1705005131

1705005132 He had first acquired these mental habits when, as a young man with failing sight, he had been sent abroad, to London and Paris, to consult the doctors there, and had spent a quiet winter in the Azores. People were surprised, in later years, that Prescott, who had never visited Spain, or Mexico or Peru, knew so much about these tropical scenes and was able to fill his books with such glowing pictures,—Spanish gardens, myrtles, laurels, lemons, the box-tree and the rose, mountain vistas, wildly picturesque, the Cordilleras and the Sierra Nevada, with convent-bells ringing in the valleys. A young man who had grown up in Boston, under cloudy skies, lashed by the east wind, would have had little imagination if he had not received vivid impressions during these June-like months in the Azores.

1705005133

1705005134 ● these mental habits：这些心理上的习惯，即上文所说的记忆，拟腹稿等。acquired：获得；“养成一种习惯”可说to acquire a habit。with failing sight：目力渐渐丧失。

1705005135

1705005136 ● to consult the doctors there：请教伦敦巴黎两地的名医。（普氏游欧，在他19岁到21岁之间。）Azores：大西洋中岛屿，属葡萄牙。群岛前面，该加冠词the。普氏的外祖父那时是岛上的美国领事。

1705005137

1705005138 ● 本文文章的特点，是长句子相当多，可是句子虽长，停顿也多，很少有一气呵成的，读了几个字读者就可以换一口气，调子缓慢，不慌不忙，有闲散轻松之妙。调子既慢，装饰用的字眼可以随时插入，句法内容因以丰富，而句法变化亦变幻莫测矣。以第一句为例，when以前的句法是直接了当的，到了when以后，从句的主语he不见出来，反而添了一个comma，comma之后又来as a young man with failing sight这样一个短语，这六个字紧凑得好，假如初学写来，写成when he was young and his sight was failing就显得笨拙而啰嗦矣。六个字过后，再说他到海外去。去哪里呢？（语气一顿）伦敦、巴黎。去干什么呢？（语气又一顿）是去瞧大夫的。

1705005139

1705005140 ● 这样写法在第二句中更为明显。如surprised后，语气一顿，接in later years（普氏成名以后）；that Prescott之后，隔了好多字，动词knew才出现；而knew之前，语气又要停好几次；Spain之后一顿，or Mexico后一小顿；or Peru后又一顿。如中间取消一个or，改说Spain, Mexico or Peru句法较直捷干脆，唯韵味不同矣。总之，文章无定法，调子快有调子快的好处，调子慢有调子慢的好处。本文调子很慢，作者苦心所在，尚望读者仔细体会。

1705005141

1705005142 ● 普氏从来没有去过西班牙，也没有去过墨西哥和秘鲁，（普氏继Ferdinand and Isabella之后，复完成两大巨著：Conquest of Mexico与Conquest of Peru），可是他对于那些热带国家的风光景色知道得非常清楚，犹如曾经身历其境一般，所以以后读者很觉奇怪。他的书里面到处是南欧和中南美洲风景的描写，色彩鲜明，生动如画（glowing：发光的）。

1705005143

1705005144 ● myrtles：桃金娘，其叶、花与浆果均可作为香料。laurels：月桂。lemons：柠檬，又是一种香味浓郁的树。box-tree：黄杨树。mountain vistas：山岭间的远景。wildly picturesque：粗犷而入画（形容vistas）。the Cordilleras：山脉名，在秘鲁，the Sierra Nevada是西班牙的山名（美国加利福尼亚州有大山，亦名Sierra Nevada）。

1705005145

1705005146 ● convent：修道院。深山古寺，幽谷钟声，普氏历史书中，偏多这种描写，无怪本文第一段中说本书的pageantry of picturesque detail可以满足美国人饥饿的想象力了。

1705005147

1705005148 ● A young man：即普氏。他生长在景色单调的波士顿，天空是阴沉沉的时候多，整年受着东风的鞭打（lashed）。这样一个人假如不在热带住过一阵子，得到很生动的印象，是不会有多大的想象力的，更不必说是描写风光旖旎的西班牙了。June-like months：他在Azores的时候是冬天，可是那里大约是四季如夏；虽在冬天，气候仍温暖如六月。

1705005149

1705005150 After his taste of the Azores, he returned to Boston. His friends rallied about him in his blindness and read to him aloud, six or eight hours at a time, especially the inseparable Ticknor, absorbed in the study of Spanish literature, on which he was lecturing at Harvard. Ticknor, to amuse him, read his lectures to him, three or four afternoons every week, along with his favorite classics and historical works and the old English romances.

