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经典名著:月亮与六便士50
添加时间:2024-02-26 10:58:34 浏览次数: 作者:未知
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  • I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia1 for a home they know not. They are strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous2 streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof3 among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest.

    I told Tiaré the story of a man I had known at St. Thomas’s Hospital. He was a Jew named Abraham, a blond, rather stout4 young man, shy and very unassuming; but he had remarkable5 gifts. He entered the hospital with a scholarship, and during the five years of the curriculum gained every prize that was open to him. He was made house-physician and house-surgeon. His brilliance6 was allowed by all. Finally he was elected to a position on the staff, and his career was assured. So far as human things can be predicted, it was certain that he would rise to the greatest heights of his profession. Honours and wealth awaited him. Before he entered upon his new duties he wished to take a holiday, and, having no private means, he went as surgeon on a tramp steamer to the Levant. It did not generally carry a doctor, but one of the senior surgeons at the hospital knew a director of the line, and Abraham was taken as a favour.

    In a few weeks the authorities received his resignation of the coveted7 position on the staff. It created profound astonishment8, and wild rumours9 were current. Whenever a man does anything unexpected, his fellows ascribe it to the most discreditable motives10. But there was a man ready to step into Abraham’s shoes, and Abraham was forgotten. Nothing more was heard of him. He vanished.

    It was perhaps ten years later that one morning on board ship, about to land at Alexandria, I was bidden to line up with the other passengers for the doctor’s examination. The doctor was a stout man in shabby clothes, and when he took off his hat I noticed that he was very bald. I had an idea that I had seen him before. Suddenly I remembered.

    “Abraham,” I said.

    He turned to me with a puzzled look, and then, recognizing me, seized my hand. After expressions of surprise on either side, hearing that I meant to spend the night in Alexandria, he asked me to dine with him at the English Club. When we met again I declared my astonishment at finding him there. It was a very modest position that he occupied, and there was about him an air of straitened circumstance. Then he told me his story. When he set out on his holiday in the Mediterranean11 he had every intention of returning to London and his appointment at St. Thomas’s. One morning the tramp docked at Alexandria, and from the deck he looked at the city, white in the sunlight, and the crowd on the wharf12; he saw the natives in their shabby gabardines, the blacks from the Soudan, the noisy throng13 of Greeks and Italians, the grave Turks in tarbooshes, the sunshine and the blue sky; and something happened to him. He could not describe it. It was like a thunder-clap, he said, and then, dissatisfied with this, he said it was like a revelation. Something seemed to twist his heart, and suddenly he felt an exultation14, a sense of wonderful freedom. He felt himself at home, and he made up his mind there and then, in a minute, that he would live the rest of his life in Alexandria. He had no great difficulty in leaving the ship, and in twenty-four hours, with all his belongings15, he was on shore.

    “The Captain must have thought you as mad as a hatter,” I smiled.

    “I didn’t care what anybody thought. It wasn’t I that acted, but something stronger within me. I thought I would go to a little Greek hotel, while I looked about, and I felt I knew where to find one. And do you know, I walked straight there, and when I saw it, I recognised it at once.”

    “Had you been to Alexandria before?”

    “No; I’d never been out of England in my life.”

    Presently he entered the Government service, and there he had been ever since.

    “Have you never regretted it?”

    “Never, not for a minute. I earn just enough to live upon, and I’m satisfied. I ask nothing more than to remain as I am till I die. I’ve had a wonderful life.”

    I left Alexandria next day, and I forgot about Abraham till a little while ago, when I was dining with another old friend in the profession, Alec Carmichael, who was in England on short leave. I ran across him in the street and congratulated him on the knighthood with which his eminent17 services during the war had been rewarded. We arranged to spend an evening together for old time’s sake, and when I agreed to dine with him, he proposed that he should ask nobody else, so that we could chat without interruption. He had a beautiful old house in Queen Anne Street, and being a man of taste he had furnished it admirably. On the walls of the dining-room I saw a charming Bellotto, and there was a pair of Zoffanys that I envied. When his wife, a tall, lovely creature in cloth of gold, had left us, I remarked laughingly on the change in his present circumstances from those when we had both been medical students. We had looked upon it then as an extravagance to dine in a shabby Italian restaurant in the Westminster Bridge Road. Now Alec Carmichael was on the staff of half a dozen hospitals. I should think he earned ten thousand a year, and his knighthood was but the first of the honours which must inevitably18 fall to his lot.

    “I’ve done pretty well,” he said, “but the strange thing is that I owe it all to one piece of luck.”

    “What do you mean by that?”

