威克菲尔德的牧师 01 豪爽、天真、单纯且无害的家庭

版权

这本电子书是Standard Ebooks的成果，是许多志愿者为之努力的成果，也是众多文学爱好者和Project Gutenberg以及互联网档案馆In­ter­net Ar­chive的劳动成果。

这本电子书是根据Project Gutenberg的转录和互联网档案馆的数字扫描制作的。

我们相信这本电子书的源文本和插图已进入美国的公共领域，即它们在美国没有版权限制。然而，它们可能仍然受到其他国家/地区的版权限制，因此位于美国以外的用户应当检查本地法律，在使用此电子书之前。本电子书的创作者和贡献者将其贡献放入全球公共领域，遵循CC0 1.0通用公共领域专利保护协议。有关完整许可信息，请参阅本电子书末尾。

Standard Ebooks是一项由志愿者驱动的项目，生产使用现代排版、技术和编辑标准制作公共领域文学电子书，并免费分发。您可以在stanardebooks.org下载此电子书和其他精心制作的电子书，供真正的书迷阅读。

前言

There are an hun­dred faults in this Thing, and an hun­dred things might be said to prove them beau­ties. But it is need­less. A book may be amus­ing with nu­mer­ous er­rors, or it may be very dull without a single ab­surdity. The hero of this piece unites in him­self the three greatest char­ac­ters upon earth; he is a priest, an hus­band­man, and the fath­er of a fam­ily. He is drawn as ready to teach, and ready to obey, as simple in af­flu­ence, and majest­ic in ad­versity. In this age of op­u­lence and re­fine­ment whom can such a char­ac­ter please? Such as are fond of high life, will turn with dis­dain from the sim­pli­city of his coun­try fireside. Such as mis­take rib­aldry for hu­mour, will find no wit in his harm­less con­ver­sa­tion; and such as have been taught to de­ride re­li­gion, will laugh at one whose chief stores of com­fort are drawn from fu­tur­ity.

Oliv­er Gold­smith

这部作品有一百处错误，也可能有一百种方式证明它的美好之处。但无需如此。一本书也可以在有许多错误的情况下是有趣的，或者在没有任何荒谬之处的情况下是很无趣的。这出剧中的主人公在地球上拥有三个最伟大的角色：他是一个牧师、一个农夫和一个家长。他被描绘为既能教化也能遵从、既简单又刚强的人。在这个奢侈生活和精致的年龄，谁会喜欢这样的人物？那些喜欢奢侈生活的人会因为他的乡村烟墩的简单而轻蔑他；那些把淫秽当作幽默的人会发现他的无害的对话中没有趣味；那些被教导蔑视宗教的人会嘲笑那些主要从未来获得舒适感的人。

奥利弗·戈尔姆斯

The de­scrip­tion of the fam­ily of Wake­field; in which a kindred like­ness pre­vails as well of minds as of per­sons.

第一章 威克菲尔德家族的画像，其思想和外貌都有相似之处。

I was ever of opin­ion, that the hon­est man who mar­ried and brought up a large fam­ily, did more ser­vice than he who con­tin­ued single, and only talked of pop­u­la­tion. From this motive, I had scarce taken or­ders a year be­fore I began to think ser­i­ously of mat­ri­mony, and chose my wife as she did her wed­ding gown, not for a fine glossy sur­face, but such qual­it­ies as would wear well. To do her justice, she was a good-natured not­able wo­man; and as for breed­ing, there were few coun­try ladies who could show more. She could read any Eng­lish book without much spelling, but for pick­ling, pre­serving, and cook­ery, none could ex­cel her. She prided her­self also upon be­ing an ex­cel­lent con­triver in house­keep­ing; though I could nev­er find that we grew rich­er with all her con­triv­ances. How­ever, we loved each oth­er ten­derly, and our fond­ness in­creased as we grew old. There was in fact noth­ing that could make us angry with the world or each oth­er. We had an el­eg­ant house, situ­ated in a fine coun­try, and a good neigh­bour­hood. The year was spent in mor­al or rur­al amuse­ments; in vis­it­ing our rich neigh­bours, and re­liev­ing such as were poor. We had no re­volu­tions to fear, nor fa­tigues to un­der­go; all our ad­ven­tures were by the fireside, and all our mi­gra­tions from the blue bed to the brown.

