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

Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes-Part7_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_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


professional male jollity, deserted at once for two sweet eyes and

a caressing accent. And next after this, the tongue is the great



divider.

I am almost ashamed to pursue this worldlycriticism of a religious



rule; but there is yet another point in which the Trappist order

appeals to me as a model of wisdom. By two in the morning the



clapper goes upon the bell, and so on, hour by hour, and sometimes

quarter by quarter, till eight, the hour of rest; so



infinitesimally is the day divided among different occupations.

The man who keeps rabbits, for example, hurries from his hutches to



the chapel, the chapter-room, or the refectory, all day long:

every hour he has an office to sing, a duty to perform; from two,



when he rises in the dark, till eight, when he returns to receive

the comfortable gift of sleep, he is upon his feet and occupied



with manifold and changing business. I know many persons, worth

several thousands in the year, who are not so fortunate in the



disposal of their lives. Into how many houses would not the note

of the monastery bell, dividing the day into manageable portions,



bring peace of mind and healthful activity of body! We speak of

hardships, but the true hardship is to be a dull fool, and



permitted to mismanage life in our own dull and foolish manner.

From this point of view, we may perhaps better understand the



monk's existence. A long novitiate and every proof of constancy of

mind and strength of body is required before admission to the



order; but I could not find that many were discouraged. In the

photographer's studio, which figures so strangely among the



outbuildings, my eye was attracted by the portrait of a young

fellow in the uniform of a private of foot. This was one of the



novices, who came of the age for service, and marched and drilled

and mounted guard for the proper time among the garrison of



Algiers. Here was a man who had surely seen both sides of life

before deciding; yet as soon as he was set free from service he



returned to finish his novitiate.

This austere rule entitles a man to heaven as by right. When the



Trappist sickens, he quits not his habit; he lies in the bed of

death as he has prayed and laboured in his frugal and silent



existence; and when the Liberator comes, at the very moment, even

before they have carried him in his robe to lie his little last in



the chapel among continual chantings, joy-bells break forth, as if

for a marriage, from the slated belfry, and proclaim throughout the



neighbourhood that another soul has gone to God.

At night, under the conduct of my kind Irishman, I took my place in



the gallery to hear compline and SALVE REGINA, with which the

Cistercians bring every day to a conclusion. There were none of



those circumstances which strike the Protestant as childish or as

tawdry in the public offices of Rome. A stern simplicity,



heightened by the romance of the surroundings, spoke directly to

the heart. I recall the whitewashed chapel, the hooded figures in



the choir, the lights alternately occluded and revealed, the strong

manly singing, the silence that ensued, the sight of cowled heads



bowed in prayer, and then the clear trenchant beating of the bell,

breaking in to show that the last office was over and the hour of



sleep had come; and when I remember, I am not surprised that I made

my escape into the court with somewhat whirling fancies, and stood



like a man bewildered in the windy starry night.

But I was weary; and when I had quieted my spirits with Elizabeth



Seton's memoirs - a dull work - the cold and the raving of the wind

among the pines (for my room was on that side of the monastery



which adjoins the woods) disposed me readily to slumber. I was

wakened at black midnight, as it seemed, though it was really two



in the morning, by the first stroke upon the bell. All the

brothers were then hurrying to the chapel; the dead in life, at






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