centre of gravity of the Universe。
〃If now an existing generation of men stand so woven together; not less indissolubly does generation with generation。 Hast thou ever meditated on that word; Tradition: how we inherit not Life only; but all the garniture and form of Life; and work; and speak; and even think and feel; as our Fathers; and primeval grandfathers; from the beginning; have given it us?Who printed thee; for example; this unpretending Volume on the Philosophy of Clothes? Not the Herren Stillschweigen and Company; but Cadmus of Thebes; Faust of Mentz; and innumerable others whom thou knowest not。 Had there been no Moesogothic Ulfila; there had been no English Shakspeare; or a different one。 Simpleton! It was Tubal…cain that made thy very Tailor's needle; and sewed that court…suit of thine。
〃Yes; truly; if Nature is one; and a living indivisible whole; much more is Mankind; the Image that reflects and creates Nature; without which Nature were not。 As palpable lifestreams in that wondrous Individual Mankind; among so many life…streams that are not palpable; flow on those main currents of what we call Opinion; as preserved in Institutions; Polities; Churches; above all in Books。 Beautiful it is to understand and know that a Thought did never yet die; that as thou; the originator thereof; hast gathered it and created it from the whole Past; so thou wilt transmit it to the whole Future。 It is thus that the heroic heart; the seeing eye of the first times; still feels and sees in us of the latest; that the Wise Man stands ever encompassed; and spiritually embraced; by a cloud of witnesses and brothers; and there is a living; literal _Communion of Saints_; wide as the World itself; and as the History of the World。
〃Noteworthy also; and serviceable for the progress of this same Individual; wilt thou find his subdivision into Generations。 Generations are as the Days of toilsome Mankind: Death and Birth are the vesper and the matin bells; that summon Mankind to sleep; and to rise refreshed for new advancement。 What the Father has made; the Son can make and enjoy; but has also work of his own appointed him。 Thus all things wax; and roll onwards; Arts; Establishments; Opinions; nothing is completed; but ever completing。 Newton has learned to see what Kepler saw; but there is also a fresh heaven…derived force in Newton; he must mount to still higher points of vision。 So too the Hebrew Lawgiver is; in due time; followed by an Apostle of the Gentiles。 In the business of Destruction; as this also is from time to time a necessary work; thou findest a like sequence and perseverance: for Luther it was as yet hot enough to stand by that burning of the Pope's Bull; Voltaire could not warm himself at the glimmering ashes; but required quite other fuel。 Thus likewise; I note; the English Whig has; in the second generation; become an English Radical; who; in the third again; it is to be hoped; will become an English Rebuilder。 Find Mankind where thou wilt; thou findest it in living movement; in progress faster or slower: the Phoenix soars aloft; hovers with outstretched wings; filling Earth with her music; or; as now; she sinks; and with spheral swan…song immolates herself in flame; that she may soar the higher and sing the clearer。〃
Let the friends of social order; in such a disastrous period; lay this to heart; and derive from it any little comfort they can。 We subjoin another passage; concerning Titles:
〃Remark; not without surprise;〃 says Teufelsdrockh; 〃how all high Titles of Honor come hitherto from Fighting。 Your _Herzog_ (Duke; _Dux_) is Leader of Armies; your Earl (_Jarl_) is Strong Man; your Marshal cavalry Horse…shoer。 A Millennium; or reign of Peace and Wisdom; having from of old been prophesied; and becoming now daily more and more indubitable; may it not be apprehended that such Fighting titles will cease to be palatable; and new and higher need to be devised?
