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● in more ways：他的眼睛虽有病，但他作乐的方法很多，他的朋友们再也没有看见像他那样会多方面寻快乐的人了。his friends had ever seen是定语从句，关系代名词that（或whom）省掉。in every one of them：in every one of these ways。别人也许也有他这么多作乐的方法，但是他寻起快乐来，不论任何方式，总比别人还要高兴。本句than一字，既照应前面的more，复照应稍后的happier。
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● 接着一句描写他的服饰容貌。作者还不是直接描写，还是借用当时人的看法。
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● One met him的One没有确指什么人。gay：色彩鲜艳的。satin：缎子。waistcoat：马甲，背心。graceful：态度文雅。clear and ruddy complexion：面色清朗红润。看他样子，似乎愈活愈年轻了。
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● It was known：大家知道。literary club：文学联谊会。merry supper：大家一起吃晚饭，谈笑欢乐，同时再宣读各人的论文。
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● the review指当时有名的杂志The North American Review。
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● dilettante：以文艺作为消遣之人。in the dilettantish spirit：他举办文学联谊会，发表文章，大家认为他只是搞着玩的，并不是真正用心研究或埋首写作。
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● undertake some serious task：着手干一样正经的工作。
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● respectable：为人所重视。他那时所过的生活，对他自己太没有好处了。
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Every evening the light from his study window glimmered through the pear-trees in the garden. But only George Ticknor, outside the household, knew that, for at least ten years, Prescott had been hard at work, harder, perhaps, than any Boston merchant. And, if everyone bought this book for a Christmas present, it was only because the author was so attractive. One of his cronies, who was not a reader, rose before dawn, on the day it was published, to buy the first copy; but, while everyone saw at once that it was good, no one was aware how good it was. There were scarcely twelve men living who were able to know. Within a year or two, the electoral returns came rolling in, from England, France and Spain. The book had been born a classic.
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● study window：书斋的窗户。pear-trees：梨树。写这部文学史的勃鲁克斯，把人家花园里种的什么树都考证出来了，但只是像小说家那样的随手拈来，并不在卖弄考据之学。
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● outside the household：除了他家里人以外，只有好友Ticknor知道他在那里用功写作，而且已经花了“十年寒窗”的功夫了。（前文那位亲戚不知道，所以还要劝他干正经事。）
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● harder用以加强hard。他的用功之苦，比之波士顿孳孳为利的商人，也许有过之而无不及。
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● everyone是夸大的说法，即“很多人”。大家都去买他的书，作为圣诞礼品送人。买的人所以如此之多，因为作者为人很可爱，平日人缘很好，至于书写得好不好，大家并不关心。
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● cronies：好朋友。此人平日并不读书（not a reader）。
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● while有“虽然”之意。大家都看出来这是一部好书，但是到底好得怎么样，那些买书的人没有人知道。当时有资格评定这部书的优劣者，全世界仅有（scarcely）十二人而已。
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● electoral returns：各地选举的开票结果。这里并没有谁在举行选举，作者只是借用一个成语，表示各地的好评源源不断而来。
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● a classic：名著，不朽之作。这是个subjective complement：一出版就成了名著。
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It was a conquest of personality. Prescott was a first-rate human being, exuberant, gallant, wilful, firm, devoted, far removed from the clerkly sort of scholar, painstaking but wanting in vigour and sinew, who, in a world in which the most virile types adopted careers of enterprising action, ruled over the sphere of books.
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● It：本书的成功。conquest of personality：个性之征服。如上文所叙，Prescott个性外向，爱同朋友来往，参加热闹的社交宴会。他不像是个潜心著作的史学家。他超越了自己的个性，才能写出这部不朽名著来。
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● a first-rate human being：第一流的人物。exuberant：精力充沛。gallant此字有勇敢、高贵之意，相当于中文的“潇洒不群”。wilful：任性行事。firm：意志坚定。devoted：对朋友极为忠诚，当然也极有可能献身于一己的事业。
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● the clerkly sort of scholar：在书本世界里过日子的那种学者。clerkly：像个书呆子或小书记似的，没有见解，没有气魄。普氏绝不是这一类人。painstaking：治学非常小心。可是体力（vigour and sinew）稍差。sinew：筋络，转作“体力”。who代表主语the clerkly sort of scholar。它的动词是ruled。在那时的美国，凡是以体魄胜人（virile）的那一种人，都去从事（adopted：采用）于带点冒险性（enterprising）的事业了，如经商、航海、从军等，剩下那些体力不如人的学者，只好在书堆里称王（统治了书本的领域）。普氏精力充沛，原是第一类型的人，却能克服自己的个性，成为一个大史学家。
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He did not like to get up in the morning and had to instruct his servant, the faithful Nathan, to pull away his bed-clothes. He did not like to work. He had to make bets with his secretary that he would write a certain number of pages or carry out some other resolution. He was always making resolutions, never too old to make them; and he was never old enough to keep them.
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● 普氏既非读书型，早晨懒得起床，非得吩咐忠仆Nathan不可，叫他把被子掀掉。
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● make bets：赌东道。他的决心（resolution）常常不能付诸实行（carry out），他不得不同他的秘书打赌，规定自己要写多少页书，或者干些别的什么事情；为了怕输东道，只好硬着头皮苦干了。
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● was always making resolutions：常常在下决心，定计划。never too old to make them：自己从来不觉得老，所以计划（them代替resolutions）层出不穷。假如自己承认老朽，那么也许就得过且过，不再下什么决心了。
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