thoughtsinwestminsterabbey.docVIP

thoughts in westminster abbey ?Thoughts?in?Westminster?Abbey ????????????????????---------?By?Joseph?Addison 威斯敏斯特寺遐思 ?????????????????---------?约瑟夫爱迪生 ? When?I?am?in?a?serious?humour,?I?very?often?walk?by?myself?in?Westminster?Abbey,?where?the?gloominess?of?the?place,?and?the?use?to?which?it?is?applied,?with?solemnity?of?the?building,?and?the?condition?of?the?people?who?lie?in?it,?are?apt?to?fill?the?mind?with?a?kind?of?melancholy,?or?rather?thoughtfulness,?that?is?not?disagreeable,?I?yesterday?passed?a?whole?afternoon?in?the?churchyard,?the?cloisters,?and?the?church,?amusing?myself?with?the?tombstones?and?inscriptions?that?I?met?with?in?those?several?regions?of?the?dead.?Most?of?them?recorded?nothing?else?of?the?buried?person,?but?that?he?was?born?upon?one?day,?and?died?upon?another:?that?are?common?to?all?mankind.?I?could?not?but?look?upon?these?registers?of?existence,?whether?of?brass?or?marble,?as?a?kind?of??satire?upon?the?departed?persons,?whether?of?brass?or?marble,?as?a?kind?of?satire?upon?the?departed?persons;?who?had?left?no?other?memorial?of?them,?but?that?they?were?born?and?that?they?died.?They?put?me?in?mind?of?several?persons?mentioned?in?the?battles?of?heroic?poems,?who?have?sounding?names?given?them,?for?no?other?reason?but?that?they?may?be?killed,?and?are?celebrated?for?nothing?but?being?knocked?on?the?head.?The?life?of?these?men?is?finely?described?in?Holy?Writ?by?“the?path?of?an?arrow”,?which?is?immediately?closed?up?and?lost. ?每当我心情沉重的时候，我总是独自一人去威斯敏斯特教堂。那里肃穆的气氛，教堂特有的神职，庄重的建筑，以及长眠于此的人们的身份地位，无不给人的心里注满一种忧郁，或不妨说令人沉思，令人欣然。昨天我在教堂墓地、回廊以及礼拜堂里度过了整整一个下午，在好几个墓区里，打量墓碑和碑文，聊以自娱。大部分墓碑上只刻着死者的生卒年月：人们对其一生的了解只在于人类所共有的生死两字。对于那些逝去之人的生死记录，不管是刻在铜碑上还是大理石碑上，我读不由自主地将它们看作是对死者的一种讽刺。他们让我想起了在史诗的战斗中提到的几个人，他们只是由于死于平常的战役而闻名，在圣经中被“箭矢的道路”一语精彩地描述了出来，箭矢一飞过去，它在空气中形成的道路也就立即合拢起来，消失了。 ? Upon?my?going?into?the?church,?I?entertained?myself?with?the?digging?of?a?grave;?and?saw?in?every?shovelful?of?it?that?was?thrown?up,?the?fragment?of?a?bone?or?skull?intermix?with?a?kind?of?fresh?moul