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Life of John Sterling-Part4_Thomas Carlyle(1795-1881)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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beginning of August; took them immediately across with him; a house in

the neighborhood of Paris, in the pleasant village of Passy at once



town and country, being now ready; and so, under foreign skies, again

set up his household there.



Here was a strange new "school" for our friend John now in his eighth

year! Out of which the little Anthony and he drank doubtless at all



pores, vigorously as they had done in no school before. A change

total and immediate. Somniferous green Llanblethian has suddenly been



blotted out; presto, here are wakeful Passy and the noises of paved

Paris instead. Innocent ingenious Mr. Reece in drab breeches and



white stockings, he with his mild Christmas galas and peaceable rules

of Dilworth and Butterworth, has given place to such a saturnalia of



panoramic, symbolic and other teachers and monitors, addressing all

the five senses at once. Who John's express tutors were, at Passy, I



never heard; nor indeed, especially in his case, was it much worth

inquiring. To him and to all of us, the expressly appointed



schoolmasters and schoolings we get are as nothing, compared with the

unappointed incidental and continual ones, whose school-hours are all



the days and nights of our existence, and whose lessons, noticed or

unnoticed, stream in upon us with every breath we draw. Anthony says



they attended a French school, though only for about three months; and

he well remembers the last scene of it, "the boys shouting _Vive



l'Empereur_ when Napoleon came back."

Of John Sterling's express schooling, perhaps the most important



feature, and by no means a favorable one to him, was the excessive

fluctuation that prevailed in it. Change of scene, change of teacher,



_both_ express and implied, was incessant with him; and gave his young

life a nomadic character,--which surely, of all the adventitious



tendencies that could have been impressed upon him, so volatile, swift

and airy a being as him, was the one he needed least. His gentle



pious-hearted Mother, ever watching over him in all outward changes,

and assiduously keeping human pieties and good affections alive in



him, was probably the best counteracting element in his lot. And on

the whole, have we not all to run our chance in that respect; and



take, the most victoriously we can, such schooling as pleases to be

attainable in our year and place? Not very victoriously, the most of



us! A wise well-calculated breeding of a young genial soul in this

world, or alas of any young soul in it, lies fatally over the horizon



in these epochs!--This French scene of things, a grand school of its

sort, and also a perpetualbanquet for the young soul, naturally



captivated John Sterling; he said afterwards, "New things and

experiences here were poured upon his mind and sense, not in streams,



but in a Niagara cataract." This too, however, was but a scene;

lasted only some six or seven months; and in the spring of the next



year terminated as abruptly as any of the rest could do.

For in the spring of the next year, Napoleon abruptly emerged from



Elba; and set all the populations of the world in motion, in a strange

manner;--set the Sterling household afloat, in particular; the big



European tide rushing into all smallest creeks, at Passy and

elsewhere. In brief, on the 20th of March, 1815, the family had to



shift, almost to fly, towards home and the sea-coast; and for a day or

two were under apprehension of being detained and not reaching home.



Mrs. Sterling, with her children and effects, all in one big carriage

with two horses, made the journey to Dieppe; in perfect safety, though



in continual tremor: here they were joined by Captain Sterling, who

had stayed behind at Paris to see the actualadvent of Napoleon, and



to report what the aspect of affairs was, "Downcast looks of citizens,




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