登陆注册
15427700000009

第9章

Pretty D--The venerable church-The stricken heart-Dormant energies-The small packet-Nerves-The books-A picture-Mountain-like billows-The footprint-Spirit of De Foe-Reasoning powers-Terrors of God-Heads of the dragons-High-Church clerk-A journey-The drowned country.

AND when I was between six and seven years of age we were once more at D-,the place of my birth,whither my father had been despatched on the recruiting service.I have already said that it was a beautiful little town-at least it was at the time of which I am speaking-what it is at present I know not,for thirty years and more have elapsed since I last trod its streets.It will scarcely have improved,for how could it be better than it then was?I love to think on thee,pretty quiet D-,thou pattern of an English country town,with thy clean but narrow streets branching out from thy modest market-place,with thine old-fashioned houses,with here and there a roof of venerable thatch,with thy one half-aristocratic mansion,where resided thy Lady Bountiful-she,the generous and kind,who loved to visit the sick,leaning on her gold-headed cane,whilst the sleek old footman walked at a respectful distance behind.Pretty quiet D-,with thy venerable church,in which moulder the mortal remains of England's sweetest and most pious bard.

Yes,pretty D-,I could always love thee,were it but for the sake of him who sleeps beneath the marble slab in yonder quiet chancel.

It was within thee that the long-oppressed bosom heaved its last sigh,and the crushed and gentle spirit escaped from a world in which it had known nought but sorrow.Sorrow!do I say?How faint a word to express the misery of that bruised reed;misery so dark that a blind worm like myself is occasionally tempted to exclaim,Better had the world never been created than that one so kind,so harmless,and so mild,should have undergone such intolerable woe!

But it is over now,for,as there is an end of joy,so has affliction its termination.Doubtless the All-wise did not afflict him without a cause:who knows but within that unhappy frame lurked vicious seeds which the sunbeams of joy and prosperity might have called into life and vigour?Perhaps the withering blasts of misery nipped that which otherwise might have terminated in fruit noxious and lamentable.But peace to the unhappy one,he is gone to his rest;the death-like face is no longer occasionally seen timidly and mournfully looking for a moment through the window-pane upon thy market-place,quiet and pretty D-;the hind in thy neighbourhood no longer at evening-fall views,and starts as he views,the dark lathy figure moving beneath the hazels and alders of shadowy lanes,or by the side of murmuring trout streams,and no longer at early dawn does the sexton of the old church reverently doff his hat,as,supported by some kind friend,the death-stricken creature totters along the church-path to that mouldering edifice with the low roof,inclosing a spring of sanatory waters,built and devoted to some saint,if the legend over the door be true,by the daughter of an East Anglian king.

But to return to my own history.I had now attained the age of six:shall I state what intellectual progress I had been making up to this period?Alas!upon this point I have little to say calculated to afford either pleasure or edification;I had increased rapidly in size and in strength:the growth of the mind,however,had by no means corresponded with that of the body.It is true,I had acquired my letters,and was by this time able to read imperfectly;but this was all:and even this poor triumph over absolute ignorance would never have been effected but for the unremitting attention of my parents,who,sometimes by threats,sometimes by entreaties,endeavoured to rouse the dormant energies of my nature,and to bend my wishes to the acquisition of the rudiments of knowledge;but in influencing the wish lay the difficulty.Let but the will of a human being be turned to any particular object,and it is ten to one that sooner or later he achieves it.At this time I may safely say that I harboured neither wishes nor hopes;I had as yet seen no object calculated to call them forth,and yet I took pleasure in many things which perhaps unfortunately were all within my sphere of enjoyment.Iloved to look upon the heavens,and to bask in the rays of the sun,or to sit beneath hedgerows and listen to the chirping of the birds,indulging the while in musing and meditation as far as my very limited circle of ideas would permit;but,unlike my brother,who was at this time at school,and whose rapid progress in every branch of instruction astonished and delighted his preceptors,Itook no pleasure in books,whose use,indeed,I could scarcely comprehend,and bade fair to be as arrant a dunce as ever brought the blush of shame into the cheeks of anxious and affectionate parents.

But the time was now at hand when the ice which had hitherto bound the mind of the child with its benumbing power was to be thawed,and a world of sensations and ideas awakened to which it had hitherto been an entire stranger.One day a young lady,an intimate acquaintance of our family,and godmother to my brother,drove up to the house in which we dwelt;she stayed some time conversing with my mother,and on rising to depart,she put down on the table a small packet,exclaiming,'I have brought a little present for each of the boys:the one is a History of England,which I intend for my godson when he returns from school,the other is ...'-and here she said something which escaped my ear,as Isat at some distance,moping in a corner,-'I intend it for the youngster yonder,'pointing to myself;she then departed,and,my mother going out shortly after,I was left alone.

