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第23章

sartor resartus-第23章

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s a comparative misery to have been born; and to be awake and work; and for the duller a felicity; if; like hibernating animals; safe…lodged in some Salamanca University or Sybaris City; or other superstitious or voluptuous Castle of Indolence; they can slumber through; in stupid dreams; and only awaken when the loud…roaring hailstorms have all alone their work; and to our prayers and martyrdoms the new Spring has been vouchsafed。〃

That in the environment; here mysteriously enough shadowed forth; Teufelsdrockh must have felt ill at ease; cannot be doubtful。  〃The hungry young;〃 he says; 〃looked up to their spiritual Nurses; and; for food; were bidden eat the east…wind。  What vain jargon of controversial Metaphysic; Etymology; and mechanical Manipulation falsely named Science; was current there; I indeed learned; better perhaps than the most。  Among eleven hundred Christian youths; there will not be wanting some eleven eager to learn。  By collision with such; a certain warmth; a certain polish was communicated; by instinct and happy accident; I took less to rioting (_renommiren_); than to thinking and reading; which latter also I was free to do。  Nay from the chaos of that Library; I succeeded in fishing up more books perhaps than had been known to the very keepers thereof。  The foundation of a Literary Life was hereby laid:  I learned; on my own strength; to read fluently in almost all cultivated languages; on almost all subjects and sciences; farther; as man is ever the prime object to man; already it was my favorite employment to read character in speculation; and from the Writing to construe the Writer。  A certain groundplan of Human Nature and Life began to fashion itself in me; wondrous enough; now when I look back on it; for my whole Universe; physical and spiritual; was as yet a Machine!  However; such a conscious; recognized groundplan; the truest I had; _was_ beginning to be there; and by additional experiments might be corrected and indefinitely extended。〃

Thus from poverty does the strong educe nobler wealth; thus in the destitution of the wild desert does our young Ishmael acquire for himself the highest of all possessions; that of Self…help。  Nevertheless a desert this was; waste; and howling with savage monsters。  Teufelsdrockh gives us long details of his 〃fever…paroxysms of Doubt;〃 his Inquiries concerning Miracles; and the Evidences of religious Faith; and how 〃in the silent night…watches; still darker in his heart than over sky and earth; he has cast himself before the All…seeing; and with audible prayers cried vehemently for Light; for deliverance from Death and the Grave。  Not till after long years; and unspeakable agonies; did the believing heart surrender; sink into spell…bound sleep; under the nightmare; Unbelief; and; in this hag…ridden dream; mistake God's fair living world for a pallid; vacant Hades and extinct Pandemonium。  But through such Purgatory pain;〃 continues he; 〃it is appointed us to pass; first must the dead Letter of Religion own itself dead; and drop piecemeal into dust; if the living Spirit of Religion; freed from this its charnel…house; is to arise on us; new…born of Heaven; and with new healing under its wings。〃

To which Purgatory pains; seemingly severe enough; if we add a liberal measure of Earthly distresses; want of practical guidance; want of sympathy; want of money; want of hope; and all this in the fervid season of youth; so exaggerated in imagining; so boundless in desires; yet here so poor in means;do we not see a strong incipient spirit oppressed and overloaded from without and from within; the fire of genius struggling up among fuel…wood of the greenest; and as yet with more of bitter vapor than of clear flame?

From various fragments of Letters and other documentary scraps; it is to be inferred that Teufelsdrockh; isolated; shy; retiring as he was; had not altogether escaped notice:  certain established men are aware of his existence; and; if stretching out no helpful hand; have at least their eyes on him。  He appears; though in dreary enough humor; to be addressing himself to the Profession of Law;whereof; indeed; the world has since seen him a public graduate。  But omitting these broken; unsatisfactory thrums of Economical relation; let us present rather the following small thread of Moral relation; and therewith; the reader for himself weaving it in at the right place; conclude our dim arras…picture of these University years。

〃Here also it was that I formed acquaintance with Herr Towgood; or; as it is perhaps better written; Herr Toughgut; a young person of quality (_von Adel_); from the interior parts of England。  He stood connected; by blood and hospitality; with the Counts von Zahdarm; in this quarter of Germany; to which noble Family I likewise was; by his means; with all friendliness; brought near。  Towgood had a fair talent; unspeakably ill…cultivated; with considerable humor of character:  and; bating his total ignorance; for he knew nothing except Boxing and a little Grammar; showed less of that aristocratic impassivity; and silent fury; than for most part belongs to Travellers of his nation。  To him I owe my first practical knowledge of the English and their ways; perhaps also something of the partiality with which I have ever since regarded that singular people。  Towgood was not without an eye; could he have come at any light。  Invited doubtless by the presence of the Zahdarm Family; he had travelled hither; in the almost frantic hope of perfecting his studies; he; whose studies had as yet been those of infancy; hither to a University where so much as the notion of perfection; not to say the effort after it; no longer existed!  Often we would condole over the hard destiny of the Young in this era:  how; after all our toil; we were to be turned out into the world; with beards on our chins indeed; but with few other attributes of manhood; no existing thing that we were trained to Act on; nothing that we could so much as Believe。  'How has our head on the outside a polished Hat;' would Towgood exclaim; 'and in the inside Vacancy; or a froth of Vocables and Attorney…Logic!  At a small cost men are educated to make leather into shoes; but at a great cost; what am I educated to make?  By Heaven; Brother! what I have already eaten and worn; as I came thus far; would endow a considerable Hospital of Incurables。''Man; indeed;' I would answer; 'has a Digestive Faculty; which must be kept working; were it even partly by stealth。  But as for our Miseducation; make not bad worse; waste not the time yet ours; in trampling on thistles because they have yielded us no figs。  _Frisch zu; Bruder_! Here are Books; and we have brains to read them; here is a whole Earth and a whole Heaven; and we have eyes to look on them:  _Frisch zu_!'

〃Often also our talk was gay; not without brilliancy; and even fire。  We looked out on Life; with its strange scaffolding; where all at once harlequins dance; and men are beheaded and quartered:  motley; not unterrific was the aspect; but we looked on it like brave youths。  For myself; these were perhaps my most genial hours。  Towards this young warm…hearted; strong…headed and wrong…headed Herr Towgood I was even near experiencing the now obsolete sentiment of Friendship。  Yes; foolish Heathen that I was; I felt that; under certain conditions; I could have loved this man; and taken him to my bosom; and been his brother once and always。  By degrees; however; I understood the new time; and its wants。  If man's _Soul_ is indeed; as in the Finnish Language; and Utilitarian Philosophy; a kind of _Stomach_; what else is the true meaning of Spiritual Union but an Eating together?  Thus we; instead of Friends; are Dinner…guests; and here as elsewhere have cast away chimeras。〃

So ends; abruptly as is usual; and enigmatically; this little incipient romance。  What henceforth becomes of the brave Herr Towgood; or Toughgut? He has dived under; in the Autobiographical Chaos; and swims we see not where。  Does any reader 〃in the interior parts of England〃 know of such a man?


CHAPTER IV。 GETTING UNDER WAY。

〃Thus nevertheless;〃 writes our Autobiographer; apparently as quitting College; 〃was there realized Somewhat; namely; I; Diogenes Teufelsdroc

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