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1、Excerpt from Chapter 6: Visitors 节选自第六章访客He interested me because he was so quiet and solitary and so happy withal; a well of good humor and contentment which overflowed at his eyes. His mirth was without alloy. Sometimes I saw him at his work in the woods, felling trees, and he would greet me with
2、a laugh of inexpressible satisfaction, and a salutation in Canadian French, though he spoke English as well. When I approached him he would suspend his work, and with half-suppressed mirth lie along the trunk of a pine which he had felled, and, peeling off the inner bark, roll it up into a ball and
3、chew it while he laughed and talked. Such an exuberance of animal spirits had he that he sometimes tumbled down and rolled on the ground with laughter at anything which made him think and tickled him. Looking round upon the trees he would exclaim“ By George! I can enjoy myself well enough here chopp
4、ing; I want no better sport.” Sometimes, when at leisure, he amused himself all day in the woods with a pocket pistol, firing salutes to himself at regular intervals as he walked. In the winter he had a fire by which at noon he warmed his coffee in a kettle; and as he sat on a log to eat his dinner
5、the chickadees would sometimes come round and alight on his arm and peck at the potato in his fingers; and he said that he “liked to have the little fellers about him.”In him the animal man chiefly was developed. In physical endurance and contentment he was cousin to the pine and the rock. I asked h
6、im once if he was not sometimes tired at night, after working all day; and he answered, with a sincere and serious look, “Gorrappit, I never was tired in my life.” But the intellectual and what is called spiritual man in him were slumbering as in an infant. He had been instructed only in that innoce
7、nt and ineffectual way in which the Catholic priests teach the aborigines, by which the pupil is never educated to the degree of consciousness, but only to the degree of trust and reverence, and a child is not made a man, but kept a child. When Nature made him, she gave him a strong body and content
8、ment for his portion, and propped him on every side with reverence and reliance, that he might live out his threescore years and ten a child. He was so genuine and unsophisticated that no introduction would serve to introduce him, more than if you introduced a woodchuck to your neighbor. He particul
9、arly reverenced the writer and the preacher. Their performances were miracles. When I told him that I wrote considerably, he thought for a long time that it was merely the handwriting which I meant, for he could write a remarkably good hand himself. I sometimes found the name of his native parish ha
10、ndsomely written in the snow by the highway, with the proper French accent, and knew that he had passed. I asked him if he ever wished to write his thoughts. He said that he had read and written letters for those who could not, but he never tried to write thoughtsno, he could not, he could not tell
11、what to put first, it would kill him, and then there was spelling to be attended to at the same time!I heard that a distinguished wise man and reformer asked him if he did not want the world to be changed; but he answered with a chuckle of surprise in his Canadian accent, not knowing that the questi
12、on had ever been entertained before, “No, I like it well enough.” It would have suggested many things to a philosopher to have dealings with him. To a stranger he appeared to know nothing of things in general; yet I sometimes saw in him a man whom I had not seen before, and I did not know whether he
13、 was as wise as Shakespeare or as simply ignorant as a child, whether to suspect him of a fine poetic consciousness or of stupidity. A townsman told me that when he met him sauntering through the village in his small close-fitting cap, and whistling to himself, he reminded him of a prince in disguis
14、e. 我对他感兴趣是因为他这样安静，这样寂寞，而内心又这样愉快；他的眼睛里流露出高兴而满足的神情。他的欢乐并没有搀杂其他的成分。有时候，我看到他在树林中劳动、砍伐树木，他会用一阵无法描述的满意的笑声迎接我，用加拿大腔的法文向我致意，其实他也说英文。等我走近他，他就停止工作，半克制着喜悦，躺在他砍下的一棵松树旁边，把树枝里层的皮剥下来，卷成一个圆球，一边谈笑，一边咀嚼。他有如此充沛的精力，有时遇到使他思考和开怀的事情，他就笑得倒在地上打滚。看着他四周的树木，他会大喊“真的呵！在这里伐木真带劲；我不需要更好的娱乐了。”有时候，他闲了下来，他就带把小手枪在林中整天自得其乐，一边走，一边按时放枪向自己
15、致敬。冬天时，他会生把火，到了正午将咖啡倒在一个壶里煮，当他坐在一根圆木上用餐的时候，小鸟偶尔会飞过来，停在他的胳膊上，啄他手里的土豆；他说他就“喜欢旁边有些小把戏”。 在他身上，主要的是生气勃发。论体力上的坚韧和满足，他可以跟松树和岩石媲美。我有一次问他整天做工，晚上累不累；他带着真诚而严肃的神情答道：“天晓得，我一生中从没有累过。”可是在他身上，智力和所谓的灵性却还是沉睡着的，就跟婴孩一样。他所受的教育，只是以那天真和无用的方式进行的，天主教神父就是用这种方式来教育土著居民，而用这种方式，学生总不能达到意识的境界，只达到了信任和崇敬的程度，孩子得不到成长，总是个孩子。当大自然创造他的时候，
16、给了他一副强壮的体魄，并且让他对自己的命运感到满足，在他的四周用敬意和信任支撑着他，这样他就可以像一个孩子似的，一直活到七十岁。他是这样单纯，毫不虚伪，无须用任何的修饰也能介绍他，正如你无须给你的邻居介绍土拨鼠一样。他特别敬重作家和传教士。他认为他们的工作真是神乎其神。当我告诉他，说我也写作甚多，他很长时间都以为我说的是书写，因为他也写得一手好字呢。我有时候看到，在公路旁的积雪上很秀丽地写着他那故乡的教区的名字，并恰当地标明了那法文的重音，就知道他曾从这里经过。我问过他有没有想过要写下他自己的想法。他说他给不识字的人读过和写过一些信件，但从没有试过写下想法不，他不能，他不知道应该先写什么，这会难死他的，何况写的时候还要留意拼写！ 我听到过一个著名的聪明人兼改革家问他，他愿不愿这世界改变，他惊诧地失笑了，他从来没有想过这问题，于是用他的加拿大口音回答：“不必，我很喜欢它呢。”一个哲学家跟他谈话，可以很有收获。在陌生人看来，他对一般问题是一点都
