英語名篇誦讀菁華 1-20 The English Character 英國人的性格

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The English seem as silent as the Japanese, yet vainer than the inhabitants of Siam. Upon my arrival, I attributed that reserve to modesty, which I now find has its origin in pride. Condescend to address them first, and you are sure of their acquaintance ; stoop to flattery, and you conciliate their friendship and esteem. They bear hunger, cold, fatigue, and all the miseries of life without shrinking ; danger only calls forth their fortitude ; they exult in calamity ; but contempt is what they cannot bear. An Englishman fears contempt more than death ; he often flies to death as a refuge from its pressure, and dies when he fancies the world has ceased to esteem him. Pride seems the source not only of their national vices, but of their national virtues also. An Englishman is taught to love his king as his friend, but to acknowledge no other master than the laws which himself has contributed to enact. He despises those nations who, that one may be free, are all content to be slaves ; who first lift a tyrant into terror, and then shrink under his power as if delegated from Heaven. Liberty is echoed in all their assemblies, and thousands might be found ready to offer up their lives for the sound, though perhaps not one of all the number understands its meaning. The lowest mechanic, however, looks upon it as his duty to be a watchful guardian of his country's freedom, and often uses a language that might seem haughty even in the mouth of the great emperor who traces his ancestry to the moon.

Oliver Goldsmith奧利弗·哥德史密斯( 1730 - 1774)，英國著名劇作家。他出生于一個愛爾蘭家庭，畢業(yè)于都柏林圣三一學院(Trinity College)后在愛丁堡就讀醫(yī)科。1756年，哥德史密斯定居倫敦，開始其創(chuàng)作事業(yè)。 　　哥德史密斯的寫作格風格均是以嘻笑怒罵的形式諷刺時弊。他最著名的兩出喜劇是《善性之人》(The Good-Natuser Man, 1768)及 《屈身求愛》(She Stoops to Conquer, 1773)，他的戲劇以莎士比亞鬧劇式的傳統(tǒng)結構，企圖重建他所謂的「暢笑」喜劇("laughing" comedy)，致力于打破當時英國舞臺盛行的感傷主義，以提高公眾的品味。