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The week passed without any further communication with the ‘Hall,’ as Arthur was evidently fearful that we might ‘wear out our welcome’; but when, on Sunday morning, we were setting out for church, I gladly agreed to his proposal to go round and enquire after the Earl, who was said to be unwell.
这一周没有与“霍尔”有任何进一步的交流，因为亚瑟显然担心我们可能会“消磨掉我们的欢迎”；但是，在星期天早上，当我们正要去教堂时，我欣然同意了他去拜访伯爵的提议，据说伯爵身体不适。
Eric, who was strolling in the garden, gave us a good report of the invalid, who was still in bed, with Lady Muriel in attendance.
埃里克正在花园里漫步，他给我们提供了一个关于病人的好报告，病人还在床上，由穆里尔夫人照顾。
“Thanks, no,” he courteously replied. “It’s not—exactly in my line, you know. It’s an excellent institution—for the poor. When I’m with my own folk, I go, just to set them an example. But I’m not known here: so I think I’ll excuse myself sitting out a sermon. Country-preachers are always so dull!”
“谢谢，不，”他礼貌地回答。“你知道，这并不完全符合我的风格。这是一个为穷人设立的极好的机构。当我和我自己的人在一起时，我去，只是为了给他们树立一个榜样。但我在这里不为人所知：所以我想我会借口不参加布道。乡村传教士总是那么枯燥！”
Arthur was silent till we were out of hearing. Then he said to himself, almost inaudibly, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
亚瑟一直沉默到我们听不到为止。然后他几乎听不见地自言自语道：“凡有两三个人奉我的名聚会，那里就有我在他们中间。”
“Yes,” I assented: “no doubt that is the principle on which church-going rests.”
“是的，”我同意道：“毫无疑问，这就是去教堂的原则。”
“And when he does go,” he continued (our thoughts ran so much together, that our conversation was often slightly elliptical), “I suppose he repeats the words ‘I believe in the Communion of Saints’?”
“而且当他去的时候，”他继续说（我们的想法如此一致，以至于我们的谈话常常有点省略），“我想他会重复‘我相信圣徒的共融’这句话吗？”
But by this time we had reached the little church, into which a goodly stream of worshipers, consisting mainly of fishermen and their families, was flowing.
但这时我们已经到达了小教堂，里面有一股由主要是渔民及其家人组成的可敬的朝拜者流正在涌入。
The service would have been pronounced by any modern aesthetic religionist—or religious aesthete, which is it?—to be crude and cold: to me, coming fresh from the ever-advancing developments of a London church under a soi-disant ‘Catholic’ Rector, it was unspeakably refreshing.
任何现代审美宗教主义者——或者宗教审美主义者，是哪个呢？——都会宣称这项服务是粗糙和冷漠的：对我来说，刚从伦敦一个自称“天主教”的牧师领导下不断进步的教堂发展中走出来，它是无法形容的清新。
There was no theatrical procession of demure little choristers, trying their best not to simper under the admiring gaze of the congregation: the people’s share in the service was taken by the people themselves, unaided, except that a few good voices, judiciously posted here and there among them, kept the singing from going too far astray.
没有故作端庄的小唱诗班的戏剧性游行，他们尽力不在会众的钦佩目光下傻笑：人们在服务中的份额是由人们自己承担的，没有任何帮助，除了一些好的声音，明智地分布在他们中间，防止唱歌偏离太远。
There was no murdering of the noble music, contained in the Bible and the Liturgy, by its recital in a dead monotone, with no more expression than a mechanical talking-doll.
圣经和礼拜仪式中包含的高贵音乐，没有被用死气沉沉的单调背诵谋杀，没有比机械说话娃娃更多的表情。
No, the prayers were prayed, the lessons were read, and best of all the sermon was talked; and I found myself repeating, as we left the church, the words of Jacob, when he ‘awaked out of his sleep.’
不，祈祷是祈祷的，教训是读的，最好的是布道是讲的；当我们离开教堂时，我发现自己重复着雅各的话，当他“从睡梦中醒来”时。
“Yes,” said Arthur, apparently in answer to my thoughts, “those ‘high’ services are fast becoming pure Formalism.
“是的，”亚瑟显然是在回答我的想法，“那些‘高级’服务正迅速变得纯粹形式主义。
More and more the people are beginning to regard them as ‘performances,’ in which they only ‘assist’ in the French sense.
