| The faculty for myth is innate in the human race. It seizes with avidity upon any incidents, surprising or mysterious, in the career of those who have at all distinguished themselves from their fellows, and invents a legend to which it then attaches a fanatical belief. It is the protest of romance against the commonplace of life. The incidents of the legend become the hero's surest passport to immortality. The ironic philosopher reflects with a smile that Sir Walter Raleigh is more safely inshrined in the memory of mankind because he set his cloak for the Virgin Queen to walk on than because he carried the English name to undiscovered countries. Charles Strickland lived obscurely. He made enemies rather than friends. It is not strange, then, that those who wrote of him should have eked out their scanty recollections with a lively fancy, and it is evident that there was enough in the little that was known of him to give opportunity to the romantic scribe; there was much in his life which was strange and terrible, in his character something outrageous, and in his fate not a little that was pathetic. In due course a legend arose of such circumstantiality that the wise historian would hesitate to attack it. | 人類與生俱來就有編織神話的本領。對於那些在事業奮鬥過程中從同輩中脫穎而出的人士，人們總是熱衷於揪住他們的任何軼聞趣事不放，不管這些事情聽起來多麽令人咋舌，還是多麽神秘莫測，人們都會編造出一個傳奇故事，然後狂熱地認為此事千真萬確。這算得上是傳奇故事對平凡生活的抗議。傳奇故事中的各種軼聞趣事成為了主人公通向永恒不朽最可靠的通行證。羅沃特爵士之所以被當作神靈供奉起來，而且更甭擔心從人類記憶中抹掉的危險，竟是因為他曾把自己身上穿的那件披風鋪在地上，讓童真女王從上麵走了過去，而並非因為他當年到那些不為人知的國家去探險，並用英文給那些國家命名，詼諧幽默的哲學家一想到這件事定會啞然哂笑。司查爾生前默默無聞。他樹敵不少，沒交下什麽朋友。由於能獲得的有關他的回憶資料少得可憐，那些作家在為他著書立傳時對這些資料盡可能地省吃儉用，更多的是添油加醋地發揮自己生動活潑的想像力，也就不足為奇了。而且顯而易見，人們對他知之甚少，這樣就有機會為其創作具有傳奇色彩的故事；他的一生有許多事情令人感到匪夷所思、駭人聽聞；他的性格多少有些違背常理，而他的命運有不少地方令人扼腕歎息。時機一旦成熟，就會敷演出一段如此迂回曲折的傳奇故事，就連睿智的史學家也會優柔寡斷，不敢輕易質疑故事的真實性。 |
| But a wise historian is precisely what the Rev. Robert Strickland is not. He wrote his biography avowedly to "remove certain misconceptions which had gained currency" in regard to the later part of his father's life, and which had "caused considerable pain to persons still living." It is obvious that there was much in the commonly received account of Strickland's life to embarrass a respectable family. I have read this work with a good deal of amusement, and upon this I congratulate myself, since it is colourless and dull. Mr. Strickland has drawn the portrait of an excellent husband and father, a man of kindly temper, industrious habits, and moral disposition. The modern clergyman has acquired in his study of the science which I believe is called exegesis an astonishing facility for explaining things away, but the subtlety with which the Rev. Robert Strickland has "interpreted" all the facts in his father's life which a dutiful son might find it inconvenient to remember must surely lead him in the fullness of time to the highest dignities of the Church. I see already his muscular calves encased in the gaiters episcopal. It was a hazardous, though maybe a gallant thing to do, since it is probable that the legend commonly received has had no small share in the growth of Strickland's reputation; for there are many who have been attracted to his art by the detestation in which they held his character or the compassion with which they regarded his death; and the son's well-meaning efforts threw a singular chill upon the father's admirers. It is due to no accident that when one of his most important works, The Woman of Samaria, was sold at Christie's shortly after the discussion which followed the publication of Mr. Strickland's biography, it fetched POUNDS 235 less than it had done nine months before when it was bought by the distinguished collector whose sudden death had brought it once more under the hammer. Perhaps Charles Strickland's power and originality would scarcely have sufficed to turn the scale if the remarkable mythopoeic faculty of mankind had not brushed aside with impatience a story which disappointed all its craving for the extraordinary. And presently Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz produced the work which finally set at rest the misgivings of all lovers of art. | 司若伯牧師恰恰不是這樣的睿智曆史學家。他自己宣稱，之所以寫這本傳記，目的是為了“消除某些誤解，這些誤解”在其父親的晚年生活中“已經流傳頗廣”，並且“給仍然在世的一些人造成了相當大的痛苦”。很顯然，在人們普遍接受的關於司查爾生平的敘述中，有很多內容已經讓一個名門望族陷入左右為難的尷尬境地。這部傳記語言蒼白無力，內容空洞乏味，我竟懷著極大的興致把它讀完，在這一點上我對自己都敬佩三分。司若伯筆下描繪出一位絕佳丈夫和絕好父親的形象，脾氣和善、勤奮努力、品行端正。現代神職人員在其科學研究（我相信即所謂的“解經學”）中學會了一套斷章取義的驚人技能，而作為一名孝子，司若伯牧師可能不方便記住自己父親生平的全部事跡，而是通過難以言傳的精妙方式對這些事跡加以“詮釋”，在不久的將來，這種方式一定會引領他登上教會的最高位置。我好像已經看到，隻有主教才穿的長筒靴裏，正裹著他兩個肌肉發達的小腿肚呢。這是一種冒險行為，盡管也許有些英勇氣概，因為在提升司查爾的名氣方麵，大眾普遍接受的傳說很可能已經占了不小份額；有許多人之所以被他的藝術所吸引，要麽因為厭惡他的性格，要麽對他的死亡表示同情；兒子出於一片好心的各種努力，結果給父親的仰慕者澆了一頭冷水。九個月前，司查爾先生最重要的畫作之一《撒瑪利亞的女人》曾通過佳士得拍賣行賣給了一位德高望重的收藏家。而那位收藏家突然去世，這幅畫再次被拍賣，成交價竟比之前少了兩百三十五英鎊，此時正是司查爾的傳記出版引起人們的紛紛議論之後不久，這件事的發生並非偶然所致。所有獵奇者為此大失所望，若非因為人類憑著非凡卓越的編織神話的本領，迫不及待地將此事推至一旁而置之不理的話，要想改變這種局麵，司查爾的權威性和獨創性幾乎可以說是回天乏術了。而今魏若特博士創作了這部作品，最終平息了所有藝術愛好者的種種疑慮。 |
