The Cardinal Virtue of Prose
或者翻译成：散文最重要的美德
cardinal。非常正式的词。最重要的；最主要的；基本的。a cardinal rule; a cardinal quality
virtue。
①做不可数名词时，不加冠词，笼统地表示“崇高的道德”。a man of virtue，一个有道德的人。
②做可数名词时，是指具体的某一种德行。Kindness is a virtue. 与人为善是一种德行。
③转用到非人的事物上，virtue可以代表该事物笼统的“有好处”、“功效（不可数）”或者一个具体的优点（可数）。
“有好处” There is no virtue in what he says.
“功效” The virtue of this drug is temporary.
“优点” The main virtue of steel is its strength.
prose。prose统称“散文”，poetry和verse统称“诗”。一篇散文，a piece of pross；多篇散文，pieces of prose；散文作者，prose writer。
选文是一篇关于散文的短论，全文只有一段，论述散文的品质——合理.
全文共七句话，分别从散文本身、作者、读者三个角度谈散文的品质：
前三句讲散文本身，中间三句讲作者，最后一句讲读者。
1
首先分析第一句话。
Prose of its very nature is longer than verse, and the virtues peculiar to it manifest themselves gradually.
散文，就其本质而言，比韵文篇幅长，而且，其特有的品质是逐渐展现出来的。
这是一个并列句，由and连接。
第一句：
Prose of its very nature is longer than verse.
散文比诗歌篇幅长。
of its very nature，介宾结构做后置定语，修饰prose，最本质的散文。
verse。
①做不可数名词时，是诗体、韵文的意思。
I have been moved to write a few lines of verse.
我因感动而写下了几句诗。
②做可数名词时，是诗节的意思。
This verse describes three signs of spring.
这节诗描绘了春天来临的三个征兆。
第二句：
The virtues peculiar to it manifest themselves gradually.
其品质是逐渐展现的。
peculiar。特有的；独特的。
If somthing is peculiar to a particular thing,person,or situation,it belongs or relates only to that thing,person,or situations.
The problem is peculiar to America.
问题仅限于美国。
manifest。v，逐渐显露出来变得可见。
He manifested a pleasing personality on stage.
在台上他表现出惹人喜爱的个性。
该句本来是：
The virtue which is peculiar to prose manifest themselves gradually.
2
接下来是第二句的分析。
If the cardinal virtue of poetry is love, the cardinal virtue of prose is justice; and, whereas love makes you act and speak on the spur of the moment, justice needs inquiry, patience, and a control even of the noblest passions.
如果说诗最重要的品质是爱，散文最重要的品质就是合理；而且，尽管“爱”使你一时冲动而行动、而抒发，“合理”则需要调查，需要耐心，需要控制即使是最崇高的激情.
以分号为界限，这是两句话。
whereas。连词，表示对比，可以译为但是然而，与while可以呼唤。
He must be about sixty, whereas his wife looks about thirty.
他肯定有60岁上下了，可他妻子看起来只有30多岁。
spur。spur原来是马刺的意思，骑手用马刺敲打马腹，催促马跑得快一些。因此动词spur有促进；加速；推动的意思。
Mr Gates has helped to spur progress.
盖茨先生已经为推动研究进步做出贡献。
on the spur of moment。一时冲动，心血来潮。
It was a spur of moment thing.
我们一时冲动。
inquiry。调查；询问。
There's already talk of a parliamentary inquiry.
已经有人在国会质询了。
3
第三句话。
By justice here I do not mean justice only to particular people or ideas, but a habit of justice in all the processes of thought, a style tranquillized and a form moulded by that habit.
关于合理，我不是指只针对具体人或具体思想的合理，而是指在思想的全过程中的一种合理的习惯，一种由此习惯所形成的沉稳的文风和由此习惯所造就的形式。
tranquillize。动词，（用镇定剂）使安定，使镇静，使昏睡
to tranquillize a person or an animal means to make them become calm, sleepy, or unconscious by means of a drug.
This powerful drug is used to tranquillize patients undergoing surgery.