越来越多的人开始把它们视为‘表演’，在法语意义上他们只是‘协助’。
With all that dressing-up, and stagy-entrances and exits, and being always en evidence, no wonder if they’re eaten up with vanity, the blatant little coxcombs!”
所有那些打扮，舞台式的入口和出口，以及总是处于显眼的位置，如果他们被虚荣心吞噬，那也不足为奇，这些狂妄的小自负鬼！”
When we passed the Hall on our return, we found the Earl and Lady Muriel sitting out in the garden. Eric had gone for a stroll.
当我们回来经过大厅时，我们发现伯爵和穆里尔夫人坐在花园里。埃里克去散步了。
We joined them, and the conversation soon turned on the sermon we had just heard, the subject of which was ‘selfishness.’
我们加入了他们，谈话很快就转向了我们刚刚听到的布道，主题是“自私”。
“What a change has come over our pulpits,” Arthur remarked, “since the time when Paley gave that utterly selfish definition of virtue, ‘the doing good to mankind, in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness’!”
亚瑟说：“自从佩利给出了那个完全自私的美德定义，‘为了服从上帝的意志，为了永远的幸福而对人类做好事’，我们的讲坛发生了多大的变化啊！”
Lady Muriel looked at him inquiringly, but she seemed to have learned by intuition, what years of experience had taught me, that the way to elicit Arthur’s deepest thoughts was neither to assent nor dissent, but simply to listen.
穆里尔夫人好奇地看着他，但她似乎凭直觉学到了，多年的经验教会了我，引出亚瑟最深层思想的方法既不是同意也不是不同意，而是简单地倾听。
“At that time,” he went on, “a great tidal wave of selfishness was sweeping over human thought.
“在那个时候，”他继续说，“一股巨大的自私浪潮正在席卷人类思想。
Right and Wrong had somehow been transformed into Gain and Loss, and Religion had become a sort of commercial transaction.
对与错不知何故变成了得与失，宗教变成了一种商业交易。
We may be thankful that our preachers are beginning to take a nobler view of life.”
我们可以感谢我们的传教士开始对生活有了更高尚的看法。”
“In the Old Testament, no doubt, rewards and punishments are constantly appealed to as motives for action.
“在旧约中，毫无疑问，奖励和惩罚经常被作为行动的动机而被呼吁。”
That teaching is best for children, and the Israelites seem to have been, mentally, utter children.
这种教导对孩子来说是最好的，而以色列人在精神上似乎完全是孩子。
We guide our children thus, at first: but we appeal, as soon as possible, to their innate sense of Right and Wrong: and, when that stage is safely past, we appeal to the highest motive of all, the desire for likeness to, and union with, the Supreme Good.
我们最初就是这样引导我们的孩子的：但我们尽快呼吁他们天生的是非感：当那个阶段安全过去后，我们呼吁所有动机中最高的，即对与至高善相似和结合的渴望。
I think you will find that to be the teaching of the Bible, as a whole, beginning with ‘that thy days may be long in the land,’ and ending with ‘be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’”
我认为你会发现，这是整个圣经的教导，从‘使你的日子在地上长久’开始，到‘你们要完全，像你们在天上的父完全一样’结束。”
We were silent for awhile, and then Arthur went off on another tack. “Look at the literature of Hymns, now. How cankered it is, through and through, with selfishness! There are few human compositions more utterly degraded than some modern Hymns!”
我们沉默了一会儿，然后亚瑟又换了一个话题。“现在看看赞美诗的文学。它是多么的腐朽，彻头彻尾，充满了自私！很少有人类的作品比一些现代赞美诗更完全堕落！”
After giving many good reasons for charity, the preacher wound up with ‘and, for all you give, you will be repaid a thousandfold!’
在给出许多慈善的好理由之后，传教士以“而且，你所给予的一切，都会得到千倍的回报！”作为结束。
Oh the utter meanness of such a motive, to be put before men who do know what self-sacrifice is, who can appreciate generosity and heroism!
哦，这样的动机是多么卑鄙，竟然摆在那些确实知道什么是自我牺牲，能够欣赏慷慨和英雄主义的人面前！
“Can you have a stronger proof of the Original Goodness there must be in this nation, than the fact that Religion has been preached to us, as a commercial speculation, for a century, and that we still believe in a God?”
