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第41章

the magic skin-第41章

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my early days。 Without meaning it; I made some friends; either through

quarrels or owing to the easy confidence established among those who

are going to the bad together; nothing; possibly; makes us cling to

one another so tightly as our evil propensities。



〃I made several ventures in literature; which were flatteringly

received。 Great men who followed the profession of letters; having

nothing to fear from me; belauded me; not so much on account of my

merits as to cast a slur on those of their rivals。



〃I became a 'free…liver;' to make use of the picturesque expression

appropriated by the language of excess。 I made it a point of honor not

to be long about dying; and that my zeal and prowess should eclipse

those displayed by all others in the jolliest company。 I was always

spruce and carefully dressed。 I had some reputation for cleverness。

There was no sign about me of the fearful way of living which makes a

man into a mere disgusting apparatus; a funnel; a pampered beast。



〃Very soon Debauch rose before me in all the majesty of its horror;

and I grasped all that it meant。 Those prudent; steady…going

characters who are laying down wine in bottles for their heirs; can

barely conceive; it is true; of so wide a theory of life; nor

appreciate its normal condition; but when will you instill poetry into

the provincial intellect? Opium and tea; with all their delights; are

merely drugs to folk of that calibre。



〃Is not the imperfect sybarite to be met with even in Paris itself;

that intellectual metropolis? Unfit to endure the fatigues of

pleasure; this sort of person; after a drinking bout; is very much

like those worthy bourgeois who fall foul of music after hearing a new

opera by Rossini。 Does he not renounce these courses in the same frame

of mind that leads an abstemious man to forswear Ruffec pates; because

the first one; forsooth; gave him the indigestion?



〃Debauch is as surely an art as poetry; and is not for craven spirits。

To penetrate its mysteries and appreciate its charms; conscientious

application is required; and as with every path of knowledge; the way

is thorny and forbidding at the outset。 The great pleasures of

humanity are hedged about with formidable obstacles; not its single

enjoyments; but enjoyment as a system; a system which establishes

seldom experienced sensations and makes them habitual; which

concentrates and multiplies them for us; creating a dramatic life

within our life; and imperatively demanding a prompt and enormous

expenditure of vitality。  War; Power; Art; like Debauch; are all forms

of demoralization; equally remote from the faculties of humanity;

equally profound; and all are alike difficult of access。 But when man

has once stormed the heights of these grand mysteries; does he not

walk in another world? Are not generals; ministers; and artists

carried; more or less; towards destruction by the need of violent

distractions in an existence so remote from ordinary life as theirs?



〃War; after all; is the Excess of bloodshed; as the Excess of self…

interest produces Politics。 Excesses of every sort are brothers。 These

social enormities possess the attraction of the abyss; they draw

towards themselves as St。 Helena beckoned Napoleon; we are fascinated;

our heads swim; we wish to sound their depths though we cannot account

for the wish。 Perhaps the thought of Infinity dwells in these

precipices; perhaps they contain some colossal flattery for the soul

of man; for is he not; then; wholly absorbed in himself?



〃The wearied artist needs a complete contrast to his paradise of

imaginings and of studious hours; he either craves; like God; the

seventh day of rest; or with Satan; the pleasures of hell; so that his

senses may have free play in opposition to the employment of his

faculties。 Byron could never have taken for his relaxation to the

independent gentleman's delights of boston and gossip; for he was a

poet; and so must needs pit Greece against Mahmoud。



〃In war; is not man an angel of extirpation; a sort of executioner on

a gigantic scale? Must not the spell be strong indeed that makes us

undergo such horrid sufferings so hostile to our weak frames;

sufferings that encircle every strong passion with a hedge of thorns?

The tobacco smoker is seized with convulsions; and goes through a kind

of agony consequent upon his excesses; but has he not borne a part in

delightful festivals in realms unknown? Has Europe ever ceased from

wars? She has never given herself time to wipe the stains from her

feet that are steeped in blood to the ankle。 Mankind at large is

carried away by fits of intoxication; as nature has its accessions of

love。



〃For men in private life; for a vegetating Mirabeau dreaming of storms

in a time of calm; Excess comprises all things; it perpetually

embraces the whole sum of life; it is something better stillit is a

duel with an antagonist of unknown power; a monster; terrible at first

sight; that must be seized by the horns; a labor that cannot be

imagined。



〃Suppose that nature has endowed you with a feeble stomach or one of

limited capacity; you acquire a mastery over it and improve it; you

learn to carry your liquor; you grow accustomed to being drunk; you

pass whole nights without sleep; at last you acquire the constitution

of a colonel of cuirassiers; and in this way you create yourself

afresh; as if to fly in the face of Providence。



〃A man transformed after this sort is like a neophyte who has at last

become a veteran; has accustomed his mind to shot and shell and his

legs to lengthy marches。 When the monster's hold on him is still

uncertain; and it is not yet known which will have the better of it;

they roll over and over; alternately victor and vanquished; in a world

where everything is wonderful; where every ache of the soul is laid to

sleep; where only the shadows of ideas are revived。



〃This furious struggle has already become a necessity for us。 The

prodigal has struck a bargain for all the enjoyments with which life

teems abundantly; at the price of his own death; like the mythical

persons in legends who sold themselves to the devil for the power of

doing evil。 For them; instead of flowing quietly on in its monotonous

course in the depths of some counting…house or study; life is poured

out in a boiling torrent。



〃Excess is; in short; for the body what the mystic's ecstasy is for

the soul。 Intoxication steeps you in fantastic imaginings every whit

as strange as those of ecstatics。 You know hours as full of rapture as

a young girl's dreams; you travel without fatigue; you chat pleasantly

with your friends; words come to you with a whole life in each; and

fresh pleasures without regrets; poems are set forth for you in a few

brief phrases。 The coarse animal satisfaction; in which science has

tried to find a soul; is followed by the enchanted drowsiness that men

sigh for under the burden of consciousness。 Is it not because they all

feel the need of absolute repose? Because Excess is a sort of toll

that genius pays to pain?



〃Look at all great men; nature made them pleasure…loving or base;

every one。 Some mocking or jealous power corrupted them in either soul

or body; so as to make all their powers futile; and their efforts of

no avail。



〃All men and all things appear before you in the guise you choose; in

those hours when wine has sway。 You are lord of all creation; you

transform it at your pleasure。 And throughout this unceasing delirium;

Play may pour; at your will; its molten lead into your veins。



〃Some day you will fall into the monster's power。 Then you will have;

as I had; a frenzied awakening; with impotence sitting by your pillow。

Are you an old soldier? Phthisis attacks you。 A diplomatist? An

aneurism hangs death in your heart by a thread。 It will perhaps be

consumption that will cry out to me; 'Let us be going!' as to Raphael

of Urbino; in old time; killed by an excess of lo

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