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From This World to the Next-Part1_HENRY FIELDING(1707-1754)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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a verb in mi.

To deliver my own sentiments on the occasion, I think the author



discovers a philosophical turn of thinking, with some little

knowledge of the world, and no very inadequate value of it.



There are some indeed who, from the vivacity of their temper and

the happiness of their station, are willing to consider its



blessings as more substantial, and the whole to be a scene of

more consequence than it is here represented: but, without



controverting their opinions at present, the number of wise and

good men who have thought with our author are sufficient to keep



him in countenance: nor can this be attended with any ill

inference, since he everywhere teaches this moral: That the



greatest and truest happiness which this world affords, is to be

found only in the possession of goodness and virtue; a doctrine



which, as it is undoubtedly true, so hath it so noble and

practical a tendency, that it can never be too often or too



strongly inculcated on the minds of men.

BOOK I



CHAPTER I

The author dies, meets with Mercury, and is by him conducted to



the stage which sets out for the other world.

On the first day of December 1741[1] I departed this life at my



lodgings in Cheapside. My body had been some time dead before I

was at liberty to quit it, lest it should by any accident return



to life: this is an injunction imposed on all souls by the

eternal law of fate, to prevent the inconveniences which would



follow. As soon as the destined period was expired (being no

longer than till the body is become perfectly cold and stiff) I



began to move; but found myself under a difficulty of making my

escape, for the mouth or door was shut, so that it was impossible



for me to go out at it; and the windows, vulgarly called the

eyes, were so closely pulled down by the fingers of a nurse, that



I could by no means open them. At last I perceived a beam of

light glimmering at the top of the house (for such I may call the



body I had been inclosed in), whither ascending, I gently let

myself down through a kind of chimney, and issued out at the



nostrils.

[1] Some doubt whether this should not be rather 1641, which is



a date more agreeable to the account given of it in the

introduction: but then there are some passages which seem to



relate to transactions infinitely later, even within this year or

two. To say the truth there are difficulties attending either



conjecture; so the reader may take which he pleases.

No prisoner discharged from a long confinement ever tasted the



sweets of liberty with a more exquisiterelish than I enjoyed in

this delivery from a dungeonwherein I had been detained upwards



of forty years, and with much the same kind of regard I cast my

eyes[2] backwards upon it.



[2] Eyes are not perhaps so properly adapted to a spiritual

substance; but we are here, as in many other places, obliged to



use corporeal terms to make ourselves the better understood.

My friends and relations had all quitted the room, being all (as



I plainly overheard) very loudly quarreling below stairs about my

will; there was only an old woman left above to guard the body,



as I apprehend. She was in a fast sleep, occasioned, as from her

savor it seemed, by a comfortable dose of gin. I had no pleasure



in this company, and, therefore, as the window was wide open, I

sallied forth into the open air: but, to my great astonishment,



found myself unable to fly, which I had always during my

habitation in the body conceived of spirits; however, I came so



lightly to the ground that I did not hurt myself; and, though I

had not the gift of flying (owing probably to my having neither



feathers nor wings), I was capable of hopping such a prodigious

way at once, that it served my turn almost as well. I had not



hopped far before I perceived a tall young gentleman in a silk

waistcoat, with a wing on his left heel, a garland on his head,



and a caduceus in his right hand.[3] I thought I had seen this

person before, but had not time to recollect where, when he



called out to me and asked me how long I had been departed. I

answered I was just come forth. "You must not stay here,"



replied he, "unless you had been murdered: in which case,

indeed, you might have been suffered to walk some time; but if



you died a natural death you must set out for the other world

immediately." I desired to know the way. "O," cried the



gentleman, "I will show you to the inn whence the stage proceeds;

for I am the porter. Perhaps you never heard of me--my name is






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