“你能有比这个国家的宗教被作为商业投机向我们宣讲了一个世纪，而我们仍然相信上帝这一事实更强有力的证据证明这个国家一定存在原始的善良吗？”
“It couldn’t have gone on so long,” Lady Muriel musingly remarked, “if the Opposition hadn’t been practically silenced—put under what the French call la cloture. Surely in any lecture-hall, or in private society, such teaching would soon have been hooted down?”
“它不可能持续这么久，”穆里尔夫人沉思地说，“如果反对派没有实际上被沉默——被置于法国人所说的 la cloture 之下。当然，在任何演讲厅或私人社会中，这样的教导很快就会被嘘声淹没？”
“I trust so,” said Arthur: “and, though I don’t want to see ‘brawling in church’ legalized, I must say that our preachers enjoy an enormous privilege—which they ill deserve, and which they misuse terribly.
“我希望如此，”亚瑟说：“而且，虽然我不想看到‘在教堂里争吵’合法化，但我必须说，我们的传教士享有巨大的特权——他们不配享有，而且他们滥用得可怕。”
We put our man into a pulpit, and we virtually tell him ‘Now, you may stand there and talk to us for half-an-hour.
我们把我们的人放在讲坛上，实际上我们告诉他‘现在，你可以站在那里和我们谈半个小时。
Shallow twaddle, that, if it were addressed to you over a dinner-table, you would think ‘Does the man take me for a fool?’”
浅薄的废话，如果在餐桌上对你说，你会想‘这个人把我当傻瓜吗？’”
The return of Eric from his walk checked the tide of Arthur’s eloquence, and, after a few minutes’ talk on more conventional topics, we took our leave.
埃里克散步回来，阻止了亚瑟雄辩的潮流，在几分钟关于更传统话题的谈话后，我们告辞了。
“You have given me much to think about,” she said earnestly, as she gave Arthur her hand.
“你给了我很多思考的东西，”她认真地说，同时把手伸向亚瑟。
And her words brought a real glow of pleasure into that pale worn face of his.
她的话给他那张苍白疲惫的脸上带来了真正的喜悦。
On the Tuesday, as Arthur did not seem equal to more walking, I took a long stroll by myself, having stipulated that he was not to give the whole day to his books, but was to meet me at the Hall at about tea-time.
周二，由于亚瑟似乎走不了更远的路，我独自走了很长一段路，规定他不要整天看书，而是在大约下午茶时间在大厅见我。
On my way back, I passed the Station just as the afternoon-train came in sight, and sauntered down the stairs to see it come in.
在我回来的路上，我路过车站，正好看到下午的火车进站，于是漫步下楼梯去看它进站。
But there was little to gratify my idle curiosity: and, when the train was empty, and the platform clear, I found it was about time to be moving on, if I meant to reach the Hall by five.
但没什么能满足我无聊的好奇心：当火车空了，站台也空了，我发现如果我想在五点到达大厅，就该继续前进了。
As I approached the end of the platform, from which a steep irregular wooden staircase conducted to the upper world, I noticed two passengers, who had evidently arrived by the train, but who, oddly enough, had entirely escaped my notice, though the arrivals had been so few.
当我走近站台尽头时，从那里有一个陡峭不规则的木制楼梯通向上面的世界，我注意到有两名乘客，他们显然是乘火车到达的，但奇怪的是，尽管到达的人很少，他们却完全没有引起我的注意。
They were a young woman and a little girl: the former, so far as one could judge by appearances, was a nursemaid, or possibly a nursery-governess, in attendance on the child, whose refined face, even more than her dress, distinguished her as of a higher class than her companion.
他们是一个年轻女子和一个小女孩：前者，就外表而言，可能是保姆，或者可能是保育员，照顾孩子，孩子精致的面容，甚至比她的衣服更能表明她比她的同伴更高贵。
The child’s face was refined, but it was also a worn and sad one, and told a tale (or so I seemed to read it) of much illness and suffering, sweetly and patiently borne.
孩子的脸很精致，但也是一张疲惫而悲伤的脸，讲述了一个（或者我似乎是这样解读的）关于疾病和痛苦的故事，她甜蜜而耐心地承受着。
She had a little crutch to help herself along with: and she was now standing, looking wistfully up the long staircase, and apparently waiting till she could muster courage to begin the toilsome ascent.
她有一个小拐杖来帮助自己行走：现在她站在那里，渴望地望着长长的楼梯，显然是在等待她能鼓起勇气开始艰苦的攀登。
There are some things one says in life—as well as things one does—which come automatically, by reflex action, as the physiologists say (meaning, no doubt, action without reflection, just as lucus is said to be derived ‘a non lucendo’).
