LESSON 78

THE ENGLISH CHARACTER

英国人的性格

William Hickling Prescott, 1796-1859, the historian, was the son of William Prescott, an eminent jurist, and the grandson of Col. William Prescott, who commanded the Americans at the battle of Bunker Hill. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts, graduated at Harvard University in 1814, and died in Boston. Just as he was completing his college course, the careless sport of a fellow-student injured one of his eyes so seriously that he never recovered from it. He had intended to adopt law as his profession; but, from his detective eyesight, he was obliged to choose work in which he could regulate his hours of labor, and could employ the aid of a secretary. He chose to be a historian; and followed his choice with wonderful system, perseverance, and success till the close of his life. His works are: “The Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella,” “The Conquest of Mexico,” “The Conquest of Peru,” “The Reign of Philip II,” and a volume of “Miscellanies.” He had not completed the history of Philip at the time of his death. As a writer of history, Mr. Prescott ranks with the first for accuracy, precision, clearness, and beauty of style. As a man, he was genial, kind-hearted and even-tempered.

On the whole, what I have seen raises my preconceived estimate of the English character. It is full of generous, true, and manly qualities; and I doubt if there ever was so high a standard of morality in an aristocracy which has such means for self-indulgence at its command, and which occupies a position that secures it so much deference. In general, they do not seem to abuse their great advantages. The respect for religion—at least for the forms of it—is universal, and there are few, I imagine, of the great proprietors who are not more or less occupied with improving their estates, and with providing for the comfort of their tenantry, while many take a leading part in the great political movements of the time. There never was an aristocracy which combined so much practical knowledge and industry with the advantages of exalted rank.

The Englishman is seen to most advantage in his country home. For he is constitutionally both domestic and rural in his habits. His fireside and his farm—these are the places in which one sees his simple and warm-hearted nature more freely unfolded. There is a shyness in an Englishman, —a natural reserve, which makes him cold to strangers, and difficult to approach. But once corner him in his own house, a frank and full expansion will be given to his feelings that we should look for in vain in the colder Yankee, and a depth not to be found in the light and superficial Frenchman,—speaking of nationalities, not of individualities.

The Englishman is the most truly rural in his tastes and habits of any people in the world. I am speaking of the higher classes. The aristocracy of other countries affect the camp and the city. But the English love their old castles and country seats with a patriotic love. They are fond of country sports. Every man shoots or hunts. No man is too old to be in the saddle some part of the day, and men of seventy years and more follow the hounds, and, take a five-barred gate at a leap. The women are good whips, are fond of horses and dogs, and other animals. Duchesses have their cows, their poultry, their pigs,—all watched over and provided with accommodations of Dutch-like neatness. All this is characteristic of the people. It may be thought to detract something from the feminine graces which in other lands make a woman so amiably dependent as to be nearly imbecile. But it produces a healthy and blooming race of women to match the hardy Englishman,—the finest development of the physical and moral nature which the world has witnessed. For we are not to look on the English gentleman as a mere Nimrod. With all his relish for field sports and country usages, he has his house filled with collections of art and with extensive libraries. The tables of the drawing-rooms are covered with the latest works, sent down by the London publisher. Every guest is provided with an apparatus for writing, and often a little library of books for his own amusement. The English country gentleman of the present day is anything but a Squire Western, though he does retain all his relish for field sports.

The character of an Englishman, under its most refined aspect, has some disagreeable points which jar unpleasantly on the foreigner not accustomed to them. The consciousness of national superiority, combined with natural feelings of independence, gives him an air of arrogance, though it must be owned that this is never betrayed in his own house,—I may almost say in his own country. But abroad, when he seems to institute a comparison between himself and the people he is thrown with, it becomes so obvious that he is the most unpopular, not to say odious, person in the world. Even the open hand with which he dispenses his bounty will not atone for the violence he offers to national vanity.

There are other defects, which are visible even in his most favored circumstances. Such is his bigotry, surpassing everything in a quiet passive form, that has been witnessed since the more active bigotry of the times of the Spanish Philips. Such, too, is the exclusive, limited range of his knowledge and conceptions of all political and social topics and relations. The Englishman, the cultivated Englishman, has no standard of excellence borrowed from mankind. His speculation never travels beyond his own little—great little—island. That is the world to him. True, he travels, shoots lions among the Hottentots, chases the grizzly bear over the Rocky Mountains, kills elephants in India and salmon on the coast of Labrador, comes home, and very likely makes a book. But the scope of his ideas does not seem to be enlarged by all this. The body travels, not the mind. And, however he may abuse his own land, he returns home as hearty a John Bull, with all his prejudices and national tastes as rooted, as before. The English—the men of fortune—all travel. Yet how little sympathy they show for other people or institutions, and how slight is the interest they take in them! They are islanders, cut off from the great world. But their island is, indeed, a world of its own. With all their faults, never has the sun shone—if one may use the expression in reference to England—all a more noble race, or one that has done more for the great interests of humanity.

