現(xiàn)代大學英語精讀6-notes-on-english-character

1、that the character of the En glish is esse ntially middle class. There is a sound historical reason for this, for , since the end of the eighteenth century, themiddle classes have bee n the dominant force in our com muni ty. They gained wealth by the In dustrialRevolution , political power by the Re

2、form Bill of 1832; theyare conn ected with the rise and orga ni zati on of the British Empire; they areresp on siblefor the literatureof the nin etee nth cen tury.Solidity ,caution ,integrity, efficiency. Lack of imagination , hypocrisy.These qualities characterize the middle classes in every countr

3、y , but in England they are n ati onal characteristics also, because only in En gla nd have the middleclasses bee n in power for one hun dred and fifty years. Napole on, in his rudeway, called us a n ati on of shopkeepers. We prefer to call ourselves a great commercial nation- it sounds more dignifi

4、ed- but the two phrases amount to thesame. Of course there are other classes :there is an aristocracy , there are thepoor. But it is on the middle classes that the eye of the critic rests - just as it rests on the poor in Russia and on the aristocracy in Japan. Russia is symbolized by the peasant or

5、 by the factory worker ; Japan by the samurai ; the national figure of England is Mr. Bull with his top hat, his comfortable clothes , his substantial stomach , and his substantialbalanee at the bank. Saint George maycaper on bannersand in the speeches of politicia ns, but it is Joh n Bull who deliv

6、ers the goods.And even Saint George- if Gibb on is correct- wore a top hat once;he was an armycon tractor and supplied in differe nt bac on .It all amounts to the same in the end.Second Note . Just as the heart of England is the middle classes, so the heartof the middle classes is the public school

7、system. This extraord inary in stituti on is local. It does not even exist all over the British Isles. It is unknown inIreland , almost unknown in Scotland(countries excluded from mysurvey ) , andthough it mayin spireother great in stituti on s-Aligarh, for example , and someof the schools in the Un

8、 ited States-it rema ins unique, because it was createdby the Anglo-Saxon middle classes , and can flourish only where they flourish. How perfectly it expresses their character - far better for instanee , than does the uni versity, in to which social and spiritual complexities have already en tered.

9、With its board ing-houses,its compulsory games ,its system of prefects andfagging ,itsin siste neeon good form and on espritde corps ,it produces a typewhose weight is out ofall proporti on to itsnu mbers.On leavi ng hisschool ,the boy eithersets to work at once -goes intothe army or intobus in ess

10、,or emigrates -or else proceeds to the uni versityand after threeor fouryearsthereen terssome otherprofessi on-becomes abarrister , doctor , civil servant , schoolmaster , or journalist. (If through some mishap he does not become a manual worker or an artist. ) In all these careers his educatio n ,

11、or the abse nee of it , in flue nces him. Its memories in flue nee him also. Many men look back on their school days as the happiest of their lives. Theyremember with regret that golde n time whe n life, though hard , was not yetcomplex ,when they all worked together and played together and thoughtt

12、ogether , so far as they thought at all; when they were taught that school isthe world in miniature and believed that no one can love his country who does not love his school. And they prolong that time as best they can by joining their Old Boys society :in deed , some of them remai n Old Boys and n

13、o thi ng else for therest of their lives. They attribute all good to the school. They worship it. They quote the remark that The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. It is nothing to them that the remark is in applicable historically and was n ever made by the Duke of Welli ngto

14、n , and that the Duke of Welli ngton wasan Irishma n.they feel that if and if he was nt ana world that is not entirelybut of men who are as variousThey go on quot ing it because it expresses their sen time nts the Duke of Welli ngton did nt make it he ought to haveEnglishman he ought to have been. A

15、nd they go forth into composed of public-school menor even of Anglo-Saxons ,as the sands of the sea ； into a world of whose rich ness and subtlety they have no con cepti on. They go forth in to it with well-developed bodies , fairly developedminds , and undeveloped hearts. And it is this undeveloped

