米德尔马契 英文版 Middlemarch
乔治.艾略特 George Eliot
CHAPTER XLVI.
Pues no podemos haber aquello que queremos, queramosaquello que podremos.
Since we cannot get what we like, let us likewhat we can get.--Spanish Proverb.
While Lydgate, safely married and with the Hospital under his command,felt himself struggling for Medical Reform against Middlemarch,Middlemarch was becoming more and more conscious of the nationalstruggle for another kind of Reform.
By the time that Lord John Russell's measure was being debatedin the House of Commons, there was a new political animationin Middlemarch, and a new definition of parties which might showa decided change of balance if a new election came. And therewere some who already predicted this event, declaring that aReform Bill would never be carried by the actual Parliament.This was what Will Ladislaw dwelt on to Mr. Brooke as a reasonfor congratulation that he had not yet tried his strength at the hustings.
"Things will grow and ripen as if it were a comet year," said Will."The public temper will soon get to a cometary heat, now the questionof Reform has set in. There is likely to be another election before long,and by that time Middlemarch will have got more ideas into its head.What we have to work at now is the `Pioneer' and political meetings."
"Quite right, Ladislaw; we shall make a new thing of opinion here,"said Mr. Brooke. "Only I want to keep myself independentabout Reform, you know; I don't want to go too far. I wantto take up. Wilberforce's and Romilly's line, you know,and work at Negro Emancipation, Criminal Law--that kind of thing.But of course I should support Grey."
"If you go in for the principle of Reform, you must be preparedto take what the situation offers," said Will. "If everybodypulled for his own bit against everybody else, the whole questionwould go to tatters."
"Yes, yes, I agree with you--I quite take that point of view.I should put it in that light. I should support Grey, you know.But I don't want to change the balance of the constitution, and I don'tthink Grey would."
"But that is what the country wants,"-said Will. "Else there wouldbe no meaning in political unions or any other movement that knowswhat it's about. It wants to have a House of Commons which is notweighted with nominees of the landed class, but with representativesof the other interests. And as to contending for a reform shortof that, it is like asking for a bit of an avalanche which hasalready begun to thunder."
"That is fine, Ladislaw: that is the way to put it. Write thatdown, now. We must begin to get documents about the feelingof the country, as well as the machine-breaking and general distress."
`Pioneer.' Put the figures anddeduce the misery, you know; and put the.
"As to documents," said Will, "a two-inch card will hold plenty.A few rows of figures are enough to deduce misery from, and a fewmore will show the rate at which the political determination of thepeople is growing."
"Good: draw that out a little more at length, Ladislaw. That isan idea, now: write it out in the `Pioneer.' Put the figures anddeduce the misery, you know; and put the other figures and deduce--and so on. You have a way of putting things. Burke, now:--when Ithink of Burke, I can't help wishing somebody had a pocket-boroughto give you, Ladislaw. You'd never get elected, you know.And we shall always want talent in the House: reform as we will,we shall always want talent. That avalanche and the thunder, now,was really a little like Burke. I want that sort of thing--not ideas,you know, but a way of putting them."
"Pocket-boroughs would be a fine thing," said Ladislaw, "if theywere always in the right pocket, and there were always a Burkeat hand."
Will was not displeased with that complimentary comparison,even from Mr. Brooke; for it is a little too trying to human fleshto be conscious of expressing one's self better than others andnever to have it noticed, and in the general dearth of admirationfor the right thing, even a chance bray of applause fallingexactly in time is rather fortifying. Will felt that his literaryrefinements were usually beyond the limits of Middlemarch perception;nevertheless, he was beginning thoroughly to like the workof which when he began he had said to himself rather languidly,"Why not?"--and he studied the political situation with as ardentan interest as he had ever given to poetic metres or mediaevalism.It is undeniable that but for the desire to be where Dorothea was,and perhaps the want of knowing what else to do, Will would notat this time have been meditating on the needs of the Englishpeople or criticising English statesmanship: he would probablyhave been rambling in Italy sketching plans for several dramas,trying prose and finding it too jejune, trying verse and findingit too artificial, beginning to copy "bits" from old pictures,leaving off because they were "no good," and observing that, after all,self-culture was the principal point; while in politics he wouldhave been sympathizing warmly with liberty and progress in general.Our sense of duty must often wait for some work which shall takethe place of dilettanteism and make us feel that the qualityof our action is not a matter of indifference.