在生活中，人们会说一些话——也会做一些事——这些话和事是自动的，是生理学家所说的反射动作（意思无疑是不假思索的行动，就像卢克斯据说来自“a non lucendo”）。
Closing one’s eyelids, when something seems to be flying into the eye, is one of those actions, and saying “May I carry the little girl up the stairs?”
当有东西似乎要飞进眼睛时，闭上眼睛就是其中一种行动，而说“我可以把小女孩抱上楼梯吗？”
It wasn’t that any thought of offering help occurred to me, and that then I spoke: the first intimation I had, of being likely to make that offer, was the sound of my own voice, and the discovery that the offer had been made.
并不是说我想到了要提供帮助，然后我才说话：我第一次意识到有可能提出这个提议，是我自己的声音，以及发现这个提议已经被提出了。
The servant paused, doubtfully glancing from her charge to me, and then back again to the child.
仆人犹豫地从她的负责对象看向我，然后又回到孩子身上。
But no such doubt appeared to cross the child’s mind: she lifted her arms eagerly to be taken up. “Please!”
但孩子似乎没有这样的疑虑：她急切地举起双臂，想要被抱起来。“请！”
I took her up with scrupulous care, and her little arm was at once clasped trustfully round my neck.
我小心翼翼地把她抱起来，她的小胳膊立刻信任地搂住了我的脖子。
She was a very light weight—so light, in fact, that the ridiculous idea crossed my mind that it was rather easier going up, with her in my arms, than it would have been without her: and, when we reached the road above, with its cart-ruts and loose stones—all formidable obstacles for a lame child—I found that I had said “I’d better carry her over this rough place,” before I had formed any mental connection between its roughness and my gentle little burden.
她的体重很轻——事实上，轻得让我产生了一个荒谬的想法，那就是抱着她走上去，比不抱她走上去更容易：当我们到达上面的道路时，那里有车辙和松动的石头——对于一个跛脚的孩子来说，所有这些都是可怕的障碍——我发现我在还没有在脑海中把道路的崎岖和我温柔的小负担联系起来之前，就已经说了“我最好把她抱过这个粗糙的地方”。
But the arm, that was twined about my neck, clung just an atom more closely at the suggestion, and decided me to say “She’s no weight, really.
但是，缠绕在我脖子上的手臂，在这个建议下，只是稍微更紧地贴了一下，这让我决定说“她真的不重。
The nurse raised no further objection: and the next speaker was a ragged little boy, with bare feet, and a broom over his shoulder, who ran across the road, and pretended to sweep the perfectly dry road in front of us.
护士没有再提出反对意见：接下来说话的是一个衣衫褴褛的小男孩，光着脚，肩上扛着一把扫帚，他跑过马路，假装在我们面前清扫完全干燥的道路。
And she laughed a laugh of such silvery sweetness as I had never yet heard from any lips but Sylvie’s.
她笑了，那笑声如此银铃般甜美，我以前只从西尔维的嘴唇上听到过。
To my astonishment, the boy actually joined in the laugh, as if there were some subtle sympathy between them, as he ran away down the road and vanished through a gap in the hedge.
令我惊讶的是，那个男孩竟然也跟着笑了起来，仿佛他们之间有某种微妙的共鸣，然后他沿着路跑开，消失在树篱的一个缺口处。
But he was back in a few moments, having discarded his broom and provided himself, from some mysterious source, with an exquisite bouquet of flowers. “Buy a posy, buy a posy! Only a ‘ap’ny!” he chanted, with the melancholy drawl of a professional beggar.
但他很快就回来了，扔掉了扫帚，不知从哪里神秘地弄来了一束精美的鲜花。“买一束花，买一束花！只要一便士！”他用专业乞丐的忧郁拖腔唱道。
“Don’t buy it!” was Her Majesty’s edict as she looked down, with a lofty scorn that seemed curiously mixed with tender interest, on the ragged creature at her feet.
“别买！”这是女王陛下的命令，她低头看着脚下衣衫褴褛的小家伙，带着一种高傲的轻蔑，这种轻蔑中似乎奇怪地夹杂着温柔的兴趣。
Such lovely flowers, and of forms so entirely new to me, were not to be abandoned at the bidding of any little maid, however imperious.
