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lavengro-第7部分

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on the recruiting service。  I have already said that it was a 

beautiful little town … at least it was at the time of which I am 

speaking … what it is at present I know not; for thirty years and 

more have elapsed since I last trod its streets。  It will scarcely 

have improved; for how could it be better than it then was?  I love 

to think on thee; pretty quiet D…; thou pattern of an English 

country town; with thy clean but narrow streets branching out from 

thy modest market…place; with thine old…fashioned houses; with here 

and there a roof of venerable thatch; with thy one half…

aristocratic mansion; where resided thy Lady Bountiful … she; the 

generous and kind; who loved to visit the sick; leaning on her 

gold…headed cane; whilst the sleek old footman walked at a 

respectful distance behind。  Pretty quiet D…; with thy venerable 

church; in which moulder the mortal remains of England's sweetest 

and most pious bard。



Yes; pretty D…; I could always love thee; were it but for the sake 

of him who sleeps beneath the marble slab in yonder quiet chancel。  

It was within thee that the long…oppressed bosom heaved its last 

sigh; and the crushed and gentle spirit escaped from a world in 

which it had known nought but sorrow。  Sorrow! do I say?  How faint 

a word to express the misery of that bruised reed; misery so dark 

that a blind worm like myself is occasionally tempted to exclaim; 

Better had the world never been created than that one so kind; so 

harmless; and so mild; should have undergone such intolerable woe!  

But it is over now; for; as there is an end of joy; so has 

affliction its termination。  Doubtless the All…wise did not afflict 

him without a cause:  who knows but within that unhappy frame 

lurked vicious seeds which the sunbeams of joy and prosperity might 

have called into life and vigour?  Perhaps the withering blasts of 

misery nipped that which otherwise might have terminated in fruit 

noxious and lamentable。  But peace to the unhappy one; he is gone 

to his rest; the death…like face is no longer occasionally seen 

timidly and mournfully looking for a moment through the window…pane 

upon thy market…place; quiet and pretty D…; the hind in thy 

neighbourhood no longer at evening…fall views; and starts as he 

views; the dark lathy figure moving beneath the hazels and alders 

of shadowy lanes; or by the side of murmuring trout streams; and no 

longer at early dawn does the sexton of the old church reverently 

doff his hat; as; supported by some kind friend; the death…stricken 

creature totters along the church…path to that mouldering edifice 

with the low roof; inclosing a spring of sanatory waters; built and 

devoted to some saint; if the legend over the door be true; by the 

daughter of an East Anglian king。



But to return to my own history。  I had now attained the age of 

six:  shall I state what intellectual progress I had been making up 

to this period?  Alas! upon this point I have little to say 

calculated to afford either pleasure or edification; I had 

increased rapidly in size and in strength:  the growth of the mind; 

however; had by no means corresponded with that of the body。  It is 

true; I had acquired my letters; and was by this time able to read 

imperfectly; but this was all:  and even this poor triumph over 

absolute ignorance would never have been effected but for the 

unremitting attention of my parents; who; sometimes by threats; 

sometimes by entreaties; endeavoured to rouse the dormant energies 

of my nature; and to bend my wishes to the acquisition of the 

rudiments of knowledge; but in influencing the wish lay the 

difficulty。  Let but the will of a human being be turned to any 

particular object; and it is ten to one that sooner or later he 

achieves it。  At this time I may safely say that I harboured 

neither wishes nor hopes; I had as yet seen no object calculated to 

call them forth; and yet I took pleasure in many things which 

perhaps unfortunately were all within my sphere of enjoyment。  I 

loved to look upon the heavens; and to bask in the rays of the sun; 

or to sit beneath hedgerows and listen to the chirping of the 

birds; indulging the while in musing and meditation as far as my 

very limited circle of ideas would permit; but; unlike my brother; 

who was at this time at school; and whose rapid progress in every 

branch of instruction astonished and delighted his preceptors; I 

took no pleasure in books; whose use; indeed; I could scarcely 

comprehend; and bade fair to be as arrant a dunce as ever brought 

the blush of shame into the cheeks of anxious and affectionate 

parents。



But the time was now at hand when the ice which had hitherto bound 

the mind of the child with its benumbing power was to be thawed; 

and a world of sensations and ideas awakened to which it had 

hitherto been an entire stranger。  One day a young lady; an 

intimate acquaintance of our family; and godmother to my brother; 

drove up to the house in which we dwelt; she stayed some time 

conversing with my mother; and on rising to depart; she put down on 

the table a small packet; exclaiming; 'I have brought a little 

present for each of the boys:  the one is a History of England; 

which I intend for my godson when he returns from school; the other 

is 。 。 。' … and here she said something which escaped my ear; as I 

sat at some distance; moping in a corner; … 'I intend it for the 

youngster yonder;' pointing to myself; she then departed; and; my 

mother going out shortly after; I was left alone。



I remember for some time sitting motionless in my corner; with my 

eyes bent upon the ground; at last I lifted my head and looked upon 

the packet as it lay on the table。  All at once a strange sensation 

came over me; such as I had never experienced before … a singular 

blending of curiosity; awe; and pleasure; the remembrance of which; 

even at this distance of time; produces a remarkable effect upon my 

nervous system。  What strange things are the nerves … I mean those 

more secret and mysterious ones in which I have some notion that 

the mind or soul; call it which you will; has its habitation; how 

they occasionally tingle and vibrate before any coming event 

closely connected with the future weal or woe of the human being。  

Such a feeling was now within me; certainly independent of what the 

eye had seen or the ear had heard。  A book of some description had 

been brought for me; a present by no means calculated to interest 

me; what cared I for books?  I had already many into which I never 

looked but from compulsion; friends; moreover; had presented me 

with similar things before; which I had entirely disregarded; and 

what was there in this particular book; whose very title I did not 

know; calculated to attract me more than the rest? yet something 

within told me that my fate was connected with the book which had 

been last brought; so; after looking on the packet from my corner 
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