16、 heart that is largely resp on sible for the difficulties of En glishme n abroad. An un developed heart-not a cold one. The differe nee is importa nt, and on it my n ext note will be based.For it is not that the En glishma n cant feel - it is that he is afraid tofeel. He has been taught at his publi

17、c school that feeling is bad form. He must not express great joy or sorrow , or even ope n his mouth too wide whe n he talks-his pipe might fall out if he did. He must bottle up his emotions , or let them out only on a very special occasi on.Once upon a time (this is an anecdote ) I went for a weeks

18、 holiday on the Con ti nent with an In dia n friend. We both enjoyed ourselves and were sorry whe n the week was over, but on parting our behaviour was absolutely different. He was plunged in despair.He felt that because the holiday was over all happ in ess was over un til theworld ended. He could n

19、ot express his sorrow too much. But in methe Englishman cam( out stron g. I reflected that we should meet aga in in a month or two, and couldwrite in the in terval if we had anything to say; and un der these circumsta ncesI could not see what there was to make a fuss about. It was nt as if we were p

20、art ingforever or dying. Buckup, I said , do buck up. He refused to buck up , andI left him plun ged in gloom.we met theThe con clusi on ofthe an ecdote is even more in structive. For whe nnext month our conversation threw a good deal of light on the English character.I began by scolding my friend.

21、I toldhimthathe had been wrong to feel and displayso much emoti on upon so slight an occasi onthat it was in appropriate. The wordin appropriate roused him to fury. Whathe cried. Do you measure out youremotions as if they were potatoes ? Ididnotlike the simile of the potatoes , butafter a moments re

22、flection I saidYes,I do ； and whats more ,I thinkI ought to. A small occasi on dema nds a little emotio n just as a large occasi on dema nds a great one. I would like my emotions to be appropriate.This may be measuring themlike potatoes , but it is better tha n slopp ing them about like water from a

23、 pail , which is what you did. He did not like the simile of the pail. If those are your opinions , they part us forever , he cried , and left the room. Returning immediately , he added :No-but your whole attitude toward emotion is wrong.Emotion has nothing to do with appropriateness. It matters onl

24、y that it shall be sincere. I happe ned to feel deeply. I showed it. It does nt matter whether I ought to have felt deeply or no t.This remark impressed mevery much. Yet I could not agree with it , and said that I valued emoti on as much as he did, but used it differe ntly; if I pouredit out on smal

25、l occasions I was afraid of having none left for the great ones, and of being bankrupt at the crises of life. Note the word bankrupt. I spoke as a member of a prude nt middle-class n ati on, always an xious to meet my liabilities, butmy friend spoke as an Oriental , and the Oriental has behind him a

26、 tradition, notof middle-class prudence but of kingly munificence and splendour. He feels his resources are endless , just as John Bull feels his are finite.As regards materialresources ,the Oriental is clearly unwise. Money isnt endless. If we spend orgive away all the money we have, we have ntany

27、more, and must take theconsequences , which are frequently unpleasant. But, as regards the resourcesof the spirit, he may be right. The emotio ns may be en dless. The more we expressthem, the more we may have to express. True love in this differs from gold and clay , That to divide is not to take aw

28、ay.Says Shelley. Shelley , at all events , believes that the wealth of the spirit is endless ; that we may express it copiously ,passionately, and always ; thatwe can n ever feel sorrow or joy too acutely.In the above an ecdote, I have figured as a typical En glishma n. I will nowdesce nd from that

29、dizzy and somewhat un familiarheight , and retur n to my bus in essof no tetak ing. A note on the slow ness of the En glish character. The En glishma n appears to be cold and unemotionalbecause he is really slow. When an eventhappe ns,he may un dersta nd it quickly eno ugh with his mind , but he tak

