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sartor resartus-第20章

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ble seedgrain will grow to be an all overshadowing tree!  Names?  Could I unfold the influence of Names; which are the most important of all Clothings; I were a second greater Trismegistus。  Not only all common Speech; but Science; Poetry itself is no other; if thou consider it; than a right _Naming_。  Adam's first task was giving names to natural Appearances:  what is ours still but a continuation of the same; be the Appearances exotic…vegetable; organic; mechanic; stars; or starry movements (as in Science); or (as in Poetry) passions; virtues; calamities; God…attributes; Gods?In a very plain sense the Proverb says; _Call one a thief; and he will steal_; in an almost similar sense may we not perhaps say; _Call one Diogenes Teufelsdrockh; and he will open the Philosophy of Clothes_?〃


〃Meanwhile the incipient Diogenes; like others; all ignorant of his Why; his How or Whereabout; was opening his eyes to the kind Light; sprawling out his ten fingers and toes; listening; tasting; feeling; in a word; by all his Five Senses; still more by his Sixth Sense of Hunger; and a whole infinitude of inward; spiritual; half…awakened Senses; endeavoring daily to acquire for himself some knowledge of this strange Universe where he had arrived; be his task therein what it might。  Infinite was his progress; thus in some fifteen months; he could perform the miracle ofSpeech!  To breed a fresh Soul; is it not like brooding a fresh (celestial) Egg; wherein as yet all is formless; powerless; yet by degrees organic elements and fibres shoot through the watery albumen; and out of vague Sensation grows Thought; grows Fantasy and Force; and we have Philosophies; Dynasties; nay Poetries and Religions!

〃Young Diogenes; or rather young Gneschen; for by such diminutive had they in their fondness named him; travelled forward to those high consummations; by quick yet easy stages。  The Futterals; to avoid vain talk; and moreover keep the roll of gold Friedrichs safe; gave out that he was a grandnephew; the orphan of some sister's daughter; suddenly deceased; in Andreas's distant Prussian birthland; of whom; as of her indigent sorrowing widower; little enough was known at Entepfuhl。  Heedless of all which; the Nursling took to his spoon…meat; and throve。  I have heard him noted as a still infant; that kept his mind much to himself; above all; that seldom or never cried。  He already felt that time was precious; that he had other work cut out for him than whimpering。〃


Such; after utmost painful search and collation among these miscellaneous Paper…masses; is all the notice we can gather of Herr Teufelsdrockh's genealogy。  More imperfect; more enigmatic it can seem to few readers than to us。  The Professor; in whom truly we more and more discern a certain satirical turn; and deep under…currents of roguish whim; for the present stands pledged in honor; so we will not doubt him:  but seems it not conceivable that; by the 〃good Gretchen Futteral;〃 or some other perhaps interested party; he has himself been deceived?  Should these sheets; translated or not; ever reach the Entepfuhl Circulating Library; some cultivated native of that district might feel called to afford explanation。 Nay; since Books; like invisible scouts; permeate the whole habitable globe; and Timbuctoo itself is not safe from British Literature; may not some Copy find out even the mysterious basket…bearing Stranger; who in a state of extreme senility perhaps still exists; and gently force even him to disclose himself; to claim openly a son; in whom any father may feel pride?


CHAPTER II。 IDYLLIC。

〃HAPPY season of Childhood!〃 exclaims Teufelsdrockh:  〃Kind Nature; that art to all a bountiful mother; that visitest the poor man's hut with auroral radiance; and for thy Nursling hast provided a soft swathing of Love and infinite Hope; wherein he waxes and slumbers; danced round (_umgaukelt_) by sweetest Dreams!  If the paternal Cottage still shuts us in; its roof still screens us; with a Father we have as yet a prophet; priest and king; and an Obedience that makes us free。  The young spirit has awakened out of Eternity; and knows not what we mean by Time; as yet Time is no fast…hurrying stream; but a sportful sunlit ocean; years to the child are as ages:  ah! the secret of Vicissitude; of that slower or quicker decay and ceaseless down…rushing of the universal World…fabric; from the granite mountain to the man or day…moth; is yet unknown; and in a motionless Universe; we taste; what afterwards in this quick…whirling Universe is forever denied us; the balm of Rest。 Sleep on; thou fair Child; for thy long rough journey is at hand!  A little while; and thou too shalt sleep no more; but thy very dreams shall be mimic battles; thou too; with old Arnauld; wilt have to say in stern patience:  'Rest?  Rest?  Shall I not have all Eternity to rest in? ' Celestial Nepenthe! though a Pyrrhus conquer empires; and an Alexander sack the world; he finds thee not; and thou hast once fallen gently; of thy own accord; on the eyelids; on the heart of every mother's child。  For as yet; sleep and waking are one:  the fair Life…garden rustles infinite around; and everywhere is dewy fragrance; and the budding of Hope; which budding; if in youth; too frost…nipt; it grow to flowers; will in manhood yield no fruit; but a prickly; bitter…rinded stone…fruit; of which the fewest can find the kernel。〃

In such rose…colored light does our Professor; as Poets are wont; look back on his childhood; the historical details of which (to say nothing of much other vague oratorical matter) he accordingly dwells on with an almost wearisome minuteness。  We hear of Entepfuhl standing 〃in trustful derangement〃 among the woody slopes; the paternal Orchard flanking it as extreme outpost from below; the little Kuhbach gushing kindly by; among beech…rows; through river after river; into the Donau; into the Black Sea; into the Atmosphere and Universe; and how 〃the brave old Linden;〃 stretching like a parasol of twenty ells in radius; overtopping all other rows and clumps; towered up from the central _Agora_ and _Campus Martius_ of the Village; like its Sacred Tree; and how the old men sat talking under its shadow (Gneschen often greedily listening); and the wearied laborers reclined; and the unwearied children sported; and the young men and maidens often danced to flute…music。  〃Glorious summer twilights;〃 cries Teufelsdrockh; 〃when the Sun; like a proud Conqueror and Imperial Taskmaster; turned his back; with his gold…purple emblazonry; and all his fireclad bodyguard (of Prismatic Colors); and the tired brickmakers of this clay Earth might steal a little frolic; and those few meek Stars would not tell of them!〃

Then we have long details of the _Weinlesen_ (Vintage); the Harvest…Home; Christmas; and so forth; with a whole cycle of the Entepfuhl Children's…games; differing apparently by mere superficial shades from those of other countries。  Concerning all which; we shall here; for obvious reasons; say nothing。  What cares the world for our as yet miniature Philosopher's achievements under that 〃brave old Linden 〃?  Or even where is the use of such practical reflections as the following?  〃In all the sports of Children; were it only in
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