酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

Journal of A Voyage to Lisbon-Part15_HENRY FIELDING(1707-1754)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页
instances, insisted very strongly on that satiety which is so apt

to overtake them even in the very act of enjoyment. And here



they more particularly deserve our attention, as most of them may

be supposed to speak from their own experience, and very probably



gave us their lessons with a full stomach. Thus hunger and

thirst, whatever delight they may afford while we are eating and



drinking, pass both away from us with the plate and the cup; and

though we should imitate the Romans, if, indeed, they were such



dull beasts, which I can scarce believe, to unload the belly like

a dung-pot, in order to fill it again with another load, yet



would the pleasure be so considerably lessened that it would

scarce repay us the trouble of purchasing it with swallowing a



basin of camomile tea. A second haunch of venison, or a second

dose of turtle, would hardly allure a city glutton with its



smell. Even the celebrated Jew himself, when well filled with

calipash and calipee, goes contentedly home to tell his money,



and expects no more pleasure from his throat during the next

twenty-four hours. Hence I suppose Dr. South took that elegant



comparison of the joys of a speculative man to the solemn silence

of an Archimedes over a problem, and those of a glutton to the



stillness of a sow at her wash. A simile which, if it became the

pulpit at all, could only become it in the afternoon. Whereas in



those potations which the mind seems to enjoy, rather than the

bodily appetite, there is happily no such satiety; but the more a



man drinks, the more he desires; as if, like Mark Anthony in

Dryden, his appetite increased with feeding, and this to such an



immoderate degree, ut nullus sit desiderio aut pudor aut modus.

Hence, as with the gang of Captain Ulysses, ensues so total a



transformation, that the man no more continues what he was.

Perhaps he ceases for a time to be at all; or, though he may



retain the same outward form and figure he had before, yet is his

nobler part, as we are taught to call it, so changed, that,



instead of being the same man, he scarce remembers what he was a

few hours before. And this transformation, being once obtained,



is so easily preserved by the same potations, which induced no

satiety, that the captain in vain sends or goes in quest of his



crew. They know him no longer; or, if they do, they acknowledge

not his power, having indeed as entirely forgotten themselves as



if they had taken a large draught of the river of Lethe.

Nor is the captain always sure of even finding out the place to



which Circe hath conveyed them. There are many of those houses

in every port-town. Nay, there are some where the sorceress



doth not trust only to her drugs; but hath instruments of a

different kind to execute her purposes, by whose means the tar is



effectually secreted from the knowledge and pursuit of his

captain. This would, indeed, be very fatal, was it not for one



circumstance; that the sailor is seldom provided with the proper

bait for these harpies. However, the contrary sometimes happens,



as these harpies will bite at almost anything, and will snap at a

pair of silver buttons, or buckles, as surely as at the specie



itself. Nay, sometimes they are so voracious, that the very

naked hook will go down, and the jolly young sailor is sacrificed



for his own sake.

In vain, at such a season as this, would the vows of a pious



heathen have prevailed over Neptune, Aeolus, or any other marine

deity. In vain would the prayers of a Christian captain be



attended with the like success. The wind may change how it

pleases while all hands are on shore; the anchor would remain



firm in the ground, and the ship would continue in durance,

unless, like other forcible prison-breakers, it forcibly got



loose for no good purpose. Now, as the favor of winds and

courts, and such like, is always to be laid hold on at the very



first motion, for within twenty-four hours all may be changed

again; so, in the former case, the loss of a day may be the loss



of a voyage: for, though it may appear to persons not well

skilled in navigation, who see ships meet and sail by each other,






文章总共2页
文章标签:名著  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号