我从来都认为，一个诚实的男人娶了妻子并经营大家庭，比仅仅谈论人口问题的单身汉做出了更大的贡献。因此，我仅仅服仕了一年，我就开始认真考虑结婚，并选择了一个与她选择婚纱类似的妻子，不是因为光亮闪亮的表面，而是那些可以穿得很好的品质。我必须对她的公正说句好话，她是一个善良的、体面的妇女；就教育方面，几个乡村女士中也没有人能比她更有资格。她可以毫不费力地阅读任何英语书籍，但在泡菜、制作甜品和烹饪方面，没有人能像她那样出色。她也为自己的卓越的家务技巧自豪，尽管我永远无法发现，随着她的策划，我们的家财并没有增加。然而，我们相互深爱，随着我们变老，我们的爱情也在增加。事实上，没有什么能让我们生气的。我们有一座优雅的房屋，位于美丽的乡村地区，邻居也很好。一年的时间都花在道德和乡村娱乐上，参观富人邻居和帮助那些贫穷的人。我们没有什么可惧的革命，也没有需要承担的疲劳，我们的冒险都是在壁炉旁进行的，我们的迁徙都是从蓝色的床到棕色的床。

As we lived near the road, we of­ten had the trav­el­ler or stranger vis­it us to taste our goose­berry wine, for which we had great repu­ta­tion; and I pro­fess with the vera­city of an his­tor­i­an, that I nev­er knew one of them find fault with it. Our cous­ins too, even to the for­ti­eth re­move, all re­membered their af­fin­ity, without any help from the Her­ald’s of­fice, and came very fre­quently to see us. Some of them did us no great hon­our by these claims of kindred; as we had the blind, the maimed, and the halt amongst the num­ber. How­ever, my wife al­ways in­sisted that as they were the same flesh and blood, they should sit with us at the same table. So that if we had not, very rich, we gen­er­ally had very happy friends about us; for this re­mark will hold good through life, that the poorer the guest, the bet­ter pleased he ever is with be­ing treated: and as some men gaze with ad­mir­a­tion at the col­ours of a tulip, or the wing of a but­ter­fly, so I was by nature an ad­mirer of happy hu­man faces. How­ever, when any one of our re­la­tions was found to be a per­son of very bad char­ac­ter, a trouble­some guest, or one we de­sired to get rid of, upon his leav­ing my house, I ever took care to lend him a rid­ing coat, or a pair of boots, or some­times an horse of small value, and I al­ways had the sat­is­fac­tion of find­ing he nev­er came back to re­turn them. By this the house was cleared of such as we did not like; but nev­er was the fam­ily of Wake­field known to turn the trav­el­ler or the poor de­pend­ent out of doors.

由于我们靠近公路，我们经常有旅行者或陌生人光顾我们品尝我们的酸梨酒，为此我们享有极高的声誉；我作为一个历史学家发誓，我从未见过有任何一个人发现它有什么问题。即使是到四十代的堂兄妹，都记得他们的亲属关系，而且没有人需要外部帮助，他们经常来看望我们。有些人声称与我们有亲属关系，但这对我们并没有什么光荣，因为他们中有瞎子、残废和跛子。然而，我妻子坚持认为他们是同一种血统，因此他们应该与我们一起用餐。所以，如果我们并不富有，我们通常都有很高兴的朋友在身边；因为这句话是生活的普遍真理，那就是越穷的客人越高兴被优待：就像有些人会惊叹鸢尾花的颜色或蝴蝶的翅膀一样，我自然而然地喜欢快乐的人脸孔。然而，当我们的一个亲属被发现是一个非常坏的人，是一个麻烦的客人，或者是我们想赶走的人时，他离开我家后，我会小心地借给他一件马褂或一双靴子，有时还会借给他一匹小价值的马，在我意料之中,他们从来没有回来归还。通过这种方式，我们可以清除那些我们不喜欢的人，但wakefield家族从来没有将旅行者或贫穷的人赶出门外。

