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第39章

sartor resartus-第39章

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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; can create as by a _Fiat_。 Awake; arise!  Speak forth what is in thee; what God has given thee; what the Devil shall not take away。  Higher task than that of Priesthood was allotted to no man:  wert thou but the meanest in that sacred Hierarchy; is it not honor enough therein to spend and be spent?

〃By this Art; which whoso will may sacrilegiously degrade into a handicraft;〃 adds Teufelsdrockh; 〃have I thenceforth abidden。  Writings of mine; not indeed known as mine (for what am I?); have fallen; perhaps not altogether void; into the mighty seedfield of Opinion; fruits of my unseen sowing gratifyingly meet me here and there。  I thank the Heavens that I have now found my Calling; wherein; with or without perceptible result; I am minded diligently to persevere。

〃Nay how knowest thou;〃 cries he; 〃but this and the other pregnant Device; now grown to be a world…renowned far…working Institution; like a grain of right mustard…seed once cast into the right soil; and now stretching out strong boughs to the four winds; for the birds of the air to lodge in;may have been properly my doing?  Some one's doing; it without doubt was; from some Idea; in some single Head; it did first of all take beginning:  why not from some Idea in mine?〃  Does Teufelsdrockh; here glance at that 〃SOCIETY FOR THE CONSERVATION OF PROPERTY (_Eigenthums…conservirende Gesellschaft_);〃 of which so many ambiguous notices glide spectra…like through these inexpressible Paper…bags?  〃An Institution;〃 hints he; 〃not unsuitable to the wants of the time; as indeed such sudden extension proves:  for already can the Society number; among its office…bearers or corresponding members; the highest Names; if not the highest Persons; in Germany; England; France; and contributions; both of money and of meditation pour in from all quarters; to; if possible; enlist the remaining Integrity of the world; and; defensively and with forethought; marshal it round this Palladium。〃  Does Teufelsdrockh mean; then; to give himself out as the originator of that so notable

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