登陆注册
4613400000015

第15章 THE DAFFODIL(1)

To travel eastwards and breast the sun, to sail towards the watershed and breast the floods, to go north and breast the winter--fresh and warm are the energies of such bracing action; but more animating still is it to live so as to breast the stress of time.

Man and woman may, like the child, or almost like him, fill the time and enlarge the capacity of the day--our poor day that so easily shrinks and dwindles in the careless possession of idle minds. The date, every first of March, for example, may sweep upon a large curve and come home annually after a swinging flight. To the infinite variety of natural days may be entrusted half the work of strengthening the flight against time, but the other half must be the task of the vehement heart. Nature assuredly does not fail.

Days, seasons, and years are as wide asunder as the unforeseen can set them, and a crowd of children is not more various. But the resisting heart seems of late to be somewhat lacking. We are inclined to turn our heel upon the East, upon the watershed, upon the gates of the wind, and to go the smooth road.

We are even precipitate, and whip our way faster on the time-killing course than the natural event would take us. It is not enough that we should run helplessly, we outstrip the breeze and outsail the current with the ease of our untimely luxuries. Our daffodils are no longer to have the praise of their daring, for we no longer relate them to the lagging swallow. By the time the barely budding woods give a poor man's lodging to the cold daffodil--a scanty kind taking the wind with a short stalk and giving it but small petals to buffet--we have already said farewell to the tall and splendid green-house daffodil that never braved the cold. We gave to this our untimely welcome long before the snowdrop came, and the golden name of daffodil has lost its vernal sound. And when we part with the improved creature, lofty and enlarged, we hardly know or care whether the starveling is yet mustering in hollows of woodlands, or whether it is over or to come. We are attending to a yellower tulip, no doubt, when the only daffodil that Shakespeare knew is opening in the chilly wood.

The reproach is a commonplace, but perhaps we have generally accused ourselves of the impatience rather than of the listlessness, and have not noted how we shorten the disarranged seasons and lay up for ourselves memories confused and undefined. Late springs and early, gentle and hard, are compelled to yield the same colours; haste has its way and its revenges. If we are resolved to live quickly, why, nothing is easier. There are no such brief days as those that are indistinct; and the sliding on the way of time is, of all habits, the most tyrannously careless. It is first a laxity, then a habit, and next a folly; and when we keep neither Ash Wednesday nor the birthday of daffodils, and have hardly felt the cold, and do not know where the sun rises, we are already on the way of least resistance, the friction of life is gone; and in our last old age the past will seem to dwindle even like the dwindled present of our decline.

同类推荐
  • 家传女科经验摘奇

    家传女科经验摘奇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 自然集

    自然集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 集大乘相论

    集大乘相论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 大日如来剑印

    大日如来剑印

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 新增才子九云记

    新增才子九云记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 体育新课改教学门诊

    体育新课改教学门诊

    综观几年来的改革理论和实践,我们感到这次的改革除了涉及教学目标、学段划分形式等等多方面的内容之外,关于体育教学的方式方法及培养学生的学习能力上也提出了新的要求。《体育(与健康)课程标准》中就明确指出:“在注意发挥教学活动中教师主导作用的同时,特别强调学生学习主体地位的体现,以充分发挥学生的学习积极性和学习潜能,提高学生的体育学习能力。”其实,联合国教科文组织早在《学会生存》一书中就指出:“未来的文盲不再是不识字的人,而是没有学会怎样学习的人。
  • 十年前向流星许愿的少女

    十年前向流星许愿的少女

    一位80后美丽少女的情路历程,从两小无猜青梅竹马,情定终生到生离死别心灰意冷,由重拾新生再感爱情到情路曲折饱受折磨。曾经向流星许愿的少女能否走出阴霾拥抱光明!
  • boss深度宠:甜妻不预售

    boss深度宠:甜妻不预售

    陪朋友参加酒会,妹妹要加害于她。害她不得已失去了第一次再次碰面时,“怎么是你?”男人嘴角勾起邪魅的弧度,“哦?没想到江小姐你还记得我。看来你对我的第一印象很深。”阴差阳错进军到了娱乐圈,她的总裁大人竟然是他?"让她当他女人?!做梦!"
  • The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither

    The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 生活新纪元

    生活新纪元

    “杀敌的最好方法就是连他身边的人一起砍翻”盖伦的前线战略
  • 天魔舞之血月悲歌

    天魔舞之血月悲歌

    玉龙阁第四代弟子穆长风,丰神如玉,少年老成,极受长辈的器重,是阁主之位的有力竞争者。下山历练之时途经一座荒芜已久的千年古寺,用禁术重新封印了绝世祸胎。这本是为了守护苍生的正义之举,却不料命运从此偏离了正常的轨道。一场蓄谋已久的复仇,都因此而起。
  • 蒲江词

    蒲江词

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 生活家学

    生活家学

    黎明即起,洒扫庭外,要内外清洁。即昏便息,关锁门户,必亲自检点,一粥一饭,当思来之不易;半丝半缕,恒念物力维艰。宜未雨而绸缪,毋临渴而掘井。自奉必须俭约,宴客切勿留连。器具质而洁,瓦缶胜金玉;饮食约而精,园蔬愈珍馐。勿营华屋,勿谋良田。三姑六婆,实淫盗之媒:婢美妾娇,非闺房之福。童仆勿用俊美,妻妾切勿艳妆。宗祖虽远,祭祀不可不诚;子孙虽愚,经书不可不读。居身务期质朴,教子要有义方。勿贪意外之财,勿饮过量之酒。与肩挑贸易,勿占便宜。见穷苦亲邻,须多温恤。刻薄成家,理无久享;伦常乖舛,立见消亡。兄弟叔侄,须多分润寡;长幼内外,宜法肃辞严。
  • 百论疏

    百论疏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 总裁之不育前妻

    总裁之不育前妻

    清晨,一抹明亮的阳光透过落地窗洒下,映着花园里斑驳的树影,一起投射在落地窗隔断的主卧室里,美好的一天开始。暖暖的阳光照下,林楠眼睫轻轻的颤动。她慢慢的睁开了眼晴,起床,转头看着床上还睡得死死的人,她林楠的老公,已经结婚二年的老公方泽,心里暖暖的,不由勾起唇角,温柔的笑。方泽此时帅气的脸在晨起的光线下,衬得格外的柔和,平时里看起来有些微疏离的五官,一丝的冷漠一起消失,让林楠心里……