3A电子书 > 名著电子书 > 红字-the scarlet letter(英文版) >

第28章

红字-the scarlet letter(英文版)-第28章

小说: 红字-the scarlet letter(英文版) 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!



 and thrust aside the vestment; that;hitherto; had always covered it even from the professional eye。  Then; indeed; Mr。 Dimmesdale shuddered; and slightly stirred。  After a brief pause; the physician turned away。  But; with what a wild look of wonder; joy; and horror! With what aghastly rapture; as it were; too mighty to be expressed only by theeye and features; and therefore bursting forth through the wholeugliness of his figure; and making itself even riotously manifest bythe extravagant gestures with which he threw up his arms towards theceiling; and stamped his foot upon the floor! Had a man seen old RogerChillingworth; at that moment of his ecstasy; he would have had noneed to ask how Satan ports himself; when a precious human soulis lost to heaven; and won into his kingdom。  But what distinguished the physician's ecstasy from Satan's wasthe trait of wonder in it!                             XI。                   THE INTERIOR OF A HEART。  AFTER the incident last described; the intercourse between theclergyman and the physician; though externally the same; was really ofanother character than it had previously been。 The intellect ofRoger Chillingworth had now a sufficiently plain path before it。 Itwas not; indeed; precisely that which he had laid out for himself toread。 Calm; gentle; passionless; as he appeared; there alice; hitherto latent; but active now; inthis unfortunate old man; which led him to imagine a more intimaterevenge than any mortal had ever wreaked upon an enemy。 To makehimself the one trusted friend; to whom should be confided all thefear; the remorse; the agony; the ineffectual repentance; the backwardrush of sinful thoughts; expelled in vain! All that guilty sorrow;hidden from the world; whose great heart would have pitied andforgiven; to be revealed to him; the Pitiless; to him; theUnforgiving! All that dark treasure to be lavished on the very man; towhom nothing else could so adequately pay the debt of vengeance。  The clergyman's shy and sensitive reserve had balked this scheme。Roger Chillingworth; however; was inclined to be hardly; if at all;less satisfied with the aspect of affairs; which Providence… using theavenger and his victim for its own purposes; and; perchance;pardoning; where it seemed most to punish… had substituted for hisblack devices。 A revelation; he could almost say; had been grantedto him。 It mattered little; for his object; whether celestial; or fromwhat other region。 By its aid; in all the subsequent relations betwixthim and Mr。 Dimmesdale; not merely the external presence; but the veryinmost soul; of the latter seemed to be brought out before his eyes;so that he could see and prehend its every movement。 He became;thenceforth; not a spectator only; but a chief actor; in the poorminister's interior world。 He could play upon him as he chose。 Wouldhe arouse him with a throb of agony? The victim was for ever on therack; it needed only to know the spring that controlled the engine…and the physician knew it well! Would be startle him with sudden fear?As at the waving of a magician's wand; uprose a grisly phantom… uprosea thousand phantoms… in many shapes; of death; or more awful shame;all flocking round about tie clergyman; and pointing with theirfingers at his breast!  All this was acplished with a subtlety so perfect; that theminister; though he had constantly a dim perception of some evilinfluence watching over him; could never gain a knowledge of itsactual nature。 True; he looked doubtfully; fearfully… even; attimes; with horror and the bitterness of hatred… at the deformedfigure of the old physician。 His gestures; his gait; his grizzledbeard; his slightest and most indifferent acts; the very fashion ofhis garments; were odious in the clergyman's sight; a token implicitlyto be relied on; of a deeper antipathy in the breast of the latterthan he was willing to acknowledge to himself。 For; as it wasimpossible to assign a reason for such distrust and abhorrence; so Mr。Dimmesdale; conscious that the poison of one morbid spot was infectinghis heart's entire substance; attributed all his presentiments to noother cause。 He took himself to task for his bad sympathies inreference to Roger Chillingworth; disregarded the lesson that heshould have drawn from them; and did his best to root them out。 Unableto acplish this; he nevertheless; as a matter of principle;continued his habits of social familiarity with the old man; andthus gave him constant opportunities for perfecting the purpose towhich… poor; forlorn creature that he was; and more wretched thanhis victim… the avenger had devoted himself。  