Thus we lived sev­er­al years in a state of much hap­pi­ness, not but that we some­times had those little rubs which Provid­ence sends to en­hance the value of its fa­vours. My orch­ard was of­ten robbed by school­boys, and my wife’s cus­tards plundered by the cats or the chil­dren. The Squire would some­times fall asleep in the most pathet­ic parts of my ser­mon, or his lady re­turn my wife’s ci­vil­it­ies at church with a mu­til­ated cur­tesy. But we soon got over the un­eas­i­ness caused by such ac­ci­dents, and usu­ally in three or four days began to won­der how they vexed us.

我们过着幸福的日子，这些日子虽然不是没有小麻烦，但这些麻烦只是上帝让我们体会幸福的价值。我的果园常常被学生抢劫，我妻子的甜筒被猫或孩子抢走。有时候地主会在我的诗篇最感人的地方打瞌睡，或者他的妻子会在教堂中用一种畸形的姿态回应我妻子的礼貌。但是我们很快就能克服这些不悦，通常在三天或四天后，我们会奇怪自己怎么会受这些小事影响。

My chil­dren, the off­spring of tem­per­ance, as they were edu­cated without soft­ness, so they were at once well formed and healthy; my sons hardy and act­ive, my daugh­ters beau­ti­ful and bloom­ing. When I stood in the midst of the little circle, which prom­ised to be the sup­ports of my de­clin­ing age, I could not avoid re­peat­ing the fam­ous story of Count Abens­berg, who, in Henry II’s pro­gress through Ger­many, while oth­er courtiers came with their treas­ures, brought his thirty-two chil­dren, and presen­ted them to his sov­er­eign as the most valu­able of­fer­ing he had to be­stow. In this man­ner, though I had but six, I con­sidered them as a very valu­able present made to my coun­try, and con­sequently looked upon it as my debt­or. Our eld­est son was named George, after his uncle, who left us ten thou­sand pounds. Our second child, a girl, I in­ten­ded to call after her aunt Gris­sel; but my wife, who dur­ing her preg­nancy had been read­ing ro­mances, in­sisted upon her be­ing called Olivia. In less than an­oth­er year we had an­oth­er daugh­ter, and now I was de­term­ined that Gris­sel should be her name; but a rich re­la­tion tak­ing a fancy to stand god­moth­er, the girl was, by her dir­ec­tions, called Sophia; so that we had two ro­mantic names in the fam­ily; but I sol­emnly protest I had no hand in it. Moses was our next, and after an in­ter­val of twelve years, we had two sons more.

我的孩子是节制的结果，因为他们是在放松的环境中被教育的，所以他们既健康又强健，我的儿子活泼坚毅，我的女儿美丽艳丽。当我站在这个小圈子里，这个圈子将成为我渐渐衰老的支持，我不能不重复Count Abens­berg的著名故事，在亨利二世在德国的征程中，当他的其他朝臣带来他们的财富时，他带来了他的三十二个孩子，并将他们呈给他的主子，作为他最有价值的礼物。在这种方式上，虽然我只有六个孩子，但我认为这是对我国家的一个非常有价值的礼物，因此我认为它是我的债务。我们最大的儿子名叫乔治，是他的叔叔的名字，他给了我们10,000英镑。我们的第二个孩子是一个女孩，我想给她姑姑的名字，但是在她怀孕期间读过浪漫小说的我妻子坚持称她为Olivia。再过不到一年，我们又有了另一个女孩，现在我决定她的名字叫Gris­sel，但是一个富人渴望成为她的亲戚，按照她的要求，女孩被称为Sophia，这样我们家里就有两个浪漫的名字了；但是我严肃地宣誓，我没有参与这件事。下一个是摩西，过了十二年，我们又有了两个儿子。

