登陆注册
4811400000606

第606章

PREFACE.

"In Egypt," says Clement of Alexandria,[1] "the sanctuaries of the temples are shaded by curtains of golden tissue. But on going further into the interior in quest of the statue, a priest of grave aspect, advancing to meet you and chanting a hymn in the Egyptian tongue, slightly raises a veil to show you the god. And what do you behold? A crocodile, or some indigenous serpent, or other dangerous animal, the Egyptian god being a beast sprawling on a purple carpet."We need not visit Egypt or go so far back in history to encounter crocodile worship, as this can be readily found in France at the end of the last century. -- Unfortunately, a hundred years is too long an interval, too far away, for an imaginative retrospect of the past.

At the present time, standing where we do and regarding the horizon behind us, we see only forms which the intervening atmosphere embellishes, shimmering contours which each spectator may interpret in his own fashion; no distinct, animated figure, but merely a mass of moving points, forming and dissolving in the midst of picturesque architecture. I was anxious to take a closer view of these vague points, and, accordingly, deported myself back to the last half of the eighteenth century. I have now been living with them for twelve years, and, like Clement of Alexandria, examined, first, the temple, and next the god. A passing glance at these is not sufficient; it was also necessary to understand the theology on which this cult is founded. This one, explained by a very specious theology, like most others, is composed of dogmas called the principles of 1789; they were proclaimed, indeed, at that date, having been previously formulated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau:

* The well known sovereignty of the people.

* The rights of Man.

* The social contