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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Here I was interrupted and informed that a stranger wished to see me down at the door. I went and confronted him, and asked to know his business, struggling all the time to keep a tight rein1 on my seething2 political economy ideas, and not let them break away from me or get tangled3 in their harness. And privately4 I wished the stranger was in the bottom of the canal with a cargo5 of wheat on top of him. I was all in a fever, but he was cool. He said he was sorry to disturb me, but as he was passing he noticed that I needed some lightningrods. I said, "Yes, yes-- go on -- what about it?" He said there was nothing about it, in particular -- nothing except that he would like to put them up for me. I am new to housekeeping; have been used to hotels and boarding-houses all my life. Like anybody else of similar experience, I try to appear (to strangers) to be an old housekeeper6; consequently I said in an off-hand way that I had been intending for some time to have six or eight lightning-rods put up, but -- The stranger started,and looked inquiringly at me, but I was serene7. I thought that if I chanced to make any mistakes, he would not catch me by my countenance8. He said he would rather have my custom than any man's in town. I said, "All right," and started off to wrestle9 with my great subject again, when he called me back and said it would be necessary to know exactly how many "points" I wanted put up, what parts of the house I wanted them on, and what quality of rod Ipreferred. It was close quarters for a man not used to the exigencies10 of housekeeping; but Iwent through creditably, and he probably never suspected that I was a novice11. I told him to put up eight "points," and put them all on the roof, and use the best quality of rod. He said he could furnish the "plain" article at 20 cents a foot; "coppered," 25 cents; "zinc-plated spiral-twist," at 30 cents, that would stop a streak12 of lightning any time, no matter where it was bound, and "render its errand harmless and its further progress apocryphal13." I said apocryphal was no slouch of a word, emanating14 from the source it did, but, philology15 aside, I liked the spiral-twist and would take that brand. Then he said he COULD make two hundred and fifty feet answer; but to do it right, and make the best job in town of it, and attract the admiration16 of the just and the unjust alike, and compel all parties to say they never saw a more symmetrical and hypothetical display of lightning-rods since they were born, he supposed he really couldn't get along without four hundred, though he was not vindictive17, and trusted he was willing to try. I said, go ahead and use four hundred, and make any kind of a job he pleased out of it, but let me get back to my work. So I got rid of him at last; and now, after half an hour spent in getting my train of political economy thoughts coupled together again, I am ready to go on once more.]richest treasures of their genius, their experience of life, and their learning. The great lights of commercial jurisprudence, international confraternity, and biological deviation19, of all ages, all civilizations, and all nationalities, from Zoroaster down to Horace Greeley, have -[Here I was interrupted again, and required to go down and confer further with that lightning-rod man. I hurried off, boiling and surging with prodigious20 thoughts wombed in words of such majesty21 that each one of them was in itself a straggling procession of syllables22 that might be fifteen minutes passing a given point, and once more I confronted him -- he so calm and sweet, I so hot and frenzied23. He was standing24 in the contemplative attitude of the Colossus of Rhodes, with one foot on my infant tuberose, and the other among my pansies, his hands on his hips25, his hat-brim tilted26 forward, one eye shut and the other gazing critically and admiringly in the direction of my principal chimney. He said now THERE was a state of things to make a man glad to be alive; and added, "I leave it to YOU if you ever saw anything more deliriously27 picturesque28 than eight lightning-rods on one chimney?" I said I had no present recollection of anything that transcended29 it. He said that in his opinion nothing on earth but Niagara Falls was superior to it in the way of natural scenery. All that was needed now, he verily believed, to make my house a perfect balm to the eye, was to kind of touch up the other chimneys a little, and thus "add to the generous coup18 d'oeil a soothing30 uniformity of achievement which would allay31 the excitement naturally consequent upon the first coup d'etat." I asked him if he learned to talk out of a book, and if I could borrow it anywhere? He smiled pleasantly, and said that his manner of speaking was not taught in books, and that nothing but familiarity with lightning could enable a man to handle his conversational32 style with impunity33.
