2021/4/11

WM的阅读记录。

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（英）洛根·皮尔索尔·史密斯 著

MY SPEECH:

"Ladies and Gentlemen," I began——

The Vicar was in the chair; Mrs. La Mountain and her daughters safacing us; and in the litle shoolroom, with its maps and large Scripture prints, its blackboard with the day's sums still visible on it, wereassembledthelabourersof the village, the old family coachman andhis wife, the one-eyed postman, and the gardeners and boys from the Hall, Havingculledfrom the newspapers a few phrases,I had composed a speech which I delivered with a spirit and eloquence surprising even to myself.The Vicar cried" Hear, Hear!" the Vicar's wife pounded herumbrella with such emphasis, and the villagers cheered so heartily, thatmy heart was warmed. I began to feel the meaning of my own words; Ibeamed on theaudience, felt that they were all my brothers, all wished  well to the Republic; and it seemed to me anoccasion todivulgemy real ideas and hopes for the Commonwealth.

Brushingtherefore to one side, and indeed quite forgetting my safeprinciples, I began to refashion and new-model the State. Most existinginstitutions were soon abolished; and then, on their ruins, I proceededto build up the bright walls and palaces of the City within me the City I had read of in Plato. Withenthusiasm,and,Iflattermyself, with eloquence, I described it all- the Warriors, that race of golden youthbred from the State-orderedembraces of the brave and fair; those philosophic Guardians, who, being ever accustomed to the highest andmost extensive views, andthence, contracting anhabitualgreatness,possessed the truestfortitude, looking down indeed with a kind of disregard on human life and death. And then, declaring that the pattern of this City was laid up in Heaven, I sat down,amidthe cheers of theuncomprehendinglittle audience.

And afterward, in my rides about the country, when I saw on walls andthedoors of barns, among advertisements of sales, or regulaions about birds's eggs or the movements ofswine, little weather-beaten, old looking notices on which it was stated that I would address the meeting,I remembered how the walls and towers of the City I built up in that little schoolroom hadshone with no heavenly light in the eyes of the Vicar's party.

摘录词汇：

assemble: 集合，v;

labourer：劳动者；

cull：挑选；

audience：观众；

beam：光线，笑；

beam at someone;

beam on/down something:  照耀；

accasion:  场合，n; 使发生，v;

divulge:  公布；

brush:  刷子；

brush aside：不理会；

brush up:  重温；

enthusiasm：热情；

flatter：奉承；

ruin：废墟；

embrace：拥抱；

thence：从那里；

habitual：习惯性的；

fortitude：坚韧不拔；

amid：在XX之中；

uncompressed：未被领会的；

swine：讨厌的人；猪；

beater：持票人；

记录日期｜2021/4/11