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journal of a voyage to lisbon-第3章

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strange if such writers as these should be found extremely

common; since nature hath been a most parsimonious distributor of

her richest talents; and hath seldom bestowed many on the same

person。  But; on the other hand; why there should scarce exist a

single writer of this kind worthy our regard; and; whilst there

is no other branch of history (for this is history) which hath

not exercised the greatest pens; why this alone should be

overlooked by all men of great genius and erudition; and

delivered up to the Goths and Vandals as their lawful property;

is altogether as difficult to determine。  And yet that this is

the case; with some very few exceptions; is most manifest。  Of

these I shall willingly admit Burnet and Addison; if the former

was not; perhaps; to be considered as a political essayist; and

the latter as a commentator on the classics; rather than as a

writer of travels; which last title; perhaps; they would both of

them have been least ambitious to affect。  Indeed; if these two

and two or three more should be removed from the mass; there

would remain such a heap of dullness behind; that the appellation

of voyage…writer would not appear very desirable。  I am not here

unapprised that old Homer himself is by some considered as a

voyage…writer; and; indeed; the beginning of his Odyssey may be

urged to countenance that opinion; which I shall not controvert。

But; whatever species of writing the Odyssey is of; it is surely

at the head of that species; as much as the Iliad is of another;

and so far the excellent Longinus would allow; I believe; at this day。



But; in reality; the Odyssey; the Telemachus; and all of that

kind; are to the voyage…writing I here intend; what romance is to

true history; the former being the confounder and corrupter of

the latter。  I am far from supposing that Homer; Hesiod; and the

other ancient poets and mythologists; had any settled design to

pervert and confuse the records of antiquity; but it is certain

they have effected it; and for my part I must confess I should

have honored and loved Homer more had he written a true history

of his own times in humble prose; than those noble poems that

have so justly collected the praise of all ages; for; though I

read these with more admiration and astonishment; I still read

Herodotus; Thucydides; and Xenophon with more amusement and more

satisfaction。  The original poets were not; however; without

excuse。  They found the limits of nature too straight for the

immensity of their genius; which they had not room to exert

without extending fact by fiction:  and that especially at a time

when the manners of men were too simple to afford that variety

which they have since offered in vain to the choice of the

meanest writers。  In doing this they are again excusable for the

manner in which they have done it。





Ut speciosa dehine miracula promant。





They are not; indeed; so properly said to turn reality into

fiction; as fiction into reality。  Their paintings are so bold;

their colors so strong; that everything they touch seems to exist

in the very manner they represent it; their portraits are so

just; and their landscapes so beautiful; that we acknowledge the

strokes of nature in both; without inquiring whether Nature

herself; or her journeyman the poet; formed the first pattern of

the piece。  But other writers (I will put Pliny at their head)

have no such pretensions to indulgence; they lie for lying sake;

or in order insolently to impose the most monstrous

improbabilities and absurdities upon their readers on their own

authority; treating them as some fathers treat children; and as

other fathers do laymen; exacting their belief of whatever they

relate; on no other foundation than their own authority; without

ever taking the pains or adapting their lies to human credulity;

and of calculating them for the meridian of a common

understanding; but; with as much weakness as wickedness; and with

more impudence often than either; they assert facts contrary to

the honor of God; to the visible order of the creation; to the

known laws of nature; to the histories of former ages; and to the

experience of our own; and which no man can at once understand

and believe。  If it should be objected (and it can nowhere be

objected better than where I now write;'12' as there is nowhere

more pomp of bigotry) that whole nations have been firm believers

in such most absurd suppositions; I reply; the fact is not true。

They have known nothing of the matter; and have believed they

knew not what。  It is; indeed; with me no matter of doubt but

that the pope and his clergy might teach any of those Christian

heterodoxies; the tenets of which are the most diametrically

opposite to their own; nay; all the doctrines of Zoroaster;

Confucius; and Mahomet; not only with certain and immediate

success; but without one Catholic in a thousand knowing he had

changed his religion。



'12' At Lisbon。





What motive a man can have to sit down; and to draw forth a list

of stupid; senseless; incredible lies upon paper; would be

difficult to determine; did not Vanity present herself so

immediately as the adequate cause。  The vanity of knowing more

than other men is; perhaps; besides hunger; the only inducement

to writing; at least to publishing; at all。  Why then should not

the voyage…writer be inflamed with the glory of having seen what

no man ever did or will see but himself?  This is the true source

of the wonderful in the discourse and writings; and sometimes; I

believe; in the actions of men。  There is another fault; of a

kind directly opposite to this; to which these writers are

sometimes liable; when; instead of filling their pages with

monsters which nobody hath ever seen; and with adventures which

never have; nor could possibly have; happened to them; waste

their time and paper with recording things and facts of so common

a kind; that they challenge no other right of being remembered

than as they had the honor of having happened to the author; to

whom nothing seems trivial that in any manner happens to himself。



Of such consequence do his own actions appear to one of this

kind; that he would probably think himself guilty of infidelity

should he omit the minutest thing in the detail of his journal。

That the fact is true is sufficient to give it a place there;

without any consideration whether it is capable of pleasing or

surprising; of diverting or informing; the reader。  I have seen a

play (if I mistake not it is one of Mrs。 Behn's or of Mrs。

Centlivre's) where this vice in a voyage…writer is finely

ridiculed。  An ignorant pedant; to whose government; for I know

not what reason; the conduct of a young nobleman in his travels

is committed; and who is sent abroad to show my lord the world;

of which he knows nothing himself; before his departure from a

town; calls for his Journal to record the goodness of the wine

and tobacco; with other articles of the same importance; which

are to furnish the materials of a voyage at his return home。  The

humor; it is true; is here carried very far; and yet; perhaps;

very little beyond what is to be found in writers who profess no

intention of dealing in humor at all。  Of one or other; or both

of these kinds; are; I conceive; all that vast pile of books

which pass under the names of voyages; travels; adventures;

lives; memoirs; histories; etc。; some of which a single traveler

sends into the world in many volumes; and others are; by

judicious booksellers; collected into vast bodies in folio; and

inscribed with their own names; as if they were indeed their own

travels:  thus unjustly attributing to themselves the merit of others。



Now; from both these faults we have endeavored to steer clear in

the following narrative; which; however the contrary may be

insinuated by ignorant; unlearned; and fresh…water critics; who

have never traveled either in books or ships; I do solemnly

declare doth; in my own impartial opinion; deviate less from

truth than any other voyage extant; my lord Anson's alone being;

perhaps; excepted。  Some few embellishments must be allowed to

every historian; for we are not to conceive that the speeches in

Livy; Sallust; or Thucydides; were literally spoken in the very

words in which we now read them。  It is sufficient that every

fact hath its foundation in truth; as I do seriously aver is the

ease in the ensuing pages; and when it is so; a good critic will

be so far from denying all kind of ornament of style or diction;

or even of circumstance; to his author; that he would be rather

sorry if he omitted it; for he could hence derive no other

advantage than the loss of an additional pleasure in the perusal。



Again; if any merely common incident should appear in this

journal; which will seldom I apprehend be the case; the candid

reader will easily perceive it is not introduced for its own

sake; but for some observation
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