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Notes on Life and Letters-Part29_JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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But there was no dive, and I returned to earth (after an hour and

twenty minutes) without having felt "bored" for a single second. I



descended (by the ladder) thinking that I would never go flying

again. No, never any more--lest its mysteriousfascination, whose



invisible wing had brushed my heart up there, should change to

unavailing regret in a man too old for its glory.



SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE LOSS OF THE TITANIC--1912

It is with a certain bitterness that one must admit to oneself that



the late S.S. Titanic had a "good press." It is perhaps because I

have no great practice of daily newspapers (I have never seen so



many of them together lying about my room) that the white spaces

and the big lettering of the headlines have an incongruously



festive air to my eyes, a disagreeable effect of a feverish

exploitation of a sensational God-send. And if ever a loss at sea



fell under the definition, in the terms of a bill of lading, of Act

of God, this one does, in its magnitude, suddenness and severity;



and in the chastening influence it should have on the self-

confidence of mankind.



I say this with all the seriousness the occasion demands, though I

have neither the competence nor the wish to take a theological view



of this great misfortune, sending so many souls to their last

account. It is but a natural REFLECTION. Another one flowing also



from the phraseology of bills of lading (a bill of lading is a

shipping document limiting in certain of its clauses the liability



of the carrier) is that the "King's Enemies" of a more or less

overt sort are not altogether sorry that this fatal mishap should



strike the prestige of the greatest Merchant Service of the world.

I believe that not a thousand miles from these shores certain



public prints have betrayed in gothic letters their satisfaction--

to speak plainly--by rather ill-natured comments.



In what light one is to look at the action of the American Senate

is more difficult to say. From a certain point of view the sight



of the august senators of a great Power rushing to New York and

beginning to bully and badger the luckless "Yamsi"--on the very



quay-side so to speak--seems to furnish the Shakespearian touch of

the comic to the real tragedy of the fatuous drowning of all these



people who to the last moment put their trust in mere bigness, in

the reckless affirmations of commercial men and mere technicians



and in the irresponsible paragraphs of the newspapers booming these

ships! Yes, a grim touch of comedy. One asks oneself what these



men are after, with this very provincial display of authority. I

beg my friends in the United States pardon for calling these



zealous senators men. I don't wish to be disrespectful. They may

be of the stature of demi-gods for all I know, but at that great



distance from the shores of effete Europe and in the presence of so

many guileless dead, their size seems diminished from this side.



What are they after? What is there for them to find out? We know

what had happened. The ship scraped her side against a piece of



ice, and sank after floating for two hours and a half, taking a lot

of people down with her. What more can they find out from the



unfair badgering of the unhappy "Yamsi," or the ruffianly abuse of

the same.



"Yamsi," I should explain, is a mere code address, and I use it

here symbolically. I have seen commerce pretty close. I know what



it is worth, and I have no particular regard for commercial

magnates, but one must protest against these Bumble-like



proceedings. Is it indignation at the loss of so many lives which

is at work here? Well, the American railroads kill very many



people during one single year, I dare say. Then why don't these

dignitaries come down on the presidents of their own railroads, of



which one can't say whether they are mere means of transportation

or a sort of gambling game for the use of American plutocrats. Is



it only an ardent and, upon the whole, praiseworthy desire for

information? But the reports of the inquiry tell us that the



august senators, though raising a lot of questions testifying to

the complete innocence and even blankness of their minds, are






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