He then figured up an estimate, and said that about eight more rods scattered35 about my roof would about fix me right, and he guessed five hundred feet of stuff would do it; and added that the first eight had got a little the start of him, so to speak, and used up a mere36 trifle of material more than he had calculated on -- a hundred feet or along there. I said I was in a dreadful hurry, and I wished we could get this business permanently37 mapped out, so that I could go on with my work. He said, "I could have put up those eight rods, and marched off about my business -- some men WOULD have done it. But no; I said to myself, this man is a stranger to me, and I will die before I'll wrong him; there ain't lightning-rods enough on that house, and for one I'll never stir out of my tracks till I've done as I would be done by, and told him so. Stranger, my duty is accomplished38; if the recalcitrant39 and dephlogistic messenger of heaven strikes your --" "There, now, there," I said, "put on the other eight -- add five hundred feet of spiral-twist -- do anything and everything you want to do; but calm your sufferings, and try to keep your feelings where you can reach them with the dictionary. Meanwhile, if we understand each other now, I will go to work again." I think I have been sitting here a full hour this time, trying to get back to where I was when my train of thought was broken up by the last interruption; but I believe I have accomplished it at last, and may venture to proceed again.
wrestled40 with this great subject, and the greatest among them have found it a worthy41 adversary42, and one that always comes up fresh and smiling after every throw. The great Confucius said that he would rather be a profound political economist43 than chief of police.
Cicero frequently said that political economy was the grandest consummation that the humanmind was capable of consuming; and even our own Greeley has said vaguely44 but forcibly that "Political -[Here the lightning-rod man sent up another call for me. I went down in a state of mind bordering on impatience45. He said he would rather have died than interrupt me, but when he was employed to do a job, and that job was expected to be done in a clean, workmanlike manner, and when it was finished and fatigue46 urged him to seek the rest and recreation he stood so much in need of, and he was about to do it, but looked up and saw at a glance that all the calculations had been a little out, and if a thunder storm were to come up, and that house, which he felt a personal interest in, stood there with nothing on earth to protect it but sixteen lightning-rods "Let us have peace!" I shrieked47. "Put up a hundred and fifty! Put some on the kitchen! Put a dozen on the barn! Put a couple on the cow! Put one on the cook! -- scatter34 them all over the persecuted48 place till it looks like a zinc-plated, spiral-twisted, silver-mounted cane-brake! Move! Use up all the material you can get your hands on, and when you run out oflightning-rods put up ramrods, cam-rods, stair-rods, piston-rods -- ANYTHING that will pander49 to your dismal50 appetite for artificial scenery, and bring respite51 to my raging brain and healing to my lacerated soul!" Wholly unmoved -further than to smile sweetly -- this iron being simply turned back his wristbands daintily, and said he would now proceed to hump himself.
Well, all that was nearly three hours ago. It is questionable52 whether I am calm enough yet to write on the noble theme of political economy, but I cannot resist the desire to try, for it is the one subject that is nearest to my heart and dearest to my brain of all this world's philosophy.]
"-- economy is heaven's best boon53 to man." When the loose but gifted Byron lay in his Venetian exile he observed that, if it could be granted him to go back and live his misspent life over again, he would give his lucid54 and unintoxicated intervals55 to the composition, not of frivolous56 rhymes, but of essays upon political economy. Washington loved this exquisite57 science; such names as Baker58, Beckwith, Judson, Smith, are imperishably linked with it; and even imperial Homer, in the ninth book of the Iliad, has said: -Fiat justitia, ruat coelum,Post mortem unum, ante bellum,Hic jacet hoc, ex-parte res,Politicum e-conomico est.
The grandeur59 of these conceptions of the old poet, together with the felicity of the wording which clothes them, and the sublimity60 of the imagery whereby they are illustrated,have singled out that stanza61, and made it more celebrated62 than any that ever -["Now, not a word out of you -- not a single word. Just state your bill and relapse into mpenetrable silence for ever and ever on these premises63. Nine hundred dollars? Is that all?
This check for the amount will be honored at any respectable bank in America. What is thatmultitude of people gathered in the street for? How? -- 'looking at the lightning-rods!' Bless my life, did they never see any lightning-rods before? Never saw 'such a stack of them on one establishment,' did I understand you to say? I will step down and critically observe this popularebullition of ignorance."]
