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Heroes and Hero Worship-Part33_Thomas Carlyle(1795-1881)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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He spoke there,--rugged bursts of earnestness, of a self-seen truth, where

we get a glimpse of them. He worked there; he fought and strove, like a



strong true giant of a man, through cannon-tumult and all else,--on and on,

till the Cause _triumphed_, its once so formidable enemies all swept from



before it, and the dawn of hope had become clear light of victory and

certainty. That _he_ stood there as the strongest soul of England, the



undisputed Hero of all England,--what of this? It was possible that the

Law of Christ's Gospel could now establish itself in the world! The



Theocracy which John Knox in his pulpit might dream of as a "devout

imagination," this practical man, experienced in the whole chaos of most



rough practice, dared to consider as capable of being _realized_. Those

that were highest in Christ's Church, the devoutest wisest men, were to



rule the land: in some considerable degree, it might be so and should be

so. Was it not _true_, God's truth? And if _true_, was it not then the



very thing to do? The strongest practical intellect in England dared to

answer, Yes! This I call a noble true purpose; is it not, in its own



dialect, the noblest that could enter into the heart of Statesman or man?

For a Knox to take it up was something; but for a Cromwell, with his great



sound sense and experience of what our world _was_,--History, I think,

shows it only this once in such a degree. I account it the culminating



point of Protestantism; the most heroic phasis that "Faith in the Bible"

was appointed to exhibit here below. Fancy it: that it were made manifest



to one of us, how we could make the Right supremely victorious over Wrong,

and all that we had longed and prayed for, as the highest good to England



and all lands, an attainable fact!

Well, I must say, the _vulpine_ intellect, with its knowingness, its



alertness and expertness in "detecting hypocrites," seems to me a rather

sorry business. We have had but one such Statesman in England; one man,



that I can get sight of, who ever had in the heart of him any such purpose

at all. One man, in the course of fifteen hundred years; and this was his



welcome. He had adherents by the hundred or the ten; opponents by the

million. Had England rallied all round him,--why, then, England might have



been a _Christian_ land! As it is, vulpine knowingness sits yet at its

hopeless problem, "Given a world of Knaves, to educe an Honesty from their



united action;"--how cumbrous a problem, you may see in Chancery

Law-Courts, and some other places! Till at length, by Heaven's just anger,



but also by Heaven's great grace, the matter begins to stagnate; and this

problem is becoming to all men a _palpably_ hopeless one.--



But with regard to Cromwell and his purposes: Hume, and a multitude

following him, come upon me here with an admission that Cromwell _was_



sincere at first; a sincere "Fanatic" at first, but gradually became a

"Hypocrite" as things opened round him. This of the Fanatic-Hypocrite is



Hume's theory of it; extensivelyapplied since,--to Mahomet and many

others. Think of it seriously, you will find something in it; not much,



not all, very far from all. Sincere hero hearts do not sink in this

miserable manner. The Sun flings forth impurities, gets balefully



incrusted with spots; but it does not quench itself, and become no Sun at

all, but a mass of Darkness! I will venture to say that such never befell



a great deep Cromwell; I think, never. Nature's own lionhearted Son;

Antaeus-like, his strength is got by _touching the Earth_, his Mother; lift



him up from the Earth, lift him up into Hypocrisy, Inanity, his strength is

gone. We will not assert that Cromwell was an immaculate man; that he fell



into no faults, no insincerities among the rest. He was no dilettante

professor of "perfections," "immaculate conducts." He was a rugged Orson,



rending his rough way through actual true _work_,--_doubtless_ with many a

_fall_ therein. Insincerities, faults, very many faults daily and hourly:



it was too well known to him; known to God and him! The Sun was dimmed

many a time; but the Sun had not himself grown a Dimness. Cromwell's last



words, as he lay waiting for death, are those of a Christian heroic man.

Broken prayers to God, that He would judge him and this Cause, He since man



could not, in justice yet in pity. They are most touching words. He

breathed out his wild great soul, its toils and sins all ended now, into






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