Ladislaw had now accepted his bit of work, though it was not thatindeterminate loftiest thing which he had once dreamed of as aloneworthy of continuous effort. His nature warmed easily in the presenceof subjects which were visibly mixed with life and action, and theeasily stirred rebellion in him helped the glow of public spirit.In spite of Mr. Casaubon and the banishment from Lowick, he wasrather happy; getting a great deal of fresh knowledge in a vividway and for practical purposes, and making the "Pioneer" celebratedas far as Brassing (never mind the smallness of the area; the writingwas not worse than much that reaches the four corners of the earth).
Mr. Brooke was occasionally irritating; but Will's impatience wasrelieved by the division of his time between visits to the Grangeand retreats to his Middlemarch lodgings, which gave varietyto his life.
"Shift the pegs a little," he said to himself, "and Mr. Brookemight be in the Cabinet, while I was Under-Secretary. That isthe common order of things: the little waves make the large onesand are of the same pattern. I am better here than in the sortof life Mr. Casaubon would have trained me for, where the doing wouldbe all laid down by a precedent too rigid for me to react upon.I don't care for prestige or high pay."
As Lydgate had said of him, he was a sort of gypsy, rather enjoyingthe sense of belonging to no class; he had a feeling of romancein his position, and a pleasant consciousness of creating a littlesurprise wherever he went. That sort of enjoyment had been disturbedwhen he had felt some new distance between himself and Dorotheain their accidental meeting at Lydgate's, and his irritation had goneout towards Mr. Casaubon, who had declared beforehand that Willwould lose caste. "I never had any caste," he would have said,if that prophecy had been uttered to him, and the quick bloodwould have come and gone like breath in his transparent skin.But it is one thing to like defiance, and another thing to likeits consequences.
Meanwhile, the town opinion about the new editor of the "Pioneer"was tending to confirm Mr. Casaubon's view. Will's relationship inthat distinguished quarter did not, like Lydgate's high connections,serve as an advantageous introduction: if it was rumored that youngLadislaw was Mr. Casaubon's nephew or cousin, it was also rumoredthat "Mr. Casaubon would have nothing to do with him."
"Brooke has taken him up," said Mr. Hawley, "because that is whatno man in his senses could have expected. Casaubon has devilishgood reasons, you may be sure, for turning the cold shoulder ona young fellow whose bringing-up he paid for. Just like Brooke--one of those fellows who would praise a cat to sell a horse."
And some oddities of Will's, more or less poetical, appeared to supportMr. Keck, the editor of the "Trumpet," in asserting that Ladislaw,if the truth were known, was not only a Polish emissary but crack-brained,which accounted for the preternatural quickness and glibness of hisspeech when he got on to a platform--as he did whenever he hadan opportunity, speaking with a facility which cast reflections onsolid Englishmen generally. It was disgusting to Keck to see a stripof a fellow, with light curls round his head, get up and speechifyby the hour against institutions "which had existed when he wasin his cradle." And in a leading article of the "Trumpet," Keckcharacterized Ladislaw's speech at a Reform meeting as "the violenceof an energumen--a miserable effort to shroud in the brilliancyof fireworks the daring of irresponsible statements and the povertyof a knowledge which was of the cheapest and most recent description."
"That was a rattling article yesterday, Keck," said Dr. Sprague,with sarcastic intentions. "But what is an energumen?"
"Oh, a term that came up in the French Revolution," said Keck.
This dangerous aspect of Ladislaw was strangely contrasted withother habits which became matter of remark. He had a fondness,half artistic, half affectionate, for little children--the smallerthey were on tolerably active legs, and the funnier their clothing,the better Will liked to surprise and please them. We knowthat in Rome he was given to ramble about among the poor people,and the taste did not quit him in Middlemarch.
