第 19 节
作者:
这就是结局 更新:2023-05-17 13:24 字数:9322
of Education; and not without some touch of what we might presume to be anger。
〃My Teachers;〃 says he; 〃were hide…bound Pedants; without knowledge of man's nature; or of boy's; or of aught save their lexicons and quarterly account…books。 Innumerable dead Vocables (no dead Language; for they themselves knew no Language) they crammed into us; and called it fostering the growth of mind。 How can an inanimate; mechanical Gerund…grinder; the like of whom will; in a subsequent century; be manufactured at Nurnberg out of wood and leather; foster the growth of anything; much more of Mind; which grows; not like a vegetable (by having its roots littered with etymological compost); but like a spirit; by mysterious contact of Spirit; Thought kindling itself at the fire of living Thought? How shall _he_ give kindling; in whose own inward man there is no live coal; but all is burnt out to a dead grammatical cinder? The Hinterschlag Professors knew syntax enough; and of the human soul thus much: that it had a faculty called Memory; and could be acted on through the muscular integument by appliance of birch…rods。
〃Alas; so is it everywhere; so will it ever be; till the Hod…man is discharged; or reduced to hod…bearing; and an Architect is hired; and on all hands fitly encouraged: till communities and individuals discover; not without surprise; that fashioning the souls of a generation by Knowledge can rank on a level with blowing their bodies to pieces by Gunpowder; that with Generals and Field…marshals for killing; there should be world…honored Dignitaries; and were it possible; true God…ordained Priests; for teaching。 But as yet; though the Soldier wears openly; and even parades; his butchering…tool; nowhere; far as I have travelled; did the Schoolmaster make show of his instructing…tool: nay; were he to walk abroad with birch girt on thigh; as if he therefrom expected honor; would there not; among the idler class; perhaps a certain levity be excited?〃
In the third year of this Gymnasic period; Father Andreas seems to have died: the young Scholar; otherwise so maltreated; saw himself for the first time clad outwardly in sables; and inwardly in quite inexpressible melancholy。 〃The dark bottomless Abyss; that lies under our feet; had yawned open; the pale kingdoms of Death; with all their innumerable silent nations and generations; stood before him; the inexorable word; NEVER! now first showed its meaning。 My Mother wept; and her sorrow got vent; but in my heart there lay a whole lake of tears; pent up in silent desolation。 Nevertheless the unworn Spirit is strong; Life is so healthful that it even finds nourishment in Death: these stern experiences; planted down by Memory in my Imagination; rose there to a whole cypress…forest; sad but beautiful; waving; with not unmelodious sighs; in dark luxuriance; in the hottest sunshine; through long years of youth:as in manhood also it does; and will do; for I have now pitched my tent under a Cypress…tree; the Tomb is now my inexpugnable Fortress; ever close by the gate of which I look upon the hostile armaments; and pains and penalties of tyrannous Life placidly enough; and listen to its loudest threatenings with a still smile。 O ye loved ones; that already sleep in the noiseless Bed of Rest; whom in life I could only weep for and never help; and ye; who wide…scattered still toil lonely in the monster…bearing Desert; dyeing the flinty ground with your blood;yet a little while; and we shall all meet THERE; and our Mother's bosom will screen us all; and Oppression's harness; and Sorrow's fire…whip; and all the Gehenna Bailiffs that patrol and inhabit ever…vexed Time; cannot thenceforth harm us any more! 〃
Close by which rather beautiful apostrophe; lies a labored Character of the deceased Andreas Futteral; of his natural ability; his deserts in life (as Prussian Sergeant); with long historical inquiries into the genealogy of the Futteral Family; here traced back as far as Henry the Fowler: the whole of which we pass over; not without astonishment。 It only concerns us to add; that now was the time when Mother Gretchen revealed to her foster…son that he was not at all of this kindred; or indeed of any kindred; having come into historical existence in the way already known to us。 〃Thus was I doubly orphaned;〃 says he; 〃bereft not only of Possession; but even of Remembrance。 Sorrow and Wonder; here suddenly united; could not but produce abundant fruit。 Such a disclosure; in such a season; struck its roots through my whole nature: ever till the years of mature manhood; it mingled with my whole thoughts; was as the stem whereon all my day…dreams and night…dreams grew。 A certain poetic elevation; yet also a corresponding civic depression; it naturally imparted: _I was like no other_; in which fixed idea; leading sometimes to highest; and oftener to frightfullest results; may there not lie the first spring of tendencies; which in my Life have become remarkable enough? As in birth; so in action; speculation; and social position; my fellows are perhaps not numerous。〃
