美国语文第六册 第114期:皮特先生的品格(2)

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astonished a corrupt⁴ age, and the treasury⁵ trembled at the name of Pitt, through all classes of venality⁶. 令一个贪腐横行的时代惊愕莫名，通过腐败的各个阶层，国库的情况动摇了皮特的声誉。

Corruption⁷ imagined, indeed, that she had found defects in this statesman, 的确，贪污腐败者以为，在这个政治家身上必定存在缺点，

and talked much of the inconsistency of his glory, and much of the ruin of his victories; 谈论更多的是他的荣誉有矛盾之处，他的胜利必定瓦解；

but the history of his country, and the calamities⁸ of the enemy, answered and refuted her. 但是，他的国家的历史和这个敌人的灾难，回答和驳斥了贪污腐败者的断言。

Nor were his political his only talents. 从事政治并非他唯一的才能。

His eloquence⁹ was an era in the senate; peculiar¹⁰ and spontaneous; 他的雄辩在议院堪称一个纪元，独有的风格和机智；

familiarly expressing gigantic sentiments and instructive wisdom; 熟悉的表达方式孕育着巨大的情感力量和有益的智慧；

not like the torrent¹¹ of Demosthenes, or the splendid conflagration¹² of Tully; 既不像德摩斯梯尼式的湍急洪流，也不似西塞罗式的熊熊烈火；

it resembled sometimes the thunder, and sometimes the music of the spheres. 有时像隆隆雷声，有时又像舒缓的音乐。

He did not conduct the understanding through the painful subtilty of argumentation, nor was he ever on the rack of exertion¹³; 他不会通过论证那种令人伤脑筋的狡猾来让听众理解，也不会始终费力地绞尽脑汁，

but rather lightened upon the subject, and reached the point by the flashings of the mind, 而是直入主题，通过思想的闪光来切入重点。

which, like those of the eye, were felt, but could not be followed. 恰似眼睛观察到的那一切，只能感知但无法效法。

Upon the whole, there was in this man something that could create, subvert¹⁴, or reform; 总的来说，在这个男人身上存在能够创造，颠覆和或者改头换面的东西；

an understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence, to summon mankind to society, or to break the bonds of slavery asunder¹⁵, 一种知性，一种精神和一种雄辩，召唤人类去交流思想或者打破奴隶制枷锁，

and to rule the wildness of free minds with unbounded authority; 通过没有束缚的权威来释放内心的狂野；

something that could establish or overwhelm empires, and strike a blow in the world that should resound¹⁶ through the universe. 那种能建立或推翻帝国，朝这个能听到宇宙回音的世界给予有力一击的气质。

 

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