    “Well, do you remember Abraham? He was the man who had the future. When we were students he beat me all along the line. He got the prizes and the scholarships that I went in for. I always played second fiddle19 to him. If he’d kept on he’d be in the position I’m in now. That man had a genius for surgery. No one had a look in with him. When he was appointed Registrar20 at Thomas’s I hadn’t a chance of getting on the staff. I should have had to become a G.P., and you know what likelihood there is for a G.P. ever to get out of the common rut. But Abraham fell out, and I got the job. That gave me my opportunity.”

    “I dare say that’s true.”

    “It was just luck. I suppose there was some kink in Abraham. Poor devil, he’s gone to the dogs altogether. He’s got some twopenny-halfpenny job in the medical at Alexandria—sanitary officer or something like that. I’m told he lives with an ugly old Greek woman and has half a dozen scrofulous kids. The fact is, I suppose, that it’s not enough to have brains. The thing that counts is character. Abraham hadn’t got character.”

    Character? I should have thought it needed a good deal of character to throw up a career after half an hour’s meditation21, because you saw in another way of living a more intense significance. And it required still more character never to regret the sudden step. But I said nothing, and Alec Carmichael proceeded reflectively:

    “Of course it would be hypocritical for me to pretend that I regret what Abraham did. After all, I’ve scored by it.” He puffed22 luxuriously23 at the long Corona24 he was smoking. “But if I weren’t personally concerned I should be sorry at the waste. It seems a rotten thing that a man should make such a hash of life.”

    I wondered if Abraham really had made a hash of life. Is to do what you most want, to live under the conditions that please you, in peace with yourself, to make a hash of life; and is it success to be an eminent surgeon with ten thousand a year and a beautiful wife? I suppose it depends on what meaning you attach to life, the claim which you acknowledge to society, and the claim of the individual. But again I held my tongue, for who am I to argue with a knight16?



