【国外英文文学】Letters on England.docx

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1、【国外英文文学】Letters on EnglandLetters on Englandby Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet)INTRODUCTIONFrancois Marie Arouet, who called himself Voltaire, was the son ofFrancois Arouet of Poitou, who lived in Paris, had given up hisoffice of notary two years before the birth of this his third son,and obtained s

2、ome years afterwards a treasurers office in theChambre des Comptes. Voltaire was born in the year 1694. He liveduntil within ten or eleven years of the outbreak of the Great FrenchRevolution, and was a chief leader in the movement of thought thatpreceded the Revolution. Though he lived to his eighty

3、-fourth year,Voltaire was born with a weak body. His brother Armand, eight yearshis senior, became a Jansenist. Voltaire when ten years old wasplaced with the Jesuits in the College Louis-le-Grand. There he wastaught during seven years, and his genius was encouraged in its bentfor literature; skill

4、in speaking and in writing being especiallyfostered in the system of education which the Jesuits had planned toproduce capable men who by voice and pen could give a reason for thefaith they held. Verses written for an invalid soldier at the ageof eleven won for young Voltaire the friendship of Ninon

5、 lEnclos,who encouraged him to go on writing verses. She died soonafterwards, and remembered him with a legacy of two thousand livresfor purchase of books. He wrote in his lively school-days a tragedythat afterwards he burnt. At the age of seventeen he left theCollege Louis-le-Grand, where he said a

6、fterwards that he had beentaught nothing but Latin and the Stupidities. He was then sent tothe law schools, and saw life in Paris as a gay young poet who, withall his brilliant liveliness, had an aptitude for looking on thetragic side of things, and one of whose first poems was an Ode onthe Misfortu

7、nes of Life. His mother died when he was twenty.Voltaires father thought him a fool for his versifying, andattached him as secretary to the Marquis of Chateauneuf; when hewent as ambassador to the Hague. In December, 1713, he wasdismissed for his irregularities. In Paris his unsteadiness and hisaddi

8、ction to literature caused his father to rejoice in getting himhoused in a country chateau with M. de Caumartin. M. de Caumartinsfather talked with such enthusiasm of Henri IV. and Sully thatVoltaire planned the writing of what became his Henriade, and hisHistory of the Age of Louis XIV., who died o

9、n the 1st ofSeptember, 1715.Under the regency that followed, Voltaire got into trouble again andagain through the sharpness of his pen, and at last, accused ofverse that satirised the Regent, he was locked up-on the 17th ofMay, 1717-in the Bastille. There he wrote the first two books ofhis Henriade,

10、 and finished a play on OEdipus, which he had begun atthe age of eighteen. He did not obtain full liberty until the 12thof April, 1718, and it was at this time-with a clearly formeddesign to associate the name he took with work of high attempt inliterature-that Francois Marie Arouet, aged twenty-fou

11、r, firstcalled himself Voltaire.Voltaires OEdipe was played with success in November, 1718. A fewmonths later he was again banished from Paris, and finished theHenriade in his retirement, as well as another play, Artemise, thatwas acted in February, 1720. Other plays followed. In December,1721, Volt

12、aire visited Lord Bolingbroke, who was then an exile fromEngland, at the Chateau of La Source. There was now constantliterary activity. From July to October, 1722, Voltaire visitedHolland with Madame de Rupelmonde. After a serious attack of small-pox in November, 1723, Voltaire was active as a poet

13、about theCourt. He was then in receipt of a pension of two thousand livresfrom the king, and had inherited more than twice as much by thedeath of his father in January, 1722. But in December, 1725, aquarrel, fastened upon him by the Chevalier de Rohan, who had himwaylaid and beaten, caused him to se

14、nd a challenge. For this he wasarrested and lodged once more, in April, 1726, in the Bastille.There he was detained a month; and his first act when he wasreleased was to ask for a passport to England.Voltaire left France, reached London in August, 1726, went as guestto the house of a rich merchant a

15、t Wandsworth, and remained threeyears in this country, from the age of thirty-two to the age ofthirty-five. He was here when George I. died, and George II. becameking. He published here his Henriade. He wrote here his Historyof Charles XII. He read Gullivers Travels as a new book, andmight have been