He had somehow picked up a troop of droll children, little hatlessboys with their galligaskins much worn and scant shirting to hang out,little girls who tossed their hair out of their eyes to look at him,and guardian brothers at the mature age of seven. This troop hehad led out on gypsy excursions to Halsell Wood at nutting-time,and since the cold weather had set in he had taken them on a clearday to gather sticks for a bonfire in the hollow of a hillside,where he drew out a small feast of gingerbread for them, and improviseda Punch-and-Judy drama with some private home-made puppets.Here was one oddity. Another was, that in houses where hegot friendly, he was given to stretch himself at full length on therug while he talked, and was apt to be discovered in this attitudeby occasional callers for whom such an irregularity was likelyto confirm the notions of his dangerously mixed blood and general laxity.
But Will's articles and speeches naturally recommended him infamilies which the new strictness of party division had markedoff on the side of Reform. He was invited to Mr. Bulstrode's;but here he could not lie down on the rug, and Mrs. Bulstrode feltthat his mode of talking about Catholic countries, as if therewere any truce with Antichrist, illustrated the usual tendencyto unsoundness in intellectual men.
At Mr. Farebrother's, however, whom the irony of events had broughton the same side with Bulstrode in the national movement, Will becamea favorite with the ladies; especially with little Miss Noble,whom it was one of his oddities to escort when he met her in thestreet with her little basket, giving her his arm in the eyes ofthe town, and insisting on going with her to pay some call where shedistributed her small filchings from her own share of sweet things.
But the house where he visited oftenest and lay most on the rugwas Lydgate's. The two men were not at all alike, but theyagreed none the worse. Lydgate was abrupt but not irritable,taking little notice of megrims in healthy people; and Ladislawdid not usually throw away his susceptibilities on those who tookno notice of them. With Rosamond, on the other hand, he pouted andwas wayward--nay, often uncomplimentary, much to her inward surprise;nevertheless he was gradually becoming necessary to her entertainmentby his companionship in her music, his varied talk, and hisfreedom from the grave preoccupation which, with all her husband'stenderness and indulgence, often made his manners unsatisfactoryto her, and confirmed her dislike of the medical profession.
Lydgate, inclined to be sarcastic on the superstitious faith of the peoplein the efficacy of "the bill," while nobody cared about the low stateof pathology, sometimes assailed Will with troublesome questions.One evening in March, Rosamond in her cherry-colored dress withswansdown trimming about the throat sat at the tea-table; Lydgate,lately come in tired from his outdoor work, was seated sidewayson an easy-chair by the fire with one leg over the elbow, his browlooking a little troubled as his eyes rambled over the columns ofthe "Pioneer," while Rosamond, having noticed that he was perturbed,avoided looking at him, and inwardly thanked heaven that she herselfhad not a moody disposition. Will Ladislaw was stretched on the rugcontemplating the curtain-pole abstractedly, and humming very lowthe notes of "When first I saw thy face;" while the house spaniel,also stretched out with small choice of room, looked from betweenhis paws at the usurper of the rug with silent but strong objection.
Rosamond bringing Lydgate his cup of tea, he threw down the paper,and said to Will, who had started up and gone to the table--
"It's no use your puffing Brooke as a reforming landlord, Ladislaw:they only pick the more holes in his coat in the `Trumpet.'"
"No matter; those who read the `Pioneer' don't read the `Trumpet,'"said Will, swallowing his tea and walking about. "Do you suppose thepublic reads with a view to its own conversion? We should have a witches'brewing with a vengeance then--`Mingle, mingle, mingle, mingle, Youthat mingle may'--and nobody would know which side he was going to take."
"Farebrother says, he doesn't believe Brooke would get electedif the opportunity came: the very men who profess to be for himwould bring another member out of the bag at the right moment."
"There's no harm in trying. It's good to have resident members."
"Why?" said Lydgate, who was much given to use that inconvenientword in a curt tone.
"They represent the local stupidity better," said Will, laughing,and shaking his curls; "and they are kept on their best behavior inthe neighborhood. Brooke is not a bad fellow, but he has done somegood things on his estate that he never would have done but for thisParliamentary bite."
"He's not fitted to be a public man," said Lydgate, withcontemptuous decision. "He would disappoint everybodywho counted on him: I can see that at the Hospital.Only, there Bulstrode holds the reins and drives him."