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    1 nostalgia [nɒˈstældʒə] p5Rzb   第9级
    n.怀乡病,留恋过去,怀旧
    参考例句:
    • He might be influenced by nostalgia for his happy youth. 也许是对年轻时幸福时光的怀恋影响了他。
    • I was filled with nostalgia by hearing my favourite old song. 我听到这首喜爱的旧歌,心中充满了怀旧之情。
    2 populous [ˈpɒpjələs] 4ORxV   第9级
    adj.人口稠密的,人口众多的
    参考例句:
    • London is the most populous area of Britain. 伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
    • China is the most populous developing country in the world. 中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。
    3 aloof [əˈlu:f] wxpzN   第9级
    adj.远离的;冷淡的,漠不关心的
    参考例句:
    • Never stand aloof from the masses. 千万不可脱离群众。
    • On the evening the girl kept herself timidly aloof from the crowd. 这小女孩在晚上一直胆怯地远离人群。
    4 stout [staʊt] PGuzF   第8级
    adj.强壮的,结实的,勇猛的,矮胖的
    参考例句:
    • He cut a stout stick to help him walk. 他砍了一根结实的枝条用来拄着走路。
    • The stout old man waddled across the road. 那肥胖的老人一跩一跩地穿过马路。
    5 remarkable [rɪˈmɑ:kəbl] 8Vbx6   第7级
    adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的
    参考例句:
    • She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills. 她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
    • These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines. 这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。
    6 brilliance ['brɪlɪəns] 1svzs   第8级
    n.光辉,辉煌,壮丽,(卓越的)才华,才智
    参考例句:
    • I was totally amazed by the brilliance of her paintings. 她的绘画才能令我惊歎不已。
    • The gorgeous costume added to the brilliance of the dance. 华丽的服装使舞蹈更加光彩夺目。
    7 coveted [ˈkʌvɪtid] 3debb66491eb049112465dc3389cfdca   第9级
    adj.令人垂涎的;垂涎的,梦寐以求的v.贪求,觊觎(covet的过去分词);垂涎;贪图
    参考例句:
    • He had long coveted the chance to work with a famous musician. 他一直渴望有机会与著名音乐家一起工作。
    • Ther other boys coveted his new bat. 其他的男孩都想得到他的新球棒。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    8 astonishment [əˈstɒnɪʃmənt] VvjzR   第8级
    n.惊奇,惊异
    参考例句:
    • They heard him give a loud shout of astonishment. 他们听见他惊奇地大叫一声。
    • I was filled with astonishment at her strange action. 我对她的奇怪举动不胜惊异。
    9 rumours [ˈru:məz] ba6e2decd2e28dec9a80f28cb99e131d   第7级
    n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 );风闻;谣言;谣传
    参考例句:
    • The rumours were completely baseless. 那些谣传毫无根据。
    • Rumours of job losses were later confirmed. 裁员的传言后来得到了证实。
    10 motives [ˈməutivz] 6c25d038886898b20441190abe240957   第7级
    n.动机,目的( motive的名词复数 )
    参考例句:
    • to impeach sb's motives 怀疑某人的动机
    • His motives are unclear. 他的用意不明。
    11 Mediterranean [ˌmedɪtəˈreɪniən] ezuzT   第7级
    adj.地中海的;地中海沿岸的
    参考例句:
    • The houses are Mediterranean in character. 这些房子都属地中海风格。
    • Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean. 直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。
    12 wharf [wɔ:f] RMGzd   第9级
    n.码头,停泊处
    参考例句:
    • We fetch up at the wharf exactly on time. 我们准时到达码头。
    • We reached the wharf gasping for breath. 我们气喘吁吁地抵达了码头。
    13 throng [θrɒŋ] sGTy4   第8级
    n.人群,群众;v.拥挤,群集
    参考例句:
    • A patient throng was waiting in silence. 一大群耐心的人在静静地等着。
    • The crowds thronged into the mall. 人群涌进大厅。
    14 exultation [egzʌl'teiʃən] wzeyn   第10级
    n.狂喜,得意
    参考例句:
    • It made him catch his breath, it lit his face with exultation. 听了这个名字,他屏住呼吸,乐得脸上放光。
    • He could get up no exultation that was really worthy the name. 他一点都激动不起来。
    15 belongings [bɪˈlɒŋɪŋz] oy6zMv   第8级
    n.私人物品,私人财物
    参考例句:
    • I put a few personal belongings in a bag. 我把几件私人物品装进包中。
    • Your personal belongings are not dutiable. 个人物品不用纳税。
    16 knight [naɪt] W2Hxk   第7级
    n.骑士,武士;爵士
    参考例句:
    • He was made an honourary knight. 他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
    • A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed. 一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。
    17 eminent [ˈemɪnənt] dpRxn   第7级
    adj.显赫的,杰出的,有名的,优良的
    参考例句:
    • We are expecting the arrival of an eminent scientist. 我们正期待一位著名科学家的来访。
    • He is an eminent citizen of China. 他是一个杰出的中国公民。
    18 inevitably [ɪnˈevɪtəbli] x7axc   第7级
    adv.不可避免地;必然发生地
    参考例句:
    • In the way you go on, you are inevitably coming apart. 照你们这样下去,毫无疑问是会散伙的。
    • Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment. 技术变革必然会导致失业。
    19 fiddle [ˈfɪdl] GgYzm   第9级
    n.小提琴;vi.拉提琴;不停拨弄,乱动
    参考例句:
    • She plays the fiddle well. 她小提琴拉得好。
    • Don't fiddle with the typewriter. 不要摆弄那架打字机了。
    20 registrar [ˌredʒɪˈstrɑ:(r)] xSUzO   第9级
    n.记录员,登记员;(大学的)注册主任
    参考例句:
    • You can obtain the application from the registrar. 你可以向注册人员索取申请书。
    • The manager fired a young registrar. 经理昨天解雇了一名年轻的记录员。
    21 meditation [ˌmedɪˈteɪʃn] yjXyr   第8级
    n.熟虑,(尤指宗教的)默想,沉思,(pl.)冥想录
    参考例句:
    • This peaceful garden lends itself to meditation. 这个恬静的花园适于冥想。
    • I'm sorry to interrupt your meditation. 很抱歉,我打断了你的沉思。
    22 puffed [pʌft] 72b91de7f5a5b3f6bdcac0d30e24f8ca   第7级
    adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧
    参考例句:
    • He lit a cigarette and puffed at it furiously. 他点燃了一支香烟,狂吸了几口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    • He felt grown-up, puffed up with self-importance. 他觉得长大了,便自以为了不起。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    23 luxuriously [lʌɡ'ʒʊərɪəslɪ] 547f4ef96080582212df7e47e01d0eaf   第7级
    adv.奢侈地,豪华地
    参考例句:
    • She put her nose luxuriously buried in heliotrope and tea roses. 她把自己的鼻子惬意地埋在天芥菜和庚申蔷薇花簇中。 来自辞典例句
    • To be well dressed doesn't mean to be luxuriously dressed. 穿得好不一定衣着豪华。 来自辞典例句
    24 corona [kəˈrəʊnə] jY4z4   第12级
    n.日冕
    参考例句:
    • The corona gains and loses energy continuously. 日冕总是不断地获得能量和损失能量。
    • The corona is a brilliant, pearly white, filmy light, about as bright as the full moon. 光环带是一种灿烂的珠白色朦胧光,几乎像满月一样明亮。

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