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第31章

sartor resartus-第31章

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 was Herr Towgood andBlumine!  With slight unrecognizing salutation they passed me; plunged down amid the neighboring thickets; onwards; to Heaven; and to England; and I; in my friend Richter's words; _I remained alone; behind them; with the Night_。〃

Were it not cruel in these circumstances; here might be the place to insert an observation; gleaned long ago from the great _Clothes…Volume_; where it stands with quite other intent:  〃Some time before Small…pox was extirpated;〃 says the Professor; 〃there came a new malady of the spiritual sort on Europe:  I mean the epidemic; now endemical; of View…hunting。 Poets of old date; being privileged with Senses; had also enjoyed external Nature; but chiefly as we enjoy the crystal cup which holds good or bad liquor for us; that is to say; in silence; or with slight incidental commentary:  never; as I compute; till after the _Sorrows of Werter_; was there man found who would say:  Come let us make a Description!  Having drunk the liquor; come let us eat the glass!  Of which endemic the Jenner is unhappily still to seek。〃  Too true!

We reckon it more important to remark that the Professor's Wanderings; so far as his stoical and cynical envelopment admits us to clear insight; here first take their permanent character; fatuous or not。  That Basilisk…glance of the Barouche…and…four seems to have withered up what little remnant of a purpose may have still lurked in him:  Life has become wholly a dark labyrinth; wherein; through long years; our Friend; flying from spectres; has to stumble about at random; and naturally with more haste than progress。

Foolish were it in us to attempt following him; even from afar; in this extraordinary world…pilgrimage of his; the simplest record of which; were clear record possible; would fill volumes。  Hopeless is the obscurity; unspeakable the confusion。  He glides from country to country; from condition to condition; vanishing and reappearing; no man can calculate how or where。  Through all quarters of the world he wanders; and apparently through all circles of society。  If in any scene; perhaps difficult to fix geographically; he settles for a time; and forms connections; be sure he will snap them abruptly asunder。  Let him sink out of sight as Private Scholar (_Privatsirender_); living by the grace of God in some European capital; you may next find him as Hadjee in the neighborhood of Mecca。  It is an inexplicable Phantasmagoria; capricious; quick…changing; as if our Traveller; instead of limbs and highways; had transported himself by some wishing…carpet; or Fortunatus' Hat。  The whole; too; imparted emblematically; in dim multifarious tokens (as that collection of Street…Advertisements); with only some touch of direct historical notice sparingly interspersed:  little light…islets in the world of haze!  So that; from this point; the Professor is more of an enigma than ever。  In figurative language; we might say he becomes; not indeed a spirit; yet spiritualized; vaporized。  Fact unparalleled in Biography:  The river of his History; which we have traced from its tiniest fountains; and hoped to see flow onward; with increasing current; into the ocean; here dashes itself over that terrific Lover's Leap; and; as a mad…foaming cataract; flies wholly into tumultuous clouds of spray!  Low down it indeed collects again into pools and plashes; yet only at a great distance; and with difficulty; if at all; into a general stream。  To cast a glance into certain of those pools and plashes; and trace whither they run; must; for a chapter or two; form the limit of our endeavor。

For which end doubtless those direct historical Notices; where they can be met with; are the best。 Nevertheless; of this sort too there occurs much; which; with our present light; it were questionable to emit。  Teufelsdrockh vibrating everywhere between the highest and the lowest levels; comes into contact with public History itself。  For example; those conversations and relations with illustrious Persons; as Sultan Mahmoud; the Emperor Napoleon; and others; are they not as yet rather of a diplomatic character than of a biographic?  The Editor; appreciating the sacredness of crowned heads; nay perhaps suspecting the possible trickeries of a Clothes…Philosopher; will eschew this province for the present; a new time may bring new insight and a different duty。

If we ask now; not indeed with what ulterior Purpose; for there was none; yet with what immediate outlooks; at all events; in what mood of mind; the Professor undertook and prosecuted this world…pilgrimage;the answer is more distinct than favorable。  〃A nameless Unrest;〃 says he; 〃urged me forward; to which the outward motion was some momentary lying solace。 Whither should I go?  My Loadstars were blotted out; in that canopy of grim fire shone no star。  Yet forward must I; the ground burnt under me; there was no rest for the sole of my foot。  I was alone; alone!  Ever too the strong inward longing shaped Phantasms for itself:  towards these; one after the other; must I fruitlessly wander。  A feeling I had; that for my fever…thirst there was and must be somewhere a healing Fountain。  To many fondly imagined Fountains; the Saints' Wells of these days; did I pilgrim; to great Men; to great Cities; to great Events:  but found there no healing。  In strange countries; as in the well…known; in savage deserts; as in the press of corrupt civilization; it was ever the same:  how could your Wanderer escape from_his own Shadow_?  Nevertheless still Forward!  I felt as if in great haste; to do I saw not what。  From the depths of my own heart; it called to me; Forwards!  The winds and the streams; and all Nature sounded to me; Forwards!  _Ach Gott_; I was even; once for all; a Son of Time。〃

From which is it not clear that the internal Satanic School was still active enough?  He says elsewhere:  〃The _Enchiridion of Epictetus_ I had ever with me; often as my sole rational companion; and regret to mention that the nourishment it yielded was trifling。〃  Thou foolish Teufelsdrockh How could it else?  Hadst thou not Greek enough to understand thus much: _The end of Man is an Action; and not a Thought_; though it were the noblest?

〃How I lived?〃 writes he once:  〃Friend; hast thou considered the 'rugged all…nourishing Earth;' as Sophocles well names her; how she feeds the sparrow on the house…top; much more her darling; man?  While thou stirrest and livest; thou hast a probability of victual。  My breakfast of tea has been cooked by a Tartar woman; with water of the Amur; who wiped her earthen kettle with a horse…tail。  I have roasted wild eggs in the sand of Sahara; I have awakened in Paris _Estrapades_ and Vienna _Malzleins_; with no prospect of breakfast beyond elemental liquid。  That I had my Living to seek saved me from Dying;by suicide。  In our busy Europe; is there not an everlasting demand for Intellect; in the chemical; mechanical; political; religious; educational; commercial departments?  In Pagan countries; cannot one write Fetishes?  Living!  Little knowest thou what alchemy is in an inventive Soul; how; as with its little finger; it can create provision enough for the body (of a Philosopher); and then; as with both hands; create quite other than provision; namely; spectres to torment itself withal。〃

Poor Teufelsdrockh!  Flying with Hunger always parallel to him; and a whole Infernal Chase in his rear; so that the countenance of Hunger is comparatively a friend's!  Thus must he; in the temper of ancient Cain; or of the modern Wandering Jew;save only that he feels himself not guilty and but suffering the pains of guilt;wend to and fro with aimless speed。 Thus must he; over the whole surface of the Earth (by footprints); write his _Sorrows of Teufelsdrockh_; even as the great Goethe; in passionate words; had to write his _Sorrows of Werter_; before the spirit freed herself; and he could become a Man。  Vain truly is the hope of your swiftest Runner to escape 〃from his own Shadow〃!  Nevertheless; in these sick days; when the Born of Heaven first descries himself (about the age of twenty) in a world such as ours; richer than usual in two things; in Truths grown obsolete; and Trades grown obsolete;what can the fool think but that it is all a D

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