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latter-day pamphlets-第15部分

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ousness unknown for a long while; What the Laws of wind and water; and of Earth and of Heaven are;decide that now; in these new circumstances; they will; to the worthy and unworthy; serve out a double allowance of grog。  In this way they hope to do it;by steering on the old wrong tack; and serving out more and more; copiously what little _aqua vitae_ may be still on board! Philanthropy; emancipation; and pity for human calamity is very beautiful; but the deep oblivion of the Law of Right and Wrong; this 〃indiscriminate mashing up of Right and Wrong into a patent treacle〃 of the Philanthropic movement; is by no means beautiful; this; on the contrary; is altogether ugly and alarming。

Truly if there be not something inarticulate among us; not yet uttered but pressing towards utterance; which is much wiser than anything we have lately articulated or brought into word or action; our outlooks are rather lamentable。  The great majority

of the powerful and active…minded; sunk in egoistic scepticisms; busied in chase of lucre; pleasure; and mere vulgar objects; looking with indifference on the world's woes; and passing carelessly by on the other side; and the select minority; of whom better might have been expected; bending all their strength to cure them by methods which can only make bad worse; and in the end render cure hopeless。 A blind loquacious pruriency of indiscriminate Philanthropism substituting itself; with much self…laudation; for the silent divinely awful sense of Right and Wrong;testifying too clearly that here is no longer a divine sense of Right and Wrong; that; in the smoke of this universal; and alas inevitable and indispensable revolutionary fire; and burning up of worn…out rags of which the world is full; our life…atmosphere has (for the time) become one vile London fog; and the eternal loadstars are gone out for us! Gone out;yet very visible if you can get above the fog; still there in their place; and quite the same as they always were!  To whoever does still know of loadstars; the proceedings; which expand themselves daily; of these sublime philanthropic associations; and 〃universal sluggard…and…scoundrel protection…societies;〃 are a perpetual affliction。  With their emancipations and abolition principles; and reigns of brotherhood and new methods of love; they have done great things in the White and in the Black World; during late years; and are preparing for greater。

In the interest of human reform; if there is ever to be any reform; and return to prosperity or to the possibility of prospering; it is urgent that the nonsense of all this (and it is mostly nonsense; but not quite) should be sent about its business straightway; and forbidden to deceive the well…meaning souls among us any more。  Reform; if we will understand that divine word; cannot begin till then。  One day; I do know; this; as is the doom of all nonsense; will be drummed out of the world; with due placard stuck on its back; and the populace flinging dead cats at it:  but whether soon or not; is by no means so certain。  I rather guess; _not_ at present; not quite soon。  Fraternity; in other countries; has gone on; till it found itself unexpectedly manipulating guillotines by its chosen Robespierres; and become a fraternity like Cain's。  Much to its amazement!  For in fact it is not all nonsense; there is an infinitesimal fraction of sense in it withal; which is so difficult to disengage;which must be disengaged; and laid hold of; before Fraternity can vanish。

But to our subject;the Model Prison; and the strange theory of life now in action there。  That; for the present; is my share in the wide adventure of Philanthropism; the world's share; and how and when it is to be liquidated and ended; rests with the Supreme Destinies。

Several months ago; some friends took me with them to see one of the London Prisons; a Prison of the exemplary or model kind。  An immense circuit of buildings; cut out; girt with a high ring…wall; from the lanes and streets of the quarter; which is a dim and crowded one。  Gateway as to a fortified place; then a spacious court; like the square of a city; broad staircases; passages to interior courts; fronts of stately architecture all round。  It lodges some thousand or twelve hundred prisoners; besides the officers of the establishment。  Surely one of the most perfect buildings; within the compass of London。  We looked at the apartments; sleeping…cells; dining…rooms; working…rooms; general courts or special and private: excellent all; the ne…plus…ultra of human care and ingenuity; in my life I never saw so clean a building; probably no Duke in England lives in a mansion of such perfect and thorough cleanness。

The bread; the cocoa; soup; meat; all the various sorts of food; in their respective cooking…places; we tasted:  found them of excellence superlative。  The prisoners sat at work; light work; picking oakum; and the like; in airy apartments with glass roofs; of agreeable temperature and perfect ventilation; silent; or at least conversing only by secret signs: others were out; taking their hour of promenade in clean flagged courts: methodic composure; cleanliness; peace; substantial wholesome comfort reigned everywhere supreme。  The women in other apartments; some notable murderesses among them; all in the like state of methodic composure and substantial wholesome comfort; sat sewing:  in long ranges of wash…houses; drying…houses and whatever pertains to the getting…up of clean linen; were certain others; with all conceivable mechanical furtherances; not too arduously working。  The notable murderesses were; though with great precautions of privacy; pointed out to us; and we were requested not to look openly at them; or seem to notice them at all; as it was found to 〃cherish their vanity〃 when visitors looked at them。  Schools too were there; intelligent teachers of both sexes; studiously instructing the still ignorant of these thieves。

From an inner upper room or gallery; we looked down into a range of private courts; where certain Chartist Notabilities were undergoing their term。 Chartist Notability First struck me very much; I had seen him about a year before; by involuntary accident and much to my disgust; magnetizing a silly young person; and had noted well the unlovely voracious look of him; his thick oily skin; his heavy dull…burning eyes; his greedy mouth; the dusky potent insatiable animalism that looked out of every feature of him:  a fellow adequate to animal…magnetize most things; I did suppose;and here was the post I now found him arrived at。  Next neighbor to him was Notability Second; a philosophic or literary Chartist; walking rapidly to and fro in his private court; a clean; high…walled place; the world and its cares quite excluded; for some months to come:  master of his own time and spiritual resources to; as I supposed; a really enviable extent。  What 〃literary man〃 to an equal extent!  I fancied I; for my own part; so left with paper and ink; and all taxes and botherations shut out from me; could have written such a Book as no reader will here ever get of me。  Never; O reader; never here in a mere house with taxes and botherations。  Here; alas; one has to snatch one's poor Book; bit by bit
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