登陆注册
15328300000047

第47章 A CRISIS(1)

Thus the summer was passing away,--a summer of toil, of interest, of something that was not pleasure, but which went deep into my heart, and there became a rich experience.I found myself looking forward to years, if not to a lifetime, to be spent on the same system.The Community were now beginning to form their permanent plans.One of our purposes was to erect a Phalanstery (as I think we called it, after Fourier; but the phraseology of those days is not very fresh in my remembrance), where the great and general family should have its abidingplace.Individual members, too, who made it a point of religion to preserve the sanctity of an exclusive home, were selecting sites for their cottages, by the woodside, or on the breezy swells, or in the sheltered nook of some little valley, according as their taste might lean towards snugness or the picturesque.Altogether, by projecting our minds outward, we had imparted a show of novelty to existence, and contemplated it as hopefully as if the soil beneath our feet had not been fathom-deep with the dust of deluded generations, on every one of which, as on ourselves, the world had imposed itself as a hitherto unwedded bride.

Hollingsworth and myself had often discussed these prospects.It was easy to perceive, however, that he spoke with little or no fervor, but either as questioning the fulfilment of our anticipations, or, at any rate, with a quiet consciousness that it was no personal concern of his.

Shortly after the scene at Eliot's pulpit, while he and I were repairing an old stone fence, I amused myself with sallying forward into the future time.

"When we come to be old men," I said, "they will call us uncles, or fathers,--Father Hollingsworth and Uncle Coverdale,--and we will look back cheerfully to these early days, and make a romantic story for the young People (and if a little more romantic than truth may warrant, it will be no harm) out of our severe trials and hardships.In a century or two, we shall, every one of us, be mythical personages, or exceedingly picturesque and poetical ones, at all events.They will have a great public hall, in which your portrait, and mine, and twenty other faces that are living now, shall be hung up; and as for me, I will be painted in my shirtsleeves, and with the sleeves rolled up, to show my muscular development.What stories will be rife among them about our mighty strength!" continued I, lifting a big stone and putting it into its place, "though our posterity will really be far stronger than ourselves, after several generations of a simple, natural, and active life.What legends of Zenobia's beauty, and Priscilla's slender and shadowy grace, and those mysterious qualities which make her seem diaphanous with spiritual light!

In due course of ages, we must all figure heroically in an epic poem;and we will ourselves--at least, I will--bend unseen over the future poet, and lend him inspiration while he writes it.""You seem," said Hollingsworth, "to be trying how much nonsense you can pour out in a breath.""I wish you would see fit to comprehend," retorted I, "that the profoundest wisdom must be mingled with nine tenths of nonsense, else it is not worth the breath that utters it.But I do long for the cottages to be built, that the creeping plants may begin to run over them, and the moss to gather on the walls, and the trees--which we will set out--to cover them with a breadth of shadow.This spick-and-span novelty does not quite suit my taste.It is time, too, for children to be born among us.The first-born child is still to come.And I shall never feel as if this were a real, practical, as well as poetical system of human life, until somebody has sanctified it by death.""A pretty occasion for martyrdom, truly!" said Hollingsworth.

"As good as any other," I replied."I wonder, Hollingsworth, who, of all these strong men, and fair women and maidens, is doomed the first to die.

Would it not be well, even before we have absolute need of it, to fix upon a spot for a cemetery? Let us choose the rudest, roughest, most uncultivable spot, for Death's garden ground; and Death shall teach us to beautify it, grave by grave.By our sweet, calm way of dying, and the airy elegance out of which we will shape our funeral rites, and the cheerful allegories which we will model into tombstones, the final scene shall lose its terrors; so that hereafter it may be happiness to live, and bliss to die.None of us must die young.Yet, should Providence ordain it so, the event shall not be sorrowful, but affect us with a tender, delicious, only half-melancholy, and almost smiling pathos!""That is to say," muttered Hollingsworth, "you will die like a heathen, as you certainly live like one.But, listen to me, Coverdale.Your fantastic anticipations make me discern all the more forcibly what a wretched, unsubstantial scheme is this, on which we have wasted a precious summer of our lives.Do you seriously imagine that any such realities as you, and many others here, have dreamed of, will ever be brought to pass?""Certainly I do," said I."Of course, when the reality comes, it will wear the every-day, commonplace, dusty, and rather homely garb that reality always does put on.But, setting aside the ideal charm, I hold that our highest anticipations have a solid footing on commonsense.""You only half believe what you say," rejoined Hollingsworth; "and as for me, I neither have faith in your dream, nor would care the value of this pebble for its realization, were that possible.And what more do you want of it? It has given you a theme for poetry.Let that content you.