THREE DAYS LATER. -- We are all about worn out. For four-and-twenty hours our bristling64 premises were the talk and wonder of the town. The theaters languished65, for theirhappiest scenic66 inventions were tame and commonplace compared with my lightning-rods. Our street was blocked night and day with spectators, and among them were many who came from the country to see. It was a blessed relief on the second day when a thunder storm came up and the lightning began to "go for" my house, as the historian Josephus quaintly67 phrases it. It cleared the galleries, so to speak. In five minutes there was not a spectator within half a mile of my place; but all the high houses about that distance away were full, windows, roof, and all.
And well they might be, for all the falling stars and Fourth of July fireworks of a generation, put together and rained down simultaneously68 out of heaven in one brilliant shower upon one helpless roof, would not have any advantage of the pyrotechnic display that was making my house so magnificently conspicuous69 in the general gloom of the storm. By actual count, the lightning struck at my establishment seven hundred and sixty-four times in forty minutes, but tripped on one of those faithful rods every time, and slid down the spiral-twist and shot into the earth before it probably had time to be surprised at the way the thing was done. And through all that bombardment only one patch of slates70 was ripped up, and that was because, for a single instant, the rods in the vicinity were transporting all the lightning they could possibly accommodate. Well, nothing was ever seen like it since the world began. For one whole dayand night not a member of my family stuck his head out of the window but he got the hair snatched off it as smooth as a billiard-ball; and, if the reader will believe me, not one of us ever dreamt of stirring abroad. But at last the awful siege came to an end -- because there was absolutely no more electricity left in the clouds above us within grappling distance of my insatiable rods. Then I sallied forth71, and gathered daring workmen together, and not a bite or a nap did we take till the premises were utterly72 stripped of all their terrific armament except just three rods on the house, one on the kitchen, and one on the barn -- and, behold73, these remain there even unto this day. And then, and not till then, the people ventured to use our street again. I will remark here, in passing, that during that fearful time I did not continue my essay upon political economy. I am not even yet settled enough in nerve and brain to resume it.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. -- Parties having need of three thousand two hundred and eleven feet of best quality zinc-plated spiral-twist lightning-rod stuff, and sixteen hundred and thirty-one silver tipped points, all in tolerable repair (and, although much worn by use, still equal to any ordinary emergency), can hear of a bargain by addressing the publisher.
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1
rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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wrestle
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| vi.摔跤，角力；搏斗；全力对付 | |
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exigencies
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| n.急切需要 | |
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novice
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| adj.新手的，生手的 | |
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streak
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| n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动 | |
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apocryphal
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| adj.假冒的，虚假的 | |
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emanating
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| v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的现在分词 )；产生，表现，显示 | |
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philology
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| n.语言学；语文学 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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vindictive
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| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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coup
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| n.政变；突然而成功的行动 | |
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deviation
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| n.背离，偏离；偏差，偏向；离题 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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syllables
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| n.音节( syllable的名词复数 ) | |
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frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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deliriously
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| adv.谵妄（性）；发狂；极度兴奋/亢奋；说胡话 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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transcended
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| 超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的过去式和过去分词 )； 优于或胜过… | |
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soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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allay
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| v.消除，减轻(恐惧、怀疑等) | |
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conversational
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| adj.对话的，会话的 | |
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impunity
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| n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除 | |
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scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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recalcitrant
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| adj.倔强的 | |
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wrestled
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| v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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adversary
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| adj.敌手，对手 | |
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economist
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| n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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pander
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| v.迎合；n.拉皮条者，勾引者；帮人做坏事的人 | |
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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questionable
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| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
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boon
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| n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠 | |
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lucid
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| adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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56
frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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baker
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| n.面包师 | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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sublimity
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| 崇高，庄严，气质高尚 | |
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stanza
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| n.（诗）节，段 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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languished
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| 长期受苦( languish的过去式和过去分词 )； 受折磨； 变得（越来越）衰弱； 因渴望而变得憔悴或闷闷不乐 | |
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scenic
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| adj.自然景色的，景色优美的 | |
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quaintly
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| adv.古怪离奇地 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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slates
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| （旧时学生用以写字的）石板( slate的名词复数 )； 板岩； 石板瓦； 石板色 | |
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71
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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72
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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