-
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Science and Art科学和艺术
I beg leave to thank you for the extremely kind and apprieciative manner in which you have received the toast of science. It is the more grateful to me to hear that toast proposed in an assembly of this kind. Because I have noticed of late years a great and growing tendency among those who were once jestingly said to have been born pre-scientific age to look upon science as an invading and aggressive force, which if it had find its own way, it would oust1 from the universe all other pursuits. I think there are mang persons who look upon the new birth of our times as a sort of monster rising out of the sea of modern thought with the purpose of devouring2 thd Andromeda of art. And now and then a Perseus, equipped with the shoes of swiftness of the ready writer, and with the cap of invisibility of the editorial article,and it may be with the Medusahead of vituperation, shows herself ready to try conclusions with the scientific dragon. Sir, I hope that Perseus should think better of it. First, for the sake of his own, because the creature is hard of head, strong of jaw3, for some time past has shown a great capacity for going over and through whatever comes in his way; and secondly4, for the sake of justice, for I assure you, of my own personal knowledge if left alone, the creature is a very debonair5 and gentle monster. As for the Andromeda of art, the creatrue has the tenderest respect for the lady, and desires nothing more than to see her happily settled and annually6 pruducing a flock of such charming children as those we see about us.
But putting parables7 aside, I am unable to understand how any one with a knowledge of mankind can imagine that the growth of science can threaten the development of art in any of its forms. If I understand the matter at all, science and art are the obverse and reverse of the Nature's medal;the one expressing the external order of things, in terms of feeling , and the other in terms of thought. When men no longer love nor hate; when suffering causes no pity, and the tale of great deeds ceases to thrill, when the lily of the field shall seem no longer more beautifully arrayed than the Solomon in all his glory, and the owe has vanished from the snow-capped peak and deep ravine, and indeed the science may have the world to itself, but it will not be because the monster has devoured8 the art, but because one side of human nature is dead, and because men have lost half of their ancient and present attributes.
1 oust | |
vt.剥夺,取代,驱逐 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 devouring | |
吞没( devour的现在分词 ); 耗尽; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 jaw | |
n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 secondly | |
adv.第二,其次 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 debonair | |
adj.殷勤的,快乐的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 annually | |
adv.一年一次,每年 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 parables | |
n.(圣经中的)寓言故事( parable的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 devoured | |
吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 ); 耗尽; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
参考例句: |
|
|