16、 present at the first night of The Beggars Opera.He was here whet Sir Isaac Newton died.In 1731 he published at Rouen the Lettres sur les Anglais, whichappeared in England in 1733 in the volume from which they are herereprinted.H.M.LETTERS ON ENGLANDLETTER I.-ON THE QUAKERSI was of opinion that the

17、doctrine and history of so extraordinary apeople were worthy the attention of the curious. To acquaint myselfwith them I made a visit to one of the most eminent Quakers inEngland, who, after having traded thirty years, had the wisdom toprescribe limits to his fortune and to his desires, and was sett

18、ledin a little solitude not far from London. Being come into it, Iperceived a small but regularly built house, vastly neat, butwithout the least pomp of furniture. The Quaker who owned it was ahale, ruddy-complexioned old man, who had never been afflicted withsickness because he had always been inse

19、nsible to passions, and aperfect stranger to intemperance. I never in my life saw a morenoble or a more engaging aspect than his. He was dressed like thoseof his persuasion, in a plain coat without pleats in the sides, orbuttons on the pockets and sleeves; and had on a beaver, the brimsof which were

20、 horizontal like those of our clergy. He did notuncover himself when I appeared, and advanced towards me withoutonce stooping his body; but there appeared more politeness in theopen, humane air of his countenance, than in the custom of drawingone leg behind the other, and taking that from the head w

21、hich ismade to cover it. Friend, says he to me, I perceive thou art astranger, but if I can do anything for thee, only tell me. Sir,said I to him, bending forwards and advancing, as is usual with us,one leg towards him, I flatter myself that my just curiosity willnot give you the least offence, and

22、that youll do me the honour toinform me of the particulars of your religion. The people of thycountry, replied the Quaker, are too full of their bows andcompliments, but I never yet met with one of them who had so muchcuriosity as thyself. Come in, and let us first dine together. Istill continued to

23、 make some very unseasonable ceremonies, it notbeing easy to disengage ones self at once from habits we have beenlong used to; and after taking part in a frugal meal, which beganand ended with a prayer to God, I began to question my courteoushost. I opened with that which good Catholics have more th

24、an oncemade to Huguenots. My dear sir, said I, were you ever baptised?I never was, replied the Quaker, nor any of my brethren.Zounds! say I to him, you are not Christians, then. Friend,replies the old man in a soft tone of voice, swear not; we areChristians, and endeavour to be good Christians, but

25、we are not ofopinion that the sprinkling water on a childs head makes him aChristian. Heavens! say I, shocked at his impiety, you havethen forgot that Christ was baptised by St. John. Friend,replies the mild Quaker once again, swear not; Christ indeed wasbaptised by John, but He himself never baptis

26、ed anyone. We are thedisciples of Christ, not of John. I pitied very much the sincerityof my worthy Quaker, and was absolutely for forcing him to gethimself christened. Were that all, replied he very gravely, wewould submit cheerfully to baptism, purely in compliance with thyweakness, for we dont co

27、ndemn any person who uses it; but then wethink that those who profess a religion of so holy, so spiritual anature as that of Christ, ought to abstain to the utmost of theirpower from the Jewish ceremonies. O unaccountable! say I:what! baptism a Jewish ceremony? Yes, my friend, says he, sotruly Jewis

28、h, that a great many Jews use the baptism of John to thisday. Look into ancient authors, and thou wilt find that John onlyrevived this practice; and that it had been used by the Hebrews,long before his time, in like manner as the Mahometans imitated theIshmaelites in their pilgrimages to Mecca. Jesu

29、s indeed submittedto the baptism of John, as He had suffered Himself to becircumcised; but circumcision and the washing with water ought to beabolished by the baptism of Christ, that baptism of the Spirit, thatablution of the soul, which is the salvation of mankind. Thus theforerunner said, I indeed

30、 baptise you with water unto repentance;but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am notworthy to bear: he shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and withfire. Likewise Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, writes asfollows to the Corinthians, Christ sent me not to baptise, but