〃The only Title wherein I; with confidence; trace eternity is that of King。 _Konig_ (King); anciently _Konning_; means Ken…ning (Cunning); or which is the same thing; Can…ning。 Ever must the Sovereign of Mankind be fitly entitled King。〃
〃Well; also;〃 says he elsewhere; 〃was it written by Theologians: a King rules by divine right。 He carries in him an authority from God; or man will never give it him。 Can I choose my own King? I can choose my own King Popinjay; and play what farce or tragedy I may with him: but he who is to be my Ruler; whose will is to be higher than my will; was chosen for me in Heaven。 Neither except in such Obedience to the Heaven…chosen is Freedom so much as conceivable。〃
The Editor will here admit that; among all the wondrous provinces of Teufelsdrockh's spiritual world; there is none he walks in with such astonishment; hesitation; and even pain; as in the Political。 How; with our English love of Ministry and Opposition; and that generous conflict of Parties; mind warming itself against mind in their mutual wrestle for the Public Good; by which wrestle; indeed; is our invaluable Constitution kept warm and alive; how shall we domesticate ourselves in this spectral Necropolis; or rather City both of the Dead and of the Unborn; where the Present seems little other than an inconsiderable Film dividing the Past and the Future? In those dim long…drawn expanses; all is so immeasurable; much so disastrous; ghastly; your very radiances and straggling light…beams have a supernatural character。 And then with such an indifference; such a prophetic peacefulness (accounting the inevitably coming as already here; to him all one whether it be distant by centuries or only by days); does he sit;and live; you would say; rather in any other age than in his own! It is our painful duty to announce; or repeat; that; looking into this man; we discern a deep; silent; slow…burning; inextinguishable Radicalism; such as fills us with shuddering admiration。
Thus; for example; he appears to make little even of the Elective Franchise; at least so we interpret the following: 〃Satisfy yourselves;〃 he says; 〃by universal; indubitable experiment; even as ye are now doing or will do; whether FREEDOM; heaven…born and leading heavenward; and so vitally essential for us all; cannot peradventure be mechanically hatched and brought to light in that same Ballot…Box of yours; or at worst; in some other discoverable or devisable Box; Edifice; or Steam…mechanism。 It were a mighty convenience; and beyond all feats of manufacture witnessed hitherto。〃 Is Teufelsdrockh acquainted with the British constitution; even slightly?He says; under another figure: 〃But after all; were the problem; as indeed it now everywhere is; To rebuild your old House from the top downwards (since you must live in it the while); what better; what other; than the Representative Machine will serve your turn? Meanwhile; however; mock me not with the name of Free; 'when you have but knit up my chains into ornamental festoons。'〃Or what will any member of the Peace Society make of such an assertion as this: 〃The lower people everywhere desire War。 Not so unwisely; there is then a demand for lower peopleto be shot!〃
Gladly; therefore; do we emerge from those soul…confusing labyrinths of speculative Radicalism; into somewhat clearer regions。 Here; looking round; as was our hest; for 〃organic filaments;〃 we ask; may not this; touching 〃Hero…worship;〃 be of the number? It seems of a cheerful character; yet so quaint; so mystical; one knows not what; or how little; may lie under it。 Our readers shall look with their own eyes:
〃True is it that; in these days; man can do almost all things; only not obey。 True likewise that whoso cannot obey cannot be free; still less bear rule; he that is the inferior of nothing; can be the superior of nothing; the equal of nothing。 Nevertheless; believe not that man has lost his faculty of Reverence; that if it slumber in him; it has gone dead。 Painful for man is that same rebellious Independence; when it has become inevitable; only in loving companionship with his fellows does he feel safe; only in reverently bowing down before the Higher does he feel himself exalted。
〃Or what if the character of our so troublous Era lay even in this: that man had forever cast away Fear; which is the lower; but not yet risen into perennial Reverence; which is the higher and highest?
〃Meanwhile; observe with joy; so cunningly has Nature ordered it; that whatsoever man ought to obey; he cannot but obey。 Before no faintest revelation of the Godlike did he ever stand irreverent; least of all; when the Godlike showed itself revealed in his fellow…man。 Thus is there a true religious Loyalty forever rooted in his heart; nay in all ages; even in ours; it manifests itself as a more o