友情提示:如果本网页打开太慢或显示不完整,请尝试鼠标右键“刷新”本网页!
the professor at the breakfast table-第60部分
快捷操作: 按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页 按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页 按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部! 如果本书没有阅读完,想下次继续接着阅读,可使用上方 "收藏到我的浏览器" 功能 和 "加入书签" 功能!
with a single bird。 No trace of earth; but still the winged
creature seemed to be soaring upward and upward。 Facing it; one of
those black dungeons such as Piranesi alone of all men has pictured。
I am sure she must have seen those awful prisons of his; out of
which the Opium…Eater got his nightmare vision; described by another
as 〃cemeteries of departed greatness; where monstrous and forbidden
things are crawling and twining their slimy convolutions among
mouldering bones; broken sculpture; and mutilated inscriptions。〃
Such a black dungeon faced the page that held the blue sky and the
single bird; at the bottom of it something was coiled;what; and
whether meant for dead or alive; my eyes could not make out。
I told you the young girl's soul was in this book。 As I turned over
the last leaves I could not help starting。 There were all sorts of
faces among the arabesques which laughed and scowled in the borders
that ran round the pages。 They had mostly the outline of childish
or womanly or manly beauty; without very distinct individuality。
But at last it seemed to me that some of them were taking on a look
not wholly unfamiliar to me; there were features that did not seem
new。 Can it be so? Was there ever such innocence in a creature so
full of life? She tells her heart's secrets as a three…years…old
child betrays itself without need of being questioned! This was no
common miss; such as are turned out in scores from the young…lady…
factories; with parchments warranting them accomplished and
virtuous;in case anybody should question the fact。 I began to
understand her;and what is so charming as to read the secret of a
real femme incomprise?for such there are; though they are not the
ones who think themselves uncomprehended women。
Poets are never young; in one sense。 Their delicate ear hears the
far…off whispers of eternity; which coarser souls must travel
towards for scores of years before their dull sense is touched by
them。 A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience。 I
have frequently seen children; long exercised by pain and
exhaustion; whose features had a strange look of advanced age。 Too
often one meets such in our charitable institutions。 Their faces
are saddened and wrinkled; as if their few summers were threescore
years and ten。
And so; many youthful poets have written as if their hearts were old
before their time; their pensive morning twilight has been as cool
and saddening as that of evening in more common lives。 The profound
melancholy of those lines of Shelley;
〃I could lie down like a tired child
And weep away the life of care
Which I have borne and yet must bear 〃
came from a heart; as he says; 〃too soon grown old;〃at twenty…six
years; as dull people count time; even when they talk of poets。
I know enough to be prepared for an exceptional nature;only this
gift of the hand in rendering every thought in form and color; as
well as in words; gives a richness to this young girl's alphabet of
feeling and imagery that takes me by surprise。 And then besides;
and most of all; I am puzzled at her sudden and seemingly easy
confidence in me。 Perhaps I owe it to myWell; no matter! How one
must love the editor who first calls him the venerable So…and…So!
I locked the book and sighed as I laid it down。 The world is
always ready to receive talent with open arms。 Very often it does
not know what to do with genius。 Talent is a docile creature。 It
bows its head meekly while the world slips the collar over it。 It
backs into the shafts like a lamb。 It draws its load cheerfully;
and is patient of the bit and of the whip。 But genius is always
impatient of its harness; its wild blood makes it hard to train。
Talent seems; at first; in one sense; higher than genius;namely;
that it is more uniformly and absolutely submitted to the will; and
therefore more distinctly human in its character。 Genius; on the
other hand; is much more like those instincts which govern the
admirable movements of the lower creatures; and therefore seems to
have something of the lower or animal character。 A goose flies by a
chart which the Royal Geographical Society could not mend。 A poet;
like the goose; sails without visible landmarks to unexplored
regions of truth; which philosophy has yet to lay down on its atlas。
The philosopher gets his track by observation; the poet trusts to
his inner sense; and makes the straighter and swifter line。
And yet; to look at it in another light; is not even the lowest
instinct more truly divine than any voluntary human act done by the
suggestion of reason? What is a bee's architecture but an
unobstructed divine thought?what is a builder's approximative rule
but an obstructed thought of the Creator; a mutilated and imperfect
copy of some absolute rule Divine Wisdom has established;
transmitted through a human soul as an image through clouded glass?
Talent is a very common family…trait; genius belongs rather to
individuals;just as you find one giant or one dwarf in a family;
but rarely a whole brood of either。 Talent is often to be envied;
and genius very commonly to be pitied。 It stands twice the chance
of the other of dying in hospital; in jail; in debt; in bad repute。
It is a perpetual insult to mediocrity; its every word is a trespass
against somebody's vested ideas;blasphemy against somebody's O'm;
or intangible private truth。
What is the use of my weighing out antitheses in this way; like a
rhetorical grocer?You know twenty men of talent; who are making
their way in the world; you may; perhaps; know one man of genius;
and very likely do not want to know any more。 For a divine
instinct; such as drives the goose southward and the poet
heavenward; is a hard thing to manage; and proves too strong for
many whom it possesses。 It must have been a terrible thing to have
a friend like Chatterton or Burns。 And here is a being who
certainly has more than talent; at once poet and artist in tendency;
if not yet fairly developed;a woman; too;and genius grafted on
womanhood is like to overgrow it and break its stem; as you may see
a grafted fruit…tree spreading over the stock which cannot keep pace
with its evolution。
I think now you know something of this young person。 She wants
nothing but an atmosphere to expand in。 Now and then one meets with
a nature for which our hard; practical New England life is obviously
utterly incompetent。 It comes up; as a Southern seed; dropped by
accident in one of our gardens; finds itself trying to grow and blow
into flower among the homely roots and the hardy shrubs that
surround it。 There is no question that certain persons who are born
among us find themselves many degrees too far north。 Tropical by
organization; they cannot fight for life with our eastern and
northwestern breezes without losing the color and fragrance into
which their lives would have blossomed in the latitu
快捷操作: 按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页 按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页 按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
温馨提示: 温看小说的同时发表评论,说出自己的看法和其它小伙伴们分享也不错哦!发表书评还可以获得积分和经验奖励,认真写原创书评 被采纳为精评可以获得大量金币、积分和经验奖励哦!