But now I ask you to be, at last, a man of sobriety and earnestness, and aid me in an enterprise which is worth all our strength, and the strength of a thousand mightier than we."There can be no need of giving in detail the conversation that ensued.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 重生之2007

    重生之2007

    30岁创业失败的韩文,一无所有。执念重生2007,高考刚刚结束,这一世,梦开始的地方。以现实题材为主,真实写照大学生活和深圳的创业梦。
  • 你好猫之守护者

    你好猫之守护者

    放学路上捡了一只猫,没想到竟是一位美男子!第二天竟和自己同睡一床!?魔法考试的时候助自己一臂之力,却没想回忆起了那段往事。圣莱尔学院的天才少女,这个国度的绝对王者,在这个夏日,带给你不一般的特殊体验。【圣莱尔学院,欢迎您的到来】【氿而洝弃】
  • 驯服游戏:野性鲜妻不好惹

    驯服游戏:野性鲜妻不好惹

    新婚当晚就用鞭子、拿着狮子当宠物、把酒当水喝,这样的鲜妻不好惹!新婚当天,鲜妻便立下三条法规:“第一,你是猎物,只能由我来驯服。第二,我是猎人,什么都得听我的。第三,你是猎物,要洁身自好,不能被别的女人觊觎!”最可怕的是,鲜妻永远爱不够……“大叔别跑!我18了,来玩成人游戏……”
  • 娘子凶猛

    娘子凶猛

    我到游泳馆工作,听说这里有个美女自拍被吓死,死就死吧,可她偏偏还赖上了我,非要做我娘子……
  • 无限森林

    无限森林

    无限森林里埋葬的,你,想知道吗?“誓有一日,将娶你为妻。”少年幼时对着那个长发如瀑,黛绿眸子如同星辰一般闪烁着,溢满了灵气,粉唇带着一抹俏丽的弧度,“樱桃樊素口,杨柳小蛮腰”,十足美人之资的女孩,在唯美夕阳下道出了这句话。女孩一笑倾城,“好啊。”为一人,少年出山,独自搅动大陆风云。
  • 婴龙决

    婴龙决

    为报家仇,而一步步走向修真道路
  • 铁血独立营

    铁血独立营

    1937年,日寇侵略,民不聊生。日本人到处烧杀抢掠,无恶不作。抵抗侵略者的势力,共产党,国民党联合作战奋勇杀敌。王大庆,小王庄一个唯一幸存的村民,全村几百人都死在了日寇手里,为了报仇,他被迫上山当了山匪,随后带领山寨兄弟加入共产党领导的八路军,成立了一支番号为独立营的分队。杀敌日寇闻风丧胆,当之无愧的抗战英雄。
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 济辕传说

    济辕传说

    济辕大陆,自从光之子白浪与暗之子莫问天的惊天一战之后,大陆破碎,山河动摇。原本连为一体的济辕大陆,开始四分五裂。上千年后,那里的人民早已习惯了现在的大陆,门派数起,百家争鸣。一代代怀着各种梦想的人们,踏入修仙行列。铸就了济辕大陆的各种传说。
  • 花月玄奇

    花月玄奇

    轻松练级,实力闯世界。外冷内热,处处惹风流。谨慎小心,绝处逢生机。不留余地,万事留一线。隐忍克制,不改内心志。