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the professor at the breakfast table-第64部分
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the rest of the household have gone off to bed;if the wind is
shaking your windows as if a human hand were rattling the sashes;
if your candle or lamp is low and will soon burn out;let me advise
you to take up some good quiet sleepy volume; or attack the
〃Critical Notices〃 of the last Quarterly and leave this to be read
by daylight; with cheerful voices round; and people near by who
would hear you; if you slid from your chair and came down in a lump
on the floor。
I do not say that your heart will beat as mine did; I am willing to
confess; when I entered the dim chamber。 Did I not tell you that I
was sensitive and imaginative; and that I had lain awake with
thinking what were the strange movements and sounds which I heard
late at night in my little neighbor's apartment? It had come to
that pass that I was truly unable to separate what I had really
heard from what I had dreamed in those nightmares to which I have
been subject; as before mentioned。 So; when I walked into the room;
and Bridget; turning back; closed the door and left me alone with
its tenant; I do believe you could have grated a nutmeg on my skin;
such a 〃goose…flesh 〃 shiver ran over it。 It was not fear; but what
I call nervousness;unreasoning; but irresistible; as when; for
instance; one looking at the sun going down says; 〃I will count
fifty before it disappears〃; and as he goes on and it becomes
doubtful whether he will reach the number; he gets strangely
flurried; and his imagination pictures life and death and heaven and
hell as the issues depending on the completion or non…completion of
the fifty he is counting。 Extreme curiosity will excite some people
as much as fear; or what resembles fear; acts on some other less
impressible natures。
I may find myself in the midst of strange facts in this little
conjurer's room。 Or; again; there may be nothing in this poor
invalid's chamber but some old furniture; such as they say came over
in the Mayflower。 All this is just what I mean to; find out while
I am looking at the Little Gentleman; who has suddenly become my
patient。 The simplest things turn out to be unfathomable mysteries;
the most mysterious appearances prove to be the most commonplace
objects in disguise。
I wonder whether the boys who live in Roxbury and Dorchester are
ever moved to tears or filled with silent awe as they look upon the
rocks and fragments of 〃puddingstone〃 abounding in those localities。
I have my suspicions that those boys 〃heave a stone〃 or 〃fire a
brickbat;〃 composed of the conglomerate just mentioned; without any
more tearful or philosophical contemplations than boys of less
favored regions expend on the same performance。 Yet a lump of
puddingstone is a thing to look at; to think about; to study over;
to dream upon; to go crazy with; to beat one's brains out against。
Look at that pebble in it。 From what cliff was it broken? On what
beach rolled by the waves of what ocean? How and when imbedded in
soft ooze; which itself became stone; and by…and…by was lifted into
bald summits and steep cliffs; such as you may see on Meetinghouse…
Hill any dayyes; and mark the scratches on their faces left when
the boulder…carrying glaciers planed the surface of the continent
with such rough tools that the storms have not worn the marks out of
it with all the polishing of ever so many thousand years?
Or as you pass a roadside ditch or pool in springtime; take from it
any bit of stick or straw which has lain undisturbed for a time。
Some little worm…shaped masses of clear jelly containing specks are
fastened to the stick: eggs of a small snail…like shell…fish。 One
of these specks magnified proves to be a crystalline sphere with an
opaque mass in its centre。 And while you are looking; the opaque
mass begins to stir; and by…and…by slowly to turn upon its axis like
a forming planet;life beginning in the microcosm; as in the great
worlds of the firmament; with the revolution that turns the surface
in ceaseless round to the source of life and light。
A pebble and the spawn of a mollusk! Before you have solved their
mysteries; this earth where you first saw them may be a vitrified
slag; or a vapor diffused through the planetary spaces。 Mysteries
are common enough; at any rate; whatever the boys in Roxbury and
Dorchester think of 〃brickbats 〃 and the spawn of creatures that
live in roadside puddles。
But then a great many seeming mysteries are relatively perfectly
plain; when we can get at them so as to turn them over。 How many
ghosts that 〃thick men's blood with cold〃 prove to be shirts hung
out to dry! How many mermaids have been made out of seals! How
many times have horse…mackerels been taken for the sea…serpent!
Let me take the whole matter coolly; while I see what is the
matter with the patient。 That is what I say to myself; as I draw a
chair to the bedside。 The bed is an old…fashioned; dark mahogany
four…poster。 It was never that which made the noise of something
moving。 It is too heavy to be pushed about the room。 The Little
Gentleman was sitting; bolstered up by pillows; with his hands
clasped and their united palms resting on the back of the head; one
of the three or four positions specially affected by persons whose
breathing is difficult from disease of the heart or other causes。
Sit down; Sir;he said;sit down! I have come to the hill
Difficulty; Sir; and am fighting my way up。 His speech was
laborious and interrupted。
Don't talk;I said;except to answer my questions。And I
proceeded to 〃prospect〃 for the marks of some local mischief; which
you know is at the bottom of all these attacks; though we do not
always find it。 I suppose I go to work pretty much like other
professional folks of my temperament。 Thus:
Wrist; if you please。 I was on his right side; but he presented
his left wrist; crossing it over the other。 I begin to count;
holding watch in left hand。 One; two; three; four;What a handsome
hand! wonder if that splendid stone is a carbuncle。 One; two;
three; four; five; six; seven;Can't see much; it is so dark;
except one white object。 One; two; three; four;Hang it! eighty
or ninety in the minute; I guess。 Tongue; if you please。 Tongue
is put out。 Forget to look at it; or; rather; to take any
particular notice of it;but what is that white object; with the
long arm stretching up as if pointing to the sky; just as Vesalius
and Spigelius and those old fellows used to put their skeletons? I
don't think anything of such objects; you know; but what should he
have it in his chamber for? As I had found his pulse irregular and
intermittent; I took out a stethoscope; which is a pocket…spyglass
for looking into people's chests with your ears; and laid it over
the place where the heart beats。 I missed the usual beat of the
organ。 How is this?I said;where is your heart gone to?He
took the stethoscope and shifted it across to the right side; there
was a displacement of the
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