In the Bag _Sagittarius_; as we at length discover; Teufelsdrockh has become a University man; though how; when; or of what quality; will nowhere disclose itself with the smallest certainty。 Few things; in the way of confusion and capricious indistinctness; can now surprise our readers; not even the total want of dates; almost without parallel in a Biographical work。 So enigmatic; so chaotic we have always found; and must always look to find; these scattered Leaves。 In _Sagittarius_; however; Teufelsdrockh begins to show himself even more than usually Sibylline: fragments of all sorts: scraps of regular Memoir; College…Exercises; Programs; Professional Testimoniums; Milkscores; torn Billets; sometimes to appearance of an amatory cast; all blown together as if by merest chance; henceforth bewilder the sane Historian。 To combine any picture of these University; and the subsequent; years; much more; to decipher therein any illustrative primordial elements of the Clothes…Philosophy; becomes such a problem as the reader may imagine。
So much we can see; darkly; as through the foliage of some wavering thicket: a youth of no common endowment; who has passed happily through Childhood; less happily yet still vigorously through Boyhood; now at length perfect in 〃dead vocables;〃 and set down; as he hopes; by the living Fountain; there to superadd Ideas and Capabilities。 From such Fountain he draws; diligently; thirstily; yet never or seldom with his whole heart; for the water nowise suits his palate; discouragements; entanglements; aberrations are discoverable or supposable。 Nor perhaps are even pecuniary distresses wanting; for 〃the good Gretchen; who in spite of advices from not disinterested relatives has sent him hither; must after a time withdraw her willing but too feeble hand。〃 Nevertheless in an atmosphere of Poverty and manifold Chagrin; the Humor of that young Soul; what character is in him; first decisively reveals itself; and; like strong sunshine in weeping skies; gives out variety of colors; some of which are prismatic。 Thus; with the aid of Time and of what Time brings; has the stripling Diogenes Teufelsdrockh waxed into manly stature; and into so questionable an aspect; that we ask with new eagerness; How he specially came by it; and regret anew that there is no more explicit answer。 Certain of the intelligible and partially significant fragments; which are few in number; shall be extracted from that Limbo of a Paper…bag; and presented with the usual preparation。
As if; in the Bag _Scorpio_; Teufelsdrockh had not already expectorated his antipedagogic spleen; as if; from the name _Sagittarius_; he had thought himself called upon to shoot arrows; we here again fall in with such matter as this: 〃The University where I was educated still stands vivid enough in my remembrance; and I know its name well; which name; however; I; from tenderness to existing interests and persons; shall in nowise divulge。 It is my painful duty to say that; out of England and Spain; ours was the worst of all hitherto discovered Universities。 This is indeed a time when right Education is; as nearly as may be; impossible: however; in degrees of wrongness there is no limit: nay; I can conceive a worse system than that of the Nameless itself; as poisoned victual may be worse than absolute hunger。
〃It is written; When the blind lead the blind; both shall fall into the ditch: wherefore; in such circumstances; may it not sometimes be safer; if both leader and led simplysit still? Had you; anywhere in Crim Tartary; walled in a square enclosure; furnished it with a small; ill…chosen Library; and then turned loose into it eleven hundred Christian striplings; to tumble about as they listed; from three to seven years: certain persons; under the title of Professors; being stationed at the gates; to declare aloud that it was a University; and exact considerable admission…fees;you had; not indeed in mechanical structure; yet in spirit and result; some imperfect resemblance of our High Seminary。 I say; imperfect; for if our mechanical structure was quite other; so neither was our result altogether the same: unhappily; we were not in Cri