这种强效剂被用来麻醉手术病人。
tranquillizer。镇定剂。
She had become addicted to tranquillizers.
她吃镇定剂已经上瘾了。
While she wants to report this incident to the police, her face is covering by a tranquillizer handkerchief.
当她准备向公安报告此事，一块染有迷晕药的手帕已经掩在她的脸上。
mould。名词是模具、模子的意思；因此动词是塑造的意思，进一步引申出影响、改变的意思。
“模具” They poured the hot metal into the mould.
“塑造” My brother and I moulded a chair out of mud.
“影响” She was only 17 at the time and the experience moulded her personality.那时她只有17岁，那次经历影响了她的性格。
4
后面三句，开始讲作者本身。
The master of prose is not cold, but he will not let any word or image inflame him with a heat irrelevant to his purpose.
散文大师并不冷漠，但他也不允许那些满汉激情，但又与他的初衷毫不相干的词语或形象来激发他的情感。
the master of pross，巧妙地转换了话题，非常简练。
inflame.经常在新闻中出现。v，使更加激动；引起……的热情。
If something inflames a situation or inflames people's feeling, it makes people feel even more strongly about somthing.
The General holds the rebels responsible for inlaming the situation.
将军认为叛乱者是造成形势激化的原因。
The shooting has only inflamed passions further.
枪击事件无疑是火上浇油。
irrelevant.
“不相关的” irrelevant details，不相关的细节。
“无关紧要的” The choice of subject matter is irrelevant.体裁的选择无关紧要。
5
Unhasting, unresting, he pursues it, subduing all the riches of his mind to it, rejecting all beauties that are not germane to it; making his own beauty out of the very accomplishment of it, out of the whole work and its proportions, so that you must read to the end before you know that it is beautiful.
他不慌不忙、永不停止地追求着，克制着脑子里丰富的思想活动，摒弃所有与之无关的美，从完成的作品中，从作品的整体和各部分之间和谐的关系里，去创造自己的美。因此你必须把作品读完，才能知道它是美的。
haste.中性词，褒义时指行动迅速，事情做的又快又好；贬义时，指做事急躁，行为鲁莽。inhaste, in great haste, make haste都没有冠词a.
I'm in haste to get this letter to you.
I'm making haste to get this letter to you.
unhasting.adj,不慌不忙的
unresting.adj，不休息的
subdue.
动词，征服、制服、控制 If soldiers or the police subdue a group of people, they defeat them or bring them under control by using force.
It took three men to subdue him.
作借喻，克制情感，压制 To subdue feelings means to make them less strong.
the riches of his mind.脑中丰富的奇思妙想。
germane.有密切联系的；有重要关联的 sth is germane to sth,sb
That is not germane to our theme.
这和我们的主题无关。
accomplishment.
“成就” For an novelist, that's quite an accomplishment.对于一位小说家来说，那是相当了不起的成就。
“实现” His function is vital to the accomplishment of the agency's mission.要完成该机构的使命，他的作用至关重要。
proportion.a proportion of sth,sb=a part of =some
A large proportion of the dolphins in that area will eventually die.
6
But he has his reward, for he is trusted and convinces, as those who are at the mercy of their own eloqunence do not; and he gives a pleasure all the greater for being hardly noticed.
可是，他享有自己的报偿，因为他取得人们的信任，他令人信服，正像那些单靠显露雄辩的人们得不到这一报偿，道理是一样的。而且，他不露声色，这反而能给人更大的愉悦。
convince. 没看懂这个词的用法。
eloquence.雄辩，流利的口才。
Now it's time to admire the performers eloquence.
这个时候就得夸赞下表演者的口才了。
7
In the best prose, whether narrative or argument, we are so led on as we read, that we do not stop to applaud the writer, nor do we stop to question him.
我们在阅读最好的散文时，无论是叙事的还是说理的，是在情不自禁地一直读下去，而不会停下来向作者欢呼，也不会停下来向作者发问。
narrative.
①作可数名词时，是故事；叙事的意思 a fast-moving narrative 快节奏的叙事
②作不可数名词时，通常指记叙的写作手法 Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。
argument.说理，论证