31、 topreach the Gospel; and indeed Paul never baptised but two personswith water, and that very much against his inclinations. Hecircumcised his disciple Timothy, and the other disciples likewisecircumcised all who were willing to submit to that carnal ordinance.But art thou circumcised? added he. I h

32、ave not the honour to beso, say I. Well, friend, continues the Quaker, thou art aChristian without being circumcised, and I am one without beingbaptised. Thus did this pious man make a wrong but very speciousapplication of four or five texts of Scripture which seemed tofavour the tenets of his sect;

33、 but at the same time forgot verysincerely an hundred texts which made directly against them. I hadmore sense than to contest with him, since there is no possibilityof convincing an enthusiast. A man should never pretend to inform alover of his mistresss faults, no more than one who is at law, ofthe

34、 badness of his cause; nor attempt to win over a fanatic bystrength of reasoning. Accordingly I waived the subject.Well, said I to him, what sort of a communion have you? Wehave none like that thou hintest at among us, replied he. How! nocommunion? said I. Only that spiritual one, replied he, ofhear

35、ts. He then began again to throw out his texts of Scripture;and preached a most eloquent sermon against that ordinance. Heharangued in a tone as though he had been inspired, to prove thatthe sacraments were merely of human invention, and that the wordsacrament was not once mentioned in the Gospel. E

36、xcuse, saidhe, my ignorance, for I have not employed a hundredth part of thearguments which might be brought to prove the truth of our religion,but these thou thyself mayest peruse in the Exposition of our Faithwritten by Robert Barclay. It is one of the best pieces that everwas penned by man; and a

37、s our adversaries confess it to be ofdangerous tendency, the arguments in it must necessarily be veryconvincing. I promised to peruse this piece, and my Quakerimagined he had already made a convert of me. He afterwards gave mean account in few words of some singularities which make this sectthe cont

38、empt of others. Confess, said he, that it was verydifficult for thee to refrain from laughter, when I answered all thycivilities without uncovering my head, and at the same time saidthee and thou to thee. However, thou appearest to me too wellread not to know that in Christs time no nation was so ri

39、diculousas to put the plural number for the singular. Augustus Caesarhimself was spoken to in such phrases as these: I love thee, Ibeseech thee, I thank thee; but he did not allow any person tocall him Domine, sir. It was not till many ages after that menwould have the word you, as though they were

40、double, instead ofthou employed in speaking to them; and usurped the flatteringtitles of lordship, of eminence, and of holiness, which mere wormsbestow on other worms by assuring them that they are with a mostprofound respect, and an infamous falsehood, their most obedienthumble servants. It is to s

41、ecure ourselves more strongly from sucha shameless traffic of lies and flattery, that we thee and thoua king with the same freedom as we do a beggar, and salute noperson; we owing nothing to mankind but charity, and to the lawsrespect and obedience.Our apparel is also somewhat different from that of

42、 others, andthis purely, that it may be a perpetual warning to us not to imitatethem. Others wear the badges and marks of their several dignities,and we those of Christian humility. We fly from all assemblies ofpleasure, from diversions of every kind, and from places wheregaming is practised; and in

43、deed our case would be very deplorable,should we fill with such levities as those I have mentioned theheart which ought to be the habitation of God. We never swear, noteven in a court of justice, being of opinion that the most holy nameof God ought not to be prostituted in the miserable contests bet

44、wixtman and man. When we are obliged to appear before a magistrate uponother peoples account (for law-suits are unknown among theFriends), we give evidence to the truth by sealing it with our yeaor nay; and the judges believe us on our bare affirmation, whilst somany other Christians forswear themse

45、lves on the holy Gospels. Wenever war or fight in any case; but it is not that we are afraid,for so far from shuddering at the thoughts of death, we on thecontrary bless the moment which unites us with the Being of Beings;but the reason of our not using the outward sword is, that we areneither wolve

46、s, tigers, nor mastiffs, but men and Christians. OurGod, who has commanded us to love our enemies, and to suffer withoutrepining, would certainly not permit us to cross the seas, merelybecause murderers clothed in scarlet, and wearing caps two foothigh, enlist citizens by a noise made with two little sticks on anass