1705005151

1705005152 ● rallied about him：集合在他的四周。普氏欧游之行，未能将双目医好，回国后朋友们帮助他，（rally除“集合”外，更有“支持”之意），读书给他听。inseparable：不可分离的，形影不离的（好朋友）。absorbed：（过去分词，形容Ticknor）专心致志于。Ticknor是哈佛大学西班牙文教授，前文已经说过。

1705005153

1705005154 ● his lectures：Ticknor在哈佛的讲稿。非但念自己的讲稿，而且把普氏所爱读的（his favorite的his恐是代表普氏）古典文学、历史名著以及英国古代英雄传奇都连带念给他听。

1705005155

1705005156 Prescott was reading for pleasure, with Ticknor’s Spanish library as his hunting-ground. He had in mind no scheme for a composition, but he was planning a literary career, for which he proposed to lay a firm foundation. English grammar first, as if he had never gone to school or college. For style, Sidney, Bacon, Browne and Milton. One hour a day for the Latin classics, Tacitus and Livy for elevation: he knew them by heart already, but this was a different matter. A year devoted to French, from Froissart to Chateaubriand. A year for Italian, another year for Spanish. There he paused, there he felt at home, too much at home to carry on with German. His eyes were not equal to the Gothic script.

1705005157

1705005158 ● reading for pleasure：为消遣而渎书，念着玩的。Spanish library：西班牙文的藏书。hunting-ground：打猎的场地。他不断地借阅Ticknor的藏书。

1705005159

1705005160 ● He had in mind no scheme=he had no scheme in mind。作者所以先说in mind，后说no scheme者，为的是使for a composition这个形容词短语可以紧跟着它所形容的名词scheme。composition所指，不仅是一篇作文，一本书亦可。动词compose是“写作”，composition就是“作品”。scheme：计划。a literary career：文学生涯，以文学为终身事业。既有志写作，不可不有准备，所以他想先扎好根基：筑好（lay）结实的基础。

1705005161

1705005162 ● English grammar first：此句为不完全句，前面所省掉的大约是He studied两字。普氏是哈佛大学毕业生，文学修养本来已经很深，（他的眼睛是在大学里弄坏的），可是现在先从英文语法学起，好像自己从来没有进过学校似的，把英文语法从头研究一遍。这种功夫，无非为他日后写作作准备。

1705005163

1705005164 ● style：文章风格。语法只教人文章的规范，真要写得好，还得精研名家的作品。普氏所精读的是四家的怍品：

1705005165

1705005166 Sir Philip Sidney（1554—1586）：伊利莎白时代作家。其Arcadia以辞藻华丽，想象丰富著称。Lord Bacon（1561—1626）：他的散文简洁老辣。Sir Thomas Browne（1605—1682）：十七世纪英国散文家，他在中国不大出名，但英国十九世纪散文家如Lamb等，受他的影响很深。他的文章风格可说是辞富理瞻，音调节奏之美，英国散文作家很少有比得上他的。Milton（1608—1674）：大诗人，但散文也有名，热情充沛，气势雄浑，为十七世纪一大名家。

1705005167

1705005168 ● Tacitus同Livy一样，也是罗马历史家，出世约比耶稣晚半个世纪。普氏精读这两家的作品，为的是求风格高超（elevation），不作庸俗语。其实这两家的作品，他早已熟读，可是以前读的时候，也许只注意事实的记录，现在是专从文章方面用功，两种用功方法完全不同，不可混为一谈也（this was a different matter）。

1705005169

1705005170 ● Chateaubriand（1768—1848）：法国作家，是浪漫运动的中坚人物之一。他的历史著作很能激发怀古的幽情。

1705005171

1705005172 ● paused：稍歇，不再往前继续研究别种文字。at home：有如鱼得水之乐。

1705005173

1705005174 ● Gothic script：哥德式字体。英文法文所用的都是罗马字体，近代德文书亦有用罗马字体印者，但普氏那时的德文书都用哥德式字体。所谓Goth原是日耳曼一种人种之名，其字体锋芒毕露而多曲折，没有罗马字体那样易于辨认。equal：力能对付，读来不吃力。

1705005175

1705005176 For a while, he thought of writing a history of Italian literature. But, no, an Italian subject would not be new: Sismondi had covered the ground too well. He wished for a theme that was new as well as great. Spanish history, if it was not unknown, had not been explored at its most vital point, the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Theirs was the momentous reign during which the scattered kingdoms were brought together, the age of the conquest of Naples, the founding of the Spanish Inquisition, the opening of the Western hemisphere. Thanks to the present government of Spain, the archives had been thrown open to Spanish scholars. They were busily publishing documents, chronicles, memoirs. But the decrepit kingdom, humbled by the loss of its foreign empire, rising from its ancient lethargy, was yet in too chaotic a state to foster any vigour of expression. Spain with all its historiographers, had not produced a master-mind who could assimilate for a greater purpose all these documents that had come to light.

1705005177

1705005178 ● Sismondi（1773—1842）：瑞士历史家。他的关于意大利文学的著作内容很是详尽（covered the ground too well），没有留下多少东西可供后人发挥的了。

1705005179

1705005180 ● theme：题材。他需要的是一个新颖的题材，可以发人所未发，而且是个大题目，可以大加发挥的。

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