While thus suffering under bodily disease; and gnawed and torturedby some black trouble of the soul; and given over to themachinations of his deadliest enemy; the Reverend Mr。 Dimmesdale hadachieved a brilliant popularity in his sacred office。 He won it;indeed; in great part; by his sorrows。 His intellectual gifts; hismoral perceptions; his power of experiencing and municatingemotion; were kept in a state of preternatural activity by the prickand anguish of his daily life。 His fame; though still on its upwardslope; already overshadowed the soberer reputations of hisfellow…clergymen; eminent as several of them were。 There were scholarsamong them; who had spent more years in acquiring abstruse lore;connected with the divine profession; than Mr。 Dimmesdale had lived;and who might well; therefore; be more profoundly versed in such solidand valuable attainments than their youthful brother。 There weremen; too; of a sturdier texture of mind than his; and endowed with afar greater share of shrewd; hard; iron; or granite understanding;which; duly mingled with a fair proportion of doctrinal ingredient;constitutes a highly respectable; efficacious; and unamiable varietyof the clerical species。 There were others; again; true saintlyfathers; whose faculties had been elaborated by weary toil among theirbooks; and by patient thought; and etherealised; moreover; byspiritual munications with the better world; into which theirpurity of life had almost introduced these holy personages; with theirgarments of mortality still clinging to them。 All that they lacked wasthe gift that descended upon the chosen disciples at Pentecost; intongues of flame; symbolising; it would seem; not the power ofspeech in foreign and unknown languages; but that of addressing thewhole human brotherhood in the heart's native language。 These fathers;otherwise so apostolic; lacked Heaven's last and rarest attestation oftheir office; the Tongue of Flame。 They would have vainly sought…had they ever dreamed of seeking… to express the highest truthsthrough the humblest medium of familiar words and images。 Their voicescame down; afar and indistinctly; from the upper heights where theyhabitually dwelt。  Not improbably; it was to this latter class of men that Mr。Dimmesdale; by many of his traits of character; naturally belonged。 Tothe high mountain…peaks of faith and sanctity he would have climbed;had not the tendency been thwarted by the burden; whatever it mightbe; of crime or anguish; beneath which it was his doom to totter。 Itkept him down; on a level with the lowest; him; the man of etherealattributes; whose voice the angels might else have listened to andanswered! But this very burden it was; that gave him sympathies sointimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind; so that his heartvibrated in unison with theirs; and received their pain into itself;and sent its own throb of pain through a thousand other hearts; ingushes of sad; persuasive eloquence。 Oftenest persuasive; butsometimes terrible! The people knew not the power that moved themthus。 They deemed the young clergyman a miracle of holiness。 Theyfancied him the mouthpiece of Heaven's messages of wisdom; and rebuke;and love。 In their eyes; the very ground on which he trod wassanctified。 The virgins of his church grew pale around him; victims ofa passion so imbued with religious sentiment that they imagined itto be all religion; and brought it openly; in their white bosoms; astheir most acceptable sacrifice before the altar。 The aged membersof his flock; beholding Mr。 Dimmesdale's frame so feeble; while theywere themselves so rugged in their infirmity; believed that he wouldgo heavenward before them; and enjoined it upon their children; thattheir old bones should be buried close to their young pastor's holygrave。 And; all this time; perchance; when poor Mr。 Dimmesdale wasthinking of his grave; he questioned with himself whether the grasswould ever grow on it; because an accursed thing must there be buried!  It is inconceivable; the agony with which this public venerationtortured him! It was his genuine impulse to adore the truth; and toreckon all things shadow…like; and utterly devoid of weight orvalue; that had not its divine essence as the life within theirlife。 Then; what was he?… a substance?… or the dimmest of all shadows?He longed to speak out; from his own pulpit; at the full height of hisvoice; and tell the people what he was。 〃I; whom you behold in theseblack garments of the priesthood… I; who ascend the sacred desk; andturn my pale face heavenward; taking upon myself to hold munion; inyour behalf; with the Most High Omniscience… I; in whose daily lifeyou discern the sanctity of Enoch… I; whose fo

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0

你可能喜欢的