30、es quitea while to feel it. Once upon a time a coach , containing some Englishmen and some Frenchmen, was driving over the Alps. The horses ran away, and as they were dashing across a bridge the coach caught on the ston ework, tottered , and n early fellinto the ravine below. The Frenchmen were fran

31、tic with terror :they screamed andgesticulated and flung themselves about , as Frenchmen would. The Englishmen sat quite calm. An hour later , the coach drew up at an inn to cha nge horses, and by thattime the situati ons were exactly reversed. The Fren chme n had forgotte n all about the dan ger ,

32、and were chatteri ng gaily ;the En glishme n had just begu n to feelit , and one had a nervous breakdown and was obliged to go to bed. We have here a clear physical differeneebetween the two races-a differeneethat goes deep intocharacter.The Frenchmen responded at once; the Englishmen responded in t

33、ime. Theywere slow and they were also practical.Their instinetforbade them to throwthemselves about in the coach, because it was more likely to tip over if they did. They had this extraordinaryappreciation of fact that we shall notice again and again.Whena disaster comes, the En glish in st inct is

34、to do what can be done first , and to postp one the feeli ng as long as possible. Hence they are sple ndid at emerge ncies. No doubt they are brave-no one will deny that-bravery is partly an affair of the nerves ,and the English nervous system is well equipped for meeting physicalemerge ncy.It acts

35、promptly and feels slowly. Such a comb in ati on is fruitful , and anyone who possesses it has gone a long way toward being brave. And whe n the acti on is over , then the Englishman can feel.There is one more consideration- a most importantone. If the English natureis cold , how is it that it has p

36、roduced a great literature and a literature that is particularly great in poetry ? Judged by its prose ,English literature wouldnot stand in the first rank. It is its poetry that raises it to the level ofGreek , Persian , or French. And yet the English are supposed to be so unpoetical. How is this ?

37、 The n ati on that produced the Elizabetha n drama and the Lake Poets cannot be a could , unpoeticalnation. Wecant get fire out of ice. Since literaturealways rests upon n ati onal character,there must be in the En glish n ature hidde nsprings of fire to produce the firewe see. The warm sympathy ,th

38、e romanee , theimag in ati on ,that we look for inEnglishmen whomwe meet ,and too often vainlylook for ,must exist in the nationas a whole ,or we couldnot have thisoutburstof n ati onal song. An un developed heart-not a cold one.The trouble is that the En glish n ature is not at all easy to un derst

39、a nd. Ithas a great air of simplicity , it advertises itself as simple , but the more we con sider it,the greater the problems we shall encoun ter. People talk of themysterious East ,but the West also is mysterious. It has depths that do not revealthemselves at the firstgaze. Weknow what the sea loo

40、ks like from a distanee :itis of one color ,and level , and obviously cannot contain such creatures as fish.But if we look into the sea over the edge of a boat, we see a dozen colors , and depth below depth ,and fish swimming in them. That sea is the Englishcharacter-appare ntly imperturbable and ev

41、en. These depths and the colors are the English romanticism and the English sensitiveness-we do not expect to find such things ,but they exist. And - to continue my metaphor-thefish are the Englishemotions , which are always trying to get up to the surface ,but dont quite knowhow. For the most part

42、we see them movi ng far below, distorted and obscure. Nowand the n they succeed and we exclaim,Why,the En glishma n has emoti ons ! Heactually can feel ! And occasi on ally we see that beautiful creature the flyingfish , which rises out of the water altogether into the air and the sun light. En glis

43、h literature is a flying fish. It is a sample of the life that goes on day after day beneath the surface ; it is a proof that beauty and emotion exist in the salt , in hospitable sea.And now lets get back to terra firma. The Englishmans attitude towardcriticism will give us another starting point. H

44、e is not annoyed by criticism. Helistensor not as the case maybe smiles and passes on, saying , Oh, the fellowsjealous ; Oh, rm used to Bernard Shaw; mon key tricks dont hurt me. It n ever occurs to him that the fellow may be accurate as well as jealous , and that he might do well to take the critic