"That depends on how you fix your standard of public men," said Will."He's good enough for the occasion: when the people have made uptheir mind as they are making it up now, they don't want a man--they only want a vote."
"That is the way with you political writers, Ladislaw--crying upa measure as if it were a universal cure, and crying up menwho are a part of the very disease that wants curing."
"Why not? Men may help to cure themselves off the face of the landwithout knowing it," said Will, who could find reasons impromptu,when he had not thought of a question beforehand.
"That is no excuse for encouraging the superstitious exaggerationof hopes about this particular measure, helping the cry to swallowit whole and to send up voting popinjays who are good for nothingbut to carry it. You go against rottenness, and there is nothingmore thoroughly rotten than making people believe that society canbe cured by a political hocus-pocus."
"That's very fine, my dear fellow. But your cure must begin somewhere,and put it that a thousand things which debase a population cannever be reformed without this particular reform to begin with.Look what Stanley said the other day--that the House had beentinkering long enough at small questions of bribery, inquiring whetherthis or that voter has had a guinea when everybody knows that theseats have been sold wholesale. Wait for wisdom and consciencein public agents--fiddlestick! The only conscience we can trustto is the massive sense of wrong in a class, and the best wisdomthat will work is the wisdom of balancing claims. That's my text--which side is injured? I support the man who supports their claims;not the virtuous upholder of the wrong."
"That general talk about a particular case is mere questionbegging, Ladislaw. When I say, I go in for the dose that cures,it doesn't follow that I go in for opium in a given case of gout."
"I am not begging the question we are upon--whether we areto try for nothing till we find immaculate men to work with.Should you go on that plan? If there were one man who would carryyou a medical reform and another who would oppose it, should youinquire which had the better motives or even the better brains?"
"Oh, of course," said Lydgate, seeing himself checkmated by a movewhich he had often used himself, "if one did not work with such menas are at hand, things must come to a dead-lock. Suppose the worstopinion in the town about Bulstrode were a true one, that wouldnot make it less true that he has the sense and the resolutionto do what I think ought to be done in the matters I know and caremost about; but that is the only ground on which I go with him,"Lydgate added rather proudly, bearing in mind Mr. Farebrother's remarks."He is nothing to me otherwise; I would not cry him up on anypersonal ground--I would keep clear of that."
"Do you mean that I cry up Brooke on any personal ground?" said WillLadislaw, nettled, and turning sharp round. For the first time he feltoffended with Lydgate; not the less so, perhaps, because he would havedeclined any close inquiry into the growth of his relation to Mr. Brooke.
"Not at all," said Lydgate, "I was simply explaining my own action.I meant that a man may work for a special end with others whosemotives and general course are equivocal, if he is quite sureof his personal independence, and that he is not working for hisprivate interest--either place or money."
"You quite mistake me, Ladislaw," said Lydgate, surprised. He hadbeen preoccupied with his own vindication, and had been blindto what Ladislaw might infer on his own account. "I beg yourpardon for unintentionally annoying you. In fact, I should ratherattribute to you a romantic disregard of your own worldly interests.On the political question, I referred simply to intellectual bias."
"How very unpleasant you both are this evening!" said Rosamond."I cannot conceive why money should have been referred to.Polities and Medicine are sufficiently disagreeable to quarrel upon.You can both of you go on quarrelling with all the world and with eachother on those two topics."
Rosamond looked mildly neutral as she said this, rising to ringthe bell, and then crossing to her work-table.
"Poor Rosy!" said Lydgate, putting out his hand to her as shewas passing him. "Disputation is not amusing to cherubs.Have some music. Ask Ladislaw to sing with you."
When Will was gone Rosamond said to her husband, "What put youout of temper this evening, Tertius?"
"Me? It was Ladislaw who was out of temper. He is like a bitof tinder."
"But I mean, before that. Something had vexed you before you came in,you looked cross. And that made you begin to dispute with Mr. Ladislaw.You hurt me very much when you look so, Tertius."
"Do I? Then I am a brute," said Lydgate, caressing her penitently.
"What vexed you?"
"Oh, outdoor things--business." It was really a letter insistingon the payment of a bill for furniture. But Rosamond was expectingto have a baby, and Lydgate wished to save her from any perturbation.