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rasselas, prince of abyssinia-第23章

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ng surrounded me; and the  latter part of my days will be spent in peace。〃
〃Your learning and virtue;〃 said Imlac; 〃may justly give you  hopes。〃
Rasselas then entered; with the Princess and Pekuah; and inquired  whether they had contrived any new diversion for the next day。   〃Such;〃 said Nekayah; 〃is the state of life; that none are happy  but by the anticipation of change; the change itself is nothing;  when we have made it the next wish is to change again。  The world  is not yet exhausted:  let me see something to…morrow which I never  saw before。〃
〃Variety;〃 said Rasselas; 〃is so necessary to content; that even  the Happy Valley disgusted me by the recurrence of its luxuries;  yet I could not forbear to reproach myself with impatience when I  saw the monks of St。 Anthony support; without complaint; a life;  not of uniform delight; but uniform hardship。〃
〃Those men;〃 answered Imlac; 〃are less wretched in their silent  convent than the Abyssinian princes in their prison of pleasure。   Whatever is done by the monks is incited by an adequate and  reasonable motive。  Their labour supplies them with necessaries; it  therefore cannot be omitted; and is certainly rewarded。  Their  devotion prepares them for another state; and reminds them of its  approach while it fits them for it。  Their time is regularly  distributed; one duty succeeds another; so that they are not left  open to the distraction of unguided choice; nor lost in the shades  of listless inactivity。  There is a certain task to be performed at  an appropriated hour; and their toils are cheerful; because they  consider them as acts of piety by which they are always advancing  towards endless felicity。〃
〃Do you think;〃 said Nekayah; 〃that the monastic rule is a more  holy and less imperfect state than any other?  May not he equally  hope for future happiness who converses openly with mankind; who  succours the distressed by his charity; instructs the ignorant by  his learning; and contributes by his industry to the general system  of life; even though he should omit some of the mortifications  which are practised in the cloister; and allow himself such  harmless delights as his condition may place within his reach?〃
〃This;〃 said Imlac; 〃is a question which has long divided the wise  and perplexed the good。  I am afraid to decide on either part。  He  that lives well in the world is better than he that lives well in a  monastery。  But perhaps everyone is not able to stem the  temptations of public life; and if he cannot conquer he may  properly retreat。  Some have little power to do good; and have  likewise little strength to resist evil。  Many are weary of the  conflicts with adversity; and are willing to eject those passions  which have long busied them in vain。  And many are dismissed by age  and diseases from the more laborious duties of society。  In  monasteries the weak and timorous may be happily sheltered; the  weary may repose; and the penitent may meditate。  Those retreats of  prayer and contemplation have something so congenial to the mind of  man; that perhaps there is scarcely one that does not purpose to  close his life in pious abstraction; with a few associates serious  as himself。〃
〃Such;〃 said Pekuah; 〃has often been my wish; and I have heard the  Princess declare that she should not willingly die in a crowd。〃
〃The liberty of using harmless pleasures;〃 proceeded Imlac; 〃will  not be disputed; but it is still to be examined what pleasures are  harmless。  The evil of any pleasure that Nekayah can image is not  in the act itself but in its consequences。  Pleasure in itself  harmless may become mischievous by endearing to us a state which we  know to be transient and probatory; and withdrawing our thoughts  from that of which every hour brings us nearer to the beginning;  and of which no length of time will bring us to the end。   Mortification is not virtuous in itself; nor has any other use but  that it disengages us from the allurements of sense。  In the state  of future perfection to which we all aspire there will be pleasure  without danger and security without restraint。〃
The Princess was silent; and Rasselas; turning to the astronomer;  asked him whether he could not delay her retreat by showing her  something which she had not seen before。
〃Your curiosity;〃 said the sage; 〃has been so general; and your  pursuit of knowledge so vigorous; that novelties are not now very  easily to be found; but what you can no longer procure from the  living may be given by the dead。  Among the wonders of this country  are the catacombs; or the ancient repositories in which the bodies  of the earliest generations were lodged; and where; by the virtue  of the gums which embalmed them; they yet remain without  corruption。〃
〃I know not;〃 said Rasselas; 〃what pleasure the sight of the  catacombs can afford; but; since nothing else is offered; I am  resolved to view them; and shall place this with my other things  which I have done because I would do something。〃
They hired a guard of horsemen; and the next day visited the  catacombs。  When they were about to descend into the sepulchral  caves; 〃Pekuah;〃 said the Princess; 〃we are now again invading the  habitations of the dead; I know that you will stay behind。  Let me  find you safe when I return。〃  〃No; I will not be left;〃 answered  Pekuah; 〃I will go down between you and the Prince。〃
They then all descended; and roved with wonder through the  labyrinth of subterraneous passages; where the bodies were laid in  rows on either side。

