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Each evening the mute walked alone for hours in the street. Sometimes the nights were cold with the sharp, wet winds of March and it would be raining heavily. But to him this did not matter. His gait was agitated and he always kept his hands stuffed tight into the pockets of his trousers. Then as the weeks passed the days grew warm and languorous. His agitation gave way gradually to exhaustion and there was a look about him of deep calm. In his face there came to be a brooding peace that is seen most often in the faces of the very sorrowful or the very wise. But still he wandered through the streets of the town, always silent and alone.
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● gait：走路的姿态。stuffed：塞。手塞在裤袋里面，哑巴的手，本来就是他的嘴。听他说话的人既然已经不在了，手是可以塞起来了。
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● languorous：闷人的（天气）。gave way…to：原意是“让开路，让别人走”，或是“撤退了，让别人前进”。His agitation gave way gradually to exhaustion：他的激动渐渐地消失而疲竭之感继起。
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● there was a look about him of deep calm=there was a look of deep calm about him。
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● brooding：沉思的。peace：平和的气象。the very sorrowful和the very wise中的两个形容词，都当名词用——有大悲哀的人和有大智慧的人。望之穆然深思者，大抵其人非为哀伤已极，即已参透人生。今Singer脸上之表情即此类也。
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现代英文选评注 The Last Puritan最后一个清教徒
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George Santayana (1863—1952)
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美国早期的移民，很多是英国来的清教徒，因此清教徒主义（Puritanism）也是美国立国基本精神之一。清教徒所过的是一种严肃的生活，以天理制人欲，培养独立自尊的人格，除了相信上帝这一点以外，他们的理想，大致和宋儒传统下的中国士大夫相仿。桑塔耶那在《最后一个清教徒》（1935）里描写一个典型的清教徒Oliver Alden，下面几段讲的是那位“清教徒”幼年时候所受的教育，由此我们知道：一个严肃的（可是也是拘谨狭仄的）生活是怎么开始的。
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下面所选的几段（见原书第二编第三章）都比较浅近容易，并不能充分代表原作英文“构思精妙，辞藻华丽”的好处。但是这几段已经把“Puritanism”说明得相当清楚了。
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The advent of Fräulein Schlote was a blessing all round. Mrs. Alden, on whom everything depended, smiled on the newcomer from the beginning. As for the child himself, neither the disappearance of his old nurse nor the appearance of the new Fräulein seemed to impress his young mind. He was accustomed to strangers, and not afraid of them; they all behaved in much the same way. Gradually, however, he became aware of something else in her: there was sympathy in her movements, there was playfulness: Irma was affectionate. Discipline was relaxed: it was no longer imperative to play only with clean gravel especially poured out for him: he might now run and dig up his own gravel from the path. The routine of life might have become more plastic, making a little room for caprice. But was caprice less tiresome than law?
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● 本书主人翁Oliver Alden原有一老保姆（nurse），后从德国请来Irma Schlote小姐任看护管教之职，即英文所谓governess。
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● Fräulein德文，意即“小姐”。advent：来到，义同arrival，但用于较庄严重要之场合。blessing：（天赐）恩典。all round：对全家的人说来。
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● Mrs. Alden：书中主人翁之母亲。on whom everything depended：什么东西都得靠她；她是主妇，家庭教师是好是坏，就凭她一句话。
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● impress：给予印象。
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● aware of：觉得。something else：有些别的东西；就这小孩子看来，到家里来的陌生人似乎都差不多，可是这位家庭教师他渐渐地发现有些与众不同。
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● sympathy：同情。playfulness：活泼好弄。affectionate：温馨慈爱。他的母亲待他是冷冰冰的，家庭教师的慈爱给他的印象特别深，故此字用斜体字排，以示重要。
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● discipline：纪律。relaxed：放宽。接着就有例子说明：小孩子喜欢玩沙，本来家里管束得严，沙是先淘好了给他的，现在他可以自己到地上去挖了。gravel较sand为粗。中文应作“沙砾”。
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● routine of life：日常旧规，刻板生活。plastic：便于塑造的、可以任意变化其形状的。caprice：中文成语“忽发奇想”里的“奇想”、怪主意。making room for里的room原意是“地位”，“让出地位来给（别人）”；这个小孩子的生活本来只是循规蹈矩的刻板文章，现在新家庭教师来了，生活可以多点变化，“可以让出些地位来给出乎常规的思想行动了”——可以偶然“随兴之所至，自由行动了”。
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● 虽然有这种可能性，可是事实上却并未实现，动词might have become隐含did not become之意。为什么呢？末一句“反问”（rhetorical question）即说明其原委。But was caprice less tiresome than law?=But caprice was not less tiresome than law。循规蹈矩的生活（law）固然无聊（tiresome），然而就兴之所至，率性行事（caprice），亦复无聊，所以仍旧是规规矩矩地过日子。
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It was a distinct relief to discard the perambulator and to trudge along with Fräulein for a country walk. And sometimes Fräulein lengthened these rambles more than was pleasant for him. He was no baby, to say he was tired, or hot, or wished to be carried; the old perambulator, even if thought of at such a moment, was not to be mentioned.
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● perambulator：小孩坐车。discard：废弃不用；小孩渐大，能蹒跚而行，用不到坐车了。relief：（束缚的）解除；坐车拘束而累赘，一旦下车步行，自有轻松之感。distinct：很明显的。trudge：吃力的走路。
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● rambles：漫游。lengthened：放长，（走远）。than在这里的用法很像是一个relative pronoun，丹麦籍文法学家Jespersen称之为relative conjunction。（见其所著Essentials of English Grammar. §34.41与A Modern English Grammar, II. §9.11）
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● to say…：infinitive phrase当形容词用，形容baby。“他不再是一个可以说是他疲倦了……的婴孩了。”他已经自认是一个大孩子，即使是走累了，或是走热了，或是想抱（carried）了，都不愿意讲出来。
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