45、ism to heart and profit by it. It never strikes him-except as a form of words - that he iscapable of improvement； his self-complacency isabysmal. Other nations , both Oriental and European ,have an uneasy feeling thatthey are not quite perfect. In consequenee they resent criticism. It hurts them; an

46、d their snappy answers often mask a determ ination to improve themselves. Not so theEnglishman. He has no uneasy feeling. Let the critics bark. And the tolerant humorous attitude with which he confronts them is not really humorous, becauseit is bounded by the titter and the guffaw.Turn over the page

47、s of Pun ch. There is n either wit , laughter , nor satire in our national jester-only the snigger of a suburban householder who can understand no thi ngthat does not resemble himself. Week after week ,un der Mr Pun chssupervisi on, a man falls off his horse , or a colonel misses a golfball, ora lit

48、tle girl makes a mistake in her prayers. Week after week ladies show n ot toomuch of their legs , foreigners are deprecated ,originalitycondemned. Weekafterweek a bricklayerdoes not do as much work as he ought and a futurist does more thanhe need. It is all supposed to be so good-tempered and clean

49、； it is also supposed to be funny. It is actually an outstandingexample of our attitude towardcriticism :the middle-classEnglishman , with a smile on his clean-shavenlips , is engaged in admiring himself and ignoring the rest of mankind. If, inthose colorless pages, he came across anything that real

50、ly was funny - a drawing by Max Beerbohm , for instanee - his smile would disappear, and he would sayto himself , The fellows a bit of a crank, and pass on.This particular attitude reveals such insen sitive ness as to suggest a more serious charge :is the En glishma n altogether in differe nt to the

51、 things of thespirit ? Let us gla nee for a mome nt at his religi on - not,in deed , at histheology , which would not merit inspection, but at the action on his daily lifeof his belief in the un see n. Here aga in his attitude is practical. But an inn ate dece ncy comes out :he is thinking of others

52、 rather tha n of himself. Right con ductis his aim. He asks of his religi on that it shall make him a better man in daily life : that he shall be more kind , more just , more merciful ,more desirous tofight what is evil and to protect what is good. No one could call this a low conception. It is , as

53、 far as it goes ,a spiritual one. Yet - and this seems to be typicalof the race - it is only half the religious idea. Religion is more than an ethical code with a divi ne san cti on.It is also a means through which man may get in to directconn ecti on with the divi ne, and, judgi ng by history ,few

54、En glishme n havesucceeded in doing this. We have produced no series of prophets , as has Judaism or Islam. Wehave not even produced a Joan of Arc, or a Savonarola. Wehave produced few sai nts. In Germa ny the Reformati on was due to the passi on ate con victi onof Luther.In En gla nd it was due to

55、palace in trigue. We can show a steady level of piety, afixed determ in ati on to live dece ntly accord ing to our lights - little more.Well , it is someth in g. It clears us of the charge of being an un spiritual nation. That facile contrastbetween the spiritual East and the materialisticWestcan be

56、 pushed too far. The West also is spiritual. Only it expresses its belief , not in fastingand visions , not in prophetic rapture , but in the daily round , thecom mon task. An in complete expressi on, if you like. I agree. But the argume ntun derly ing these scattered no tes is that the En glishma n

57、 is an in complete pers on.Not a cold or an un spiritual one. But un developed, in complete.I have suggested earlier that the English are sometimes hypocrites , and it is not my duty to develop this rather painful subject. Hypocrisy is the prime charge that is always brought aga inst us. The Germa n

58、s are called brutal, the Spanishcruel , the America ns superficial , and so on；but we are perfide Albi on , theisla nd of hypocrites, the people who have built up an Empire with a Bible in onehand,a pistol in the other and financial concessions in both pockets. Is the chargetrue ? I think it is ; but what we mean by hyp