CHAPTER XLVIII … IMLAC DISCOURSES ON THE NATURE OF THE SOUL。

〃WHAT reason;〃 said the Prince; 〃can be given why the Egyptians  should thus expensively preserve those carcases which some nations  consume with fire; others lay to mingle with the earth; and all  agree to remove from their sight as soon as decent rites can be  performed?〃
〃The original of ancient customs;〃 said Imlac; 〃is commonly  unknown; for the practice often continues when the cause has  ceased; and concerning superstitious ceremonies it is vain to  conjecture; for what reason did not dictate; reason cannot explain。   I have long believed that the practice of embalming arose only from  tenderness to the remains of relations or friends; and to this  opinion I am more inclined because it seems impossible that this  care should have been general; had all the dead been embalmed;  their repositories must in time have been more spacious than the  dwellings of the living。  I suppose only the rich or honourable  were secured from corruption; and the rest left to the course of  nature。
〃But it is commonly supposed that the Egyptians believed the soul  to live as long as the body continued undissolved; and therefore  tried this method of eluding death。〃
〃Could the wise Egyptians;〃 said Nekayah; 〃think so grossly of the  soul?  If the soul could once survive its separation; what could it  afterwards receive or suffer from the body?〃
〃The Egyptians would doubtless think erroneously;〃 said the  astronomer; 〃in the darkness of heathenism and the first dawn of  philosophy。  The nature of the soul is still disputed amidst all  our opportunities of clearer knowledge; some yet say that it may be  material; who; nevertheless; believe it to be immortal。〃
〃Some;〃 answered Imlac; 〃have indeed said that the soul is  material; but I can scarcely believe that any man has thought it  who knew how to think; for all the conclusions of reason enforce  the immateriality of mind; and all the notices of sense and  investigations of science concur to prove the unconsciousness of  matter。
〃It was never supposed that cogitation is inherent in matter; or  that every particle is a thinking being。  Yet if any part of matter  be devoid of thought; what part can we suppose to think?  Matter  can differ from matter only in form; density; bulk; motion; and  direction of motion。  To which of these; however varied or  combined; can consciousness be annexed?  To be round or square; to  be solid or fluid; to be great or little; to be moved slowly or  swiftly; one way or another; are modes of material existence all  equally alien from the nature of cogitation。  If matter be once  without thought; it can only be made to think by some new  modification; but all the modifications which it can admit are  equally unconnected with cogitative powers。〃
〃But the materialists;〃 said the astronomer; 〃urge that matter may  have qualities with which we are unacquainted。〃
〃He who will determine;〃 returned Imlac; 〃against that which he  knows because there may be something which he knows not; he that  can set hypothetical possibility against acknowledged certainty; is  not to be admitted among reasonable beings。  All that we know of  matter is; that matter is inert; senseless; and lifeless; and if  this conviction cannot he opposed but by referring us to something  that we know not; we have all the evidence that human intellect can  admit。  If that which is known may be overruled by that which is  unknown; no being; not omniscient; can arrive at certainty。〃
〃Yet let us not;〃 said the astronomer; 〃too arrogantly limit the  Creator's power。〃
〃It is no limitation of Omnipotence;〃 replied the poet; 〃to suppose  that one thing is not consistent with another; that the same  prop
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