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the procession of life-第1部分

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THE PROCESSION OF LIFE



Life figures itself to me as a festal or funereal procession。 All

of us have our places; and are to move onward under the direction

of the Chief Marshal。 The grand difficulty results from the

invariably mistaken principles on which the deputy marshals seek

to arrange this immense concourse of people; so much more

numerous than those that train their interminable length through

streets and highways in times of political excitement。 Their

scheme is ancient; far beyond the memory of man or even the

record of history; and has hitherto been very little modified by

the innate sense of something wrong; and the dim perception of

better methods; that have disquieted all the ages through which

the procession has taken its march。 Its members are classified by

the merest external circumstances; and thus are more certain to

be thrown out of their true positions than if no principle of

arrangement were attempted。 In one part of the procession we see

men of landed estate or moneyed capital gravely keeping each

other company; for the preposterous reason that they chance to

have a similar standing in the tax…gatherer's book。 Trades and

professions march together with scarcely a more real bond of

union。 In this manner; it cannot be denied; people are

disentangled from the mass and separated into various classes

according to certain apparent relations; all have some artificial

badge which the world; and themselves among the first; learn to

consider as a genuine characteristic。 Fixing our attention on

such outside shows of similarity or difference; we lose sight of

those realities by which nature; fortune; fate; or Providence has

constituted for every man a brotherhood; wherein it is one great

office of human wisdom to classify him。 When the mind has once

accustomed itself to a proper arrangement of the Procession of

Life; or a true classification of society; even though merely

speculative; there is thenceforth a satisfaction which pretty

well suffices for itself without the aid of any actual

reformation in the order of march。



For instance; assuming to myself the power of marshalling the

aforesaid procession; I direct a trumpeter to send forth a blast

loud enough to be heard from hence to China; and a herald; with

world…pervading voice; to make proclamation for a certain class

of mortals to take their places。 What shall be their principle of

union? After all; an external one; in comparison with many that

might be found; yet far more real than those which the world has

selected for a similar purpose。 Let all who are afflicted with

like physical diseases form themselves into ranks。



Our first attempt at classification is not very successful。 It

may gratify the pride of aristocracy to reflect that disease;

more than any other circumstance of human life; pays due

observance to the distinctions which rank and wealth; and poverty

and lowliness; have established among mankind。 Some maladies are

rich and precious; and only to be acquired by the right of

inheritance or purchased with gold。 Of this kind is the gout;

which serves as a bond of brotherhood to the purple…visaged

gentry; who obey the herald's voice; and painfully hobble from

all civilized regions of the globe to take their post in the

grand procession。 In mercy to their toes; let us hope that the

march may not be long。 The Dyspeptics; too; are people of good

standing in the world。 For them the earliest salmon is caught in

our eastern rivers; and the shy woodcock stains the dry leaves

with his blood in his remotest haunts; and the turtle comes from

the far Pacific Islands to be gobbled up in soup。 They can afford

to flavor all their dishes with indolence; which; in spite of the

general opinion; is a sauce more exquisitely piquant than

appetite won by exercise。 Apoplexy is another highly respectable

disease。 We will rank together all who have the symptom of

dizziness in the brain; and as fast as any drop by the way supply

their places with new members of the board of aldermen。



On the other hand; here come whole tribes of people whose

physical lives are but a deteriorated variety of life; and

themselves a meaner species of mankind; so sad an effect has been

wrought by the tainted breath of cities; scanty and unwholesome

food; destructive modes of labor; and the lack of those moral

supports that might partially have counteracted such bad

influences。 Behold here a train of house painters; all afflicted

with a peculiar sort of colic。 Next in place we will marshal

those workmen in cutlery; who have breathed a fatal disorder into

their lungs with the impalpable dust of steel。 Tailors and

shoemakers; being sedentary men; will chiefly congregate into one

part of the procession and march under similar banners of

disease; but among them we may observe here and there a sickly

student; who has left his health between the leaves of classic

volumes; and clerks; likewise; who have caught their deaths on

high official stools; and men of genius too; who have written

sheet after sheet with pens dipped in their heart's blood。 These

are a wretched quaking; short…breathed set。 But what is this

cloud of pale…cheeked; slender girls; who disturb the ear with

the multiplicity of their short; dry coughs? They are

seamstresses; who have plied the daily and nightly needle in the

service of master tailors and close…fisted contractors; until now

it is almost time for each to hem the borders of her own shroud。

Consumption points their place in the procession。 With their sad

sisterhood are intermingled many youthful maidens who have

sickened in aristocratic mansions; and for whose aid science has

unavailingly searched its volumes; and whom breathless love has

watched。 In our ranks the rich maiden and the poor seamstress may

walk arm in arm。 We might find innumerable other instances; where

the bond of mutual diseasenot to speak of nation…sweeping

pestilenceembraces high and low; and makes the king a brother

of the clown。 But it is not hard to own that disease is the

natural aristocrat。 Let him keep his state; and have his

established orders of rank; and wear his royal mantle of the

color of a fever flush and let the noble and wealthy boast their

own physical infirmities; and display their symptoms as the

badges of high station。 All things considered; these are as

proper subjects of human pride as any relations of human rank

that men can fix upon。



Sound again; thou deep…breathed trumpeter! and herald; with thy

voice of might; shout forth another summons that shall reach the

old baronial castles of Europe; and the rudest cabin of our

western wilderness! What class is next to take its place in the

procession of mortal life? Let it be those whom the gifts of

intellect have united in a noble brotherhood。



Ay; this is a reality; before which the conventional distinctions

of society melt away like a vapor when we would grasp it with the

hand。 Were Byron now 
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