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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
BOOK THE FIRST
RECALLED TO LIFE
CHAPTER 1
The Period
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch1 of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so. far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw2 and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.
It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, a sat this. Mrs. Southcott had recently attained3 her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded4 the sublime5 appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster. Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past (supernaturally deficient6 in originality) rapped out theirs. Mere7 messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in America: which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the human race than any communications yet received through any of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood.
France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it. Under the guidance of her Christian8 pastors9, she entertained herself besides, with such humane10 achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks11 which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards. It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to comedown and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history. It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses old some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, be spattered with rustic12 mire13, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry14, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution. But that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard them as they went about with muffled15 tread: the rather, for as much as to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was to be atheistical16 and traitorous17.
In England, there was scarcely an amount of order and protection to justify18 much national boasting. Daring burglaries by armed men, and highway robberies, took place in the capital itself every night; families were publicly cautioned not to go out of town without removing their furniture to upholsterers' warehouses19 for security; the highwayman in the dark was a City tradesman in the light, and, being recognised and challenged by his fellow-tradesman whom he stopped in his character of `the Captain, ' gallantly20 shot him through the head and rode away; the mail was waylaid21 by seven robbers, and the guard shot three dead, and then got shot dead himself by the other four, `in consequence of the failure of his ammunition22:' after which the mail was robbed in Peace; that magnificent potentate23, the Lord Mayor of London, was made to stand and deliver on Turnham Green, by one highwayman, who despoiled24 the illustrious creature insight of all his retinue25; prisoners in London gaols26 fought battles with their turnkeys, and the majesty27 of the law fired blunderbusses in among them, loaded with rounds of shot and ball; thieves snipped28 off diamond crosses from the necks of noble lords at Court drawing-rooms; musketeers went into St. Giles's, to search for contraband29 goods, and the mob fired on the musketeers, and the musketeers fired on the mob, and nobody thought any of these occurrences much out of the common way. In the midst of them, the hangman, ever busy and ever worse than useless, was in constant requisition; now, stringing up long rows of miscellaneous criminals; now, hanging a house-breaker on Saturday who had been taken on Tuesday; now, burning people in the hand at Newgate by the dozen, and now burning pamphlets at the door of Westminster Hall; to-day, taking the life of an atrocious murderer, and to-morrow of a wretched pilferer30 who had robbed a farmer's boy of sixpence.
All these things, and a thousand like them, came to pass in and close upon the dear old year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Environed by them, while the Woodman and the Farmer worked unheeded, those two of the large jaws31, and those other two of the plain and the fair laces, trod with stir enough, and carried their divine rights with a high hand. Thus did the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five conduct their Greatnesses, and myriads32 of small creatures--the creatures of this chronicle among the rest--along the roads that lay before them.
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1
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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3
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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heralded
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| v.预示( herald的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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8
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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pastors
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| n.（基督教的）牧师( pastor的名词复数 ) | |
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10
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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mire
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| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
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poultry
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| n.家禽，禽肉 | |
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15
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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atheistical
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| adj.无神论（者）的 | |
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traitorous
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| adj. 叛国的, 不忠的, 背信弃义的 | |
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18
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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warehouses
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| 仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 ) | |
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gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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waylaid
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| v.拦截，拦路( waylay的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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potentate
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| n.统治者；君主 | |
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despoiled
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| v.掠夺，抢劫( despoil的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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retinue
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| n.侍从；随员 | |
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gaols
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| 监狱，拘留所( gaol的名词复数 ) | |
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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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28
snipped
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| v.剪( snip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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contraband
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| n.违禁品，走私品 | |
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pilferer
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| n.小偷 | |
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31
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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32
myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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