【中文阅读】

总的来说，我对英国人性格的预想评价源于我观察到的慷慨、忠诚和刚毅。我怀疑的是，一个贵族身上是否始终具备如此之高的道德标准，而这个贵族却任意发号施令，身居能确保别人对他非常遵从的高位。大体上而言，他们似乎没有滥用其本身具有的巨大优越性。对宗教的尊重——至少对宗教的各种形式——是普遍现象，我以为很少有掌握惊人财产的业主在波澜壮阔的政治活动中扮演突出角色的同时，对你自己的不动产不理不问，不为自己的佃农提供生活保障。绝对没有这样的贵族，能将如此之多的实用知识与崇高的事业结合起来。

我们发现英国人在他自己国家里最有优越性。因为从本质上讲，无论在家里还是在乡村他的习惯都能得以保持不变。他的炉边和他的农场——在这些地方人们都能发现他单纯和热心的本性更自由、随意地显露出来。英国人天性羞怯——这是一种自然的内敛，使他对陌生人显得冷漠，难于接近。不过一旦身处自家一隅， 那种坦率和个性的张扬便赋予他我们在冷酷的美国佬身上难得一见的情感，其深邃程度是我们在轻浮和流于表面的法国人身上见不到的，这里所指的是作为群体的民族，不是个体。

英国人是世界上最能保持趣味和习惯原初本质的民族。我指的是较高阶层的人。其他国家的贵族偏爱营地和城市，而英国的贵族喜爱的是古老的城堡和能寄寓爱国情怀的乡村。他们喜爱乡村才有的体育运动。每个人都喜欢射猎。没有谁太守旧，以至于在一天里总有一些时间居高临下骑着马，年届七旬和更年长的老人牵着狗，飞身越过有五道木栅的门。女人都很会使鞭子，喜欢骑马和遛狗。女公爵有属于她们的母牛、家禽和猪——所有人都照看这些动物，提供荷兰式整洁干净的生活必需品。这就是英国人的民族性格。或许有人认为此举有损女性的优雅，另一方面也使女性和蔼可亲，人们在她们面前几乎像个低能儿。但是，这导致英国女性作为一个整体不但健壮而且精力旺盛，堪与吃苦耐劳的英国男性媲美——世人所能目睹的身体和道德品质最完美发展的结果。由于我们并没有将英国绅士看作单纯的猎手。由于户外运动和乡村习俗赋予生活以很大的乐趣，他的家里到处都是收藏的艺术品和藏书。画室里的桌台上摞着的是新近出版的书籍，系伦敦的出版商刚寄来的。每位造访的客人都配有一套写作工具，通常是能满足个人情趣的小图书馆。如今英国乡村绅士根本不是典型的西方乡绅，尽管他的所有乐趣确实都在户外运动上。

一个英国人的性格，在最精致的外表下，有一些刺激外国人神经的无法接受之处，令其无法适应他们。对民族优越感的意识，与独立性这种自然流露出来的情感结合在一起，赋予其傲慢自大的神态，尽管必须承认他绝对不会在自己的家里流露出来——我几乎可以说在自己国家里也很少流露出来。但是在国外，当他打算拿自己与所在国家的人进行比较时，再明显不过的是，他是世界上最不受欢迎的人，这样说并无恶意。甚至连他为了施舍而张开的手，也不会弥补他展现民族虚荣时所带来的伤害。

还有其他缺点，甚至在对他最友好的环境里也显而易见。这就是他的顽固，以一种相当被动的形式漠视一切，已经为西班牙菲利普斯统治时期以来所体现出的更顽固的性格所证实。还有排外，限制了他对所有政治和社会话题以及相互关系的认知与观念。英国人，尤其是有教养的英国人，没有从人类借用的卓越这一标准规范。他的思考从未超越过自己所在的那一相对而言狭小的英伦三岛。对他而言，世界就是这个样子。确实，他旅行时，射杀霍屯督人中间的狮子，跨越落基山脉追逐北美洲灰熊，在印度猎杀大象，在拉布拉多沿岸捕杀鲑鱼，然后回家，非常可能将这些经历写进一本书里。但是，他思想的疆界似乎不会因为这些而有所拓展。行走的是他的身体，而不是心灵。然而他也许会伤害自己的国家，他像一个典型的英国人那样精神饱满地回到家里，还像以前一样带着根深蒂固的偏见，自己的情趣一点也没有变。英国人——幸运的人——走遍了世界。可是，他们对其他民族的人或政体多么冷漠，他对他们给予的兴趣又何其微不足道啊！他们是岛民，与这个巨大的世界相隔绝。实际上，他们居住的岛屿就是属于他们的世界。他们所有的错误从不会暴露在阳光之下——如果有什么词可以形容英格兰的话，——当然会说那是一个更高贵的民族，或者一个对人类的重大利益做出更多贡献的民族。