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the procession of life-第2部分

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

hand。 Were Byron now alive; and Burns; the first would come from

his ancestral abbey; flinging aside; although unwillingly; the

inherited honors of a thousand years; to take the arm of the

mighty peasant who grew immortal while he stooped behind his

plough。 These are gone; but the hall; the farmer's fireside; the

hut; perhaps the palace; the counting…room; the workshop; the

village; the city; life's high places and low ones; may all

produce their poets; whom a common temperament pervades like an

electric sympathy。 Peer or ploughman; we will muster them pair by

pair and shoulder to shoulder。 Even society; in its most

artificial state; consents to this arrangement。 These factory

girls from Lowell shall mate themselves with the pride of

drawing…rooms and literary circles; the bluebells in fashion's

nosegay; the Sapphos; and Montagues; and Nortons of the age。

Other modes of intellect bring together as strange companies。

Silk…gowned professor of languages; give your arm to this sturdy

blacksmith; and deem yourself honored by the conjunction; though

you behold him grimy from the anvil。 All varieties of human

speech are like his mother tongue to this rare man。

Indiscriminately let those take their places; of whatever rank

they come; who possess the kingly gifts to lead armies or to sway

a peopleNature's generals; her lawgivers; her kings; and with

them also the deep philosophers who think the thought in one

generation that is to revolutionize society in the next。 With the

hereditary legislator in whom eloquence is a far…descended

attainmenta rich echo repeated by powerful voices from Cicero

downwardwe will match some wondrous backwoodsman; who has

caught a wild power of language from the breeze among his native

forest boughs。 But we may safely leave these brethren and

sisterhood to settle their own congenialities。 Our ordinary

distinctions become so trifling; so impalpable; so ridiculously

visionary; in comparison with a classification founded on truth;

that all talk about the matter is immediately a common place。



Yet the longer I reflect the less am I satisfied with the idea of

forming a separate class of mankind on the basis of high

intellectual power。 At best it is but a higher development of

innate gifts common to all。 Perhaps; moreover; he whose genius

appears deepest and truest excels his fellows in nothing save the

knack of expression; he throws out occasionally a lucky hint at

truths of which every human soul is profoundly; though

unutterably; conscious。 Therefore; though we suffer the

brotherhood of intellect to march onward together; it may be

doubted whether their peculiar relation will not begin to vanish

as soon as the procession shall have passed beyond the circle of

this present world。 But we do not classify for eternity。



And next; let the trumpet pour forth a funereal wail; and the

herald's voice give breath in one vast cry to all the groans and

grievous utterances that are audible throughout the earth。 We

appeal now to the sacred bond of sorrow; and summon the great

multitude who labor under similar afflictions to take their

places in the march。



How many a heart that would have been insensible to any other

call has responded to the doleful accents of that voice! It has

gone far and wide; and high and low; and left scarcely a mortal

roof unvisited。 Indeed; the principle is only too universal for

our purpose; and; unless we limit it; will quite break up our

classification of mankind; and convert the whole procession into

a funeral train。 We will therefore be at some pains to

discriminate。 Here comes a lonely rich man: he has built a noble

fabric for his dwelling…house; with a front of stately

architecture and marble floors and doors of precious woods; the

whole structure is as beautiful as a dream and as substantial as

the native rock。 But the visionary shapes of a long posterity;

for whose home this mansion was intended; have faded into

nothingness since the death of the founder's only son。 The rich

man gives a glance at his sable garb in one of the splendid

mirrors of his drawing…room; and descending a flight of lofty

steps instinctively offers his arm to yonder poverty stricken

widow in the rusty black bonnet; and with a check apron over her

patched gown。 The sailor boy; who was her sole earthly stay; was

washed overboard in a late tempest。 This couple from the palace

and the almshouse are but the types of thousands more who

represent the dark tragedy of life and seldom quarrel for the

upper parts。 Grief is such a leveller; with its own dignity and

its own humility; that the noble and the peasant; the beggar and

the monarch; will waive their pretensions to external rank

without the officiousness of interference on our part。 If

pridethe influence of the world's false distinctionsremain in

the heart; then sorrow lacks the earnestness which makes it holy

and reverend。 It loses its reality and becomes a miserable

shadow。 On this ground we have an opportunity to assign over

multitudes who would willingly claim places here to other parts

of the procession。 If the mourner have anything dearer than his

grief he must seek his true position elsewhere。 There are so many

unsubstantial sorrows which the necessity of our mortal state

begets on idleness; that an observer; casting aside sentiment; is

sometimes led to question whether there be any real woe; except

absolute physical suffering and the loss of closest friends。 A

crowd who exhibit what they deem to be broken heartsand among

them many lovelorn maids and bachelors; and men of disappointed

ambition in arts or politics; and the poor who were once rich; or

who have sought to be rich in vainthe great majority of these

may ask admittance into some other fraternity。 There is no room

here。 Perhaps we may institute a separate class where such

unfortunates will naturally fall into the procession。 Meanwhile

let them stand aside and patiently await their time。



If our trumpeter can borrow a note from the doomsday trumpet

blast; let him sound it now。 The dread alarum should make the

earth quake to its centre; for the herald is about to address

mankind with a summons to which even the purest mortal may be

sensible of some faint responding echo in his breast。 In many

bosoms it will awaken a still small voice more terrible than its

own reverberating uproar。



The hideous appeal has swept around the globe。 Come; all ye

guilty ones; and rank yourselves in accordance with the

brotherhood of crime。 This; indeed; is an awful summons。 I almost

tremble to look at the strange partnerships that begin to be

formed; reluctantly; but by the in vincible necessity of like to

like in this part of the procession。 A forger from the state

prison seizes the arm of a distinguished financier。 How

indignantly does the latter plead his fair reputation upon

'Change; and insist that his operations; by 
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