如此可爱的花朵，而且对我来说形状完全新颖，不能因为任何一个小女孩的命令而放弃，无论她多么专横。
I bought the bouquet: and the little boy, after popping the halfpenny into his mouth, turned head-over-heels, as if to ascertain whether the human mouth is really adapted to serve as a money-box.
我买了那束花：小男孩把半便士塞进嘴里后，头朝下翻了个跟头，好像要确定人的嘴是否真的适合当钱箱。
With wonder, that increased every moment, I turned over the flowers, and examined them one by one: there was not a single one among them that I could remember having ever seen before.
我越来越惊奇地翻着花，一朵一朵地检查：其中没有一朵是我记得曾经见过的。
I obeyed in silence, and could only ask myself “Is this a dream?”, on finding Sylvie and Bruno walking one on either side of me, and clinging to my hands with the ready confidence of childhood.
我默默地服从了，发现西尔维和布鲁诺走在我的两边，紧紧地抓住我的手，带着孩子般的自信，我只能问自己“这是一场梦吗？”
“You’re larger than when I saw you last!” I began. “Really I think we ought to be introduced again! There’s so much of you that I never met before, you know.”
“你比我上次见到你时大了！”我开始说。“真的，我觉得我们应该再介绍一下！你有这么多我以前从未见过的地方，你知道的。”
“Very well!” Sylvie merrily replied. “This is Bruno. It doesn’t take long. He’s only got one name!”
“很好！”西尔维愉快地回答。“这是布鲁诺。不需要很长时间。他只有一个名字！”
“There’s another name to me!” Bruno protested, with a reproachful look at the Mistress of the Ceremonies. “And it’s—’ Esquire’!”
“我还有另一个名字！”布鲁诺抗议道，带着责备的眼神看着仪式的女主人。“而且是——‘先生’！”
“You know I said we’d come on Tuesday, Sylvie explained. “Are we the proper size for common children?”
“你知道我说过我们星期二会来的，”西尔维解释道。“我们的体型适合普通孩子吗？”
“Quite the right size for children,” I replied, (adding mentally “though not common children, by any means!”) “But what became of the nursemaid?”
“对孩子来说正好合适，”我回答，（心里补充道“但绝不是普通孩子！”）“但是保姆怎么了？”
“No. Oo couldn’t touch it, oo know. If oo walked at it, oo’d go right froo!”
“不。你不能碰它，你知道的。如果你朝它走，你会直接穿过它！”
“I quite expected you’d find it out, once,” said Sylvie. “Bruno ran it against a telegraph post, by accident. And it went in two halves. But you were looking the other way.”
“我一直以为你会发现的，”西尔维说。“布鲁诺不小心把它撞到了电线杆上。它分成了两半。但你当时在看另一个方向。”
I felt that I had indeed missed an opportunity: to witness such an event as a nursemaid going ‘in two halves’ does not occur twice in a life-time!
我觉得我确实错过了一个机会：亲眼目睹一个保姆分成两半这样的事件，一生中不会发生两次！
“I didn’t guess it, till it was Sylvie,” I said. “But how did You manage the nursemaid? “
“我直到它是西尔维才猜到，”我说。“但你是怎么管理那个保姆的？”
“The Professor teached me how,” said Bruno. “First oo takes a lot of air—”
“教授教我怎么做的，”布鲁诺说。“首先你要吸很多空气——”
“Oh, Bruno!” Sylvie interposed. “The Professor said you weren’t to tell!” But who did her voice?” I asked.
“哦，布鲁诺！”西尔维打断了他的话。“教授说你不能告诉！”但是谁发出了她的声音呢？”我问道。
“Indeed it’s troubling you too much, Sir! She can walk very well on the flat.”
“确实给您添麻烦了，先生！她在平地上走得很好。”
Bruno laughed merrily as I turned hastily from side to side, looking in all directions for the speaker. “That were me!” he gleefully proclaimed, in his own voice.
当我急忙从一边转向另一边，四处寻找说话的人时，布鲁诺开心地笑了。“是我！”他用自己的声音高兴地宣称。
“She can indeed walk very well on the flat,” I said. “And I think I was the Flat.”
“她确实在平地上走得很好，”我说。“我想我就是那个平地。”
By this time we were near the Hall. “This is where my friends live,” I said. “Will you come in and have some tea with them?”
这时我们已经接近大厅了。“这是我朋友住的地方，”我说。“你们愿意进来和他们一起喝杯茶吗？”
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