同类推荐
  • 大萨遮尼干子受记经

    大萨遮尼干子受记经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 四六鸳鸯谱

    四六鸳鸯谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 翁母些

    翁母些

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Kwaidan

    Kwaidan

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 诊宗三昧

    诊宗三昧

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 修罗觉醒:桃花有点多

    修罗觉醒:桃花有点多

    前世的背叛,时她心灰意冷重来一世,从少主变成皇帝,她只能接下再次忍受一世的痛苦孤寂,她将自己的心冰封,也许这样就不会痛了吧......
  • 神女驾到:妖孽陛下请接招

    神女驾到:妖孽陛下请接招

    高考之际,咱家筱萱敢去赴考。结果一个闪电把咱家筱萱给劈走了,于是就悲催的穿越了。穿越直接落入大殿,落入某人的怀中。被在场的所有人认为是神女,于是就成了咱筱萱就稀里糊涂地成了神女。拥有雷霆之力,了解未来历史。且看她与他携手一起玩转古代。
  • 诸神纪

    诸神纪

    一场席卷诸天的战火,童飞苏醒在一个陌生的天地,面对人生跌宕,他该何去何从?这是一个精彩绝伦的世界,有亡魂不度轮回的禁忌国度,有世人闻风丧胆的死亡魔渊,有光怪陆离的神兵墓冢……也有热血的战斗,刻骨铭心的情仇,罪恶深渊,欲望永无止境。神魔乱战,龙蛇共舞,旌旗招展,十万阎罗!双手合十,拜请收藏、推荐。
  • 篡帝

    篡帝

    天下大势,水无常形。商周之后,帝秦一统。汉楚争雄,霸王遗恨。三国纷乱,武侯翻云。隋唐夺君,女帝千年。幽幽华夏,帝统无序。以杀止杀,以杀称王,那亿亿尸骨,那万里血河,写出这诸多帝王神话。且看数千年后轮回再续,我们谁掌沉浮!
  • 不一样的存在

    不一样的存在

    他少年得志,却因自己行事风格开始碰壁,坐了三年牢,出来后堕落黑道,不小心成了黑道大老,开始有五颜六色的女人在身边围绕,走向了权利金钱的高峰,醉睡美人膝,醒掌地下权,当他停下脚步享受时,却发生了意外,成了僵尸,开始了不一般的存在。
  • 猎人笔记

    猎人笔记

    《猎人笔记》是一部形式独特的特写集。作品控诉了腐朽的农奴制度,表现了作者的民主主义思想。作品以一个猎人的行猎为线索,刻画了地主、管家、磨房主妇、城镇医生、贵族知识分子、农奴、农家孩子等众多的人物形象,真实地展现了农奴制背景下外省城乡各阶层人民的生活风貌。在美丽的大自然的景色中,发生的却是种种悲剧,体现了对农奴制度的无言控诉。作品也生动地描述了人民对美好生活的追求和向往。
  • 妃常将军妖孽王爷我不嫁

    妃常将军妖孽王爷我不嫁

    他是金陵国不得圣宠的残王,无人知晓他的另一重身份她是将军府中不得宠的嫡出小姐,清心寡欲与人无争的清冷女子。为了唯一的亲人,十岁的她不惜顶着哥哥的脸上战场,一去就是四年多。上青楼,调戏良家女子,只为了让哥哥远离皇室的纷争。她步步为营,却不知他窥探她已久。
  • 巫女镇:见习死神

    巫女镇:见习死神

    与前女友的分手宴上,不小心打碎护身玉佩。从而引来冥兵追捕,陈一峰从此进入一个神秘的世界。为了躲避冥兵,当上了坑爹的见习死神。巧遇人间绝色的神秘巫女,引来妖娆妩媚的狐狸精,拐个不生不死的美女僵尸暖床,看他如何在这个神秘的世界里化险为夷。与神魔的对话,收复上古妖魔。欢迎收听微博:写东西的王米娅
  • 枫叶传

    枫叶传

    修真本是一件逆天而行的事,但他却打破天地法则,一开始一无所有,到最后功德圆满儿,甚至不受天地法则这个约定,着实让人惊叹。。。。。。
  • 都市村姑之欲望

    都市村姑之欲望

    美丽姑娘,繁华都市,身怀绝世异能,掀起滔天巨浪,看异能强势崛起!!