It would be fruit­less to deny my ex­ulta­tion when I saw my little ones about me; but the van­ity and the sat­is­fac­tion of my wife were even great­er than mine. When our vis­it­ors would say, “Well, upon my word, Mrs. Prim­rose, you have the finest chil­dren in the whole coun­try.”—“Ay, neigh­bour,” she would an­swer, “they are as heav­en made them, hand­some enough, if they be good enough; for hand­some is that hand­some does.” And then she would bid the girls hold up their heads; who, to con­ceal noth­ing, were cer­tainly very hand­some. Mere out­side is so very tri­fling a cir­cum­stance with me, that I should scarce have re­membered to men­tion it, had it not been a gen­er­al top­ic of con­ver­sa­tion in the coun­try. Olivia, now about eight­een, had that lux­uri­ancy of beauty with which paint­ers gen­er­ally draw Hebe; open, sprightly, and com­mand­ing. Sophia’s fea­tures were not so strik­ing at first; but of­ten did more cer­tain ex­e­cu­tion; for they were soft, mod­est, and al­lur­ing. The one van­quished by a single blow, the oth­er by ef­forts suc­cess­fully re­peated.

当我看到我周围的小孩时，我感到非常振奋不已，但是我妻子的傲慢和满足感甚至更大。当游客说：「噢， Prim­rose太太，你有全国上最美丽的孩子。」——「是的，邻居，」她会回答，「他们是天造的，如果他们善良，那么他们是足够好的；因为美丽是美丽行为的结果。」然后，她会让女孩们举起头，她们当然很美丽，为了不隐瞒任何事，我可能会不记得提到这一点，如果没有人在乡村谈论这个话题。现在，Olivia已经18岁了，她有那种像画家画出来一样的美丽，像合卺女神Hebe一样，开朗、生龙活虎、凛然； Sophia的面孔并不那么引人注目，但她的面孔常常比一次一次的努力更有成效；因为她的面孔是软弱、谦虚和诱人的。一人单枪匹马，一人靠成功地重复努力。

The tem­per of a wo­man is gen­er­ally formed from the turn of her fea­tures, at least it was so with my daugh­ters. Olivia wished for many lov­ers, Sophia to se­cure one. Olivia was of­ten af­fected from too great a de­sire to please. Sophia even repressed ex­cel­lence from her fears to of­fend. The one en­ter­tained me with her vi­va­city when I was gay, the oth­er with her sense when I was ser­i­ous. But these qual­it­ies were nev­er car­ried to ex­cess in either, and I have of­ten seen them ex­change char­ac­ters for a whole day to­geth­er. A suit of mourn­ing has trans­formed my coquet in­to a prude, and a new set of rib­bons has giv­en her young­er sis­ter more than nat­ur­al vi­va­city. My eld­est son George was bred at Ox­ford, as I in­ten­ded him for one of the learned pro­fes­sions. My second boy Moses, whom I de­signed for busi­ness, re­ceived a sort of a mis­cel­laneous edu­ca­tion at home. But it is need­less to at­tempt de­scrib­ing the par­tic­u­lar char­ac­ters of young people that had seen but very little of the world. In short, a fam­ily like­ness pre­vailed through all, and prop­erly speak­ing, they had but one char­ac­ter, that of be­ing all equally gen­er­ous, cred­u­lous, simple, and in­of­fens­ive.

女人的性情通常是从她的面孔形成的，至少对我的女儿来说是这样。Olivia想要许多追求者，Sophia想要确保一个追求者。Olivia常常因为想太过吸引人而感到影响，Sophia因为害怕冒犯而压抑了优秀的品质。她们在我心情压抑时给我带来了活跃气氛，在我心情严肃时给我带来了她的智慧。但是，这些品质从不过度发挥，我经常看到他们整天在一起互换角色。一套哀伤的衣服使我的娇气女儿变成了一个老实女人，一套新的花边使她的妹妹比自然更加生动。我的长子乔治在牛津大学学习，因为我打算让他成为一个学术专业之一。我为商业打算把第二个儿子摩西留在家里接受一种杂项的教育。但是，对那些见过世界很少的年轻人的特定性格来说，描述是没有必要的。总之，全家人都有一种家族相似性，正确地说，他们都有一种特征，那就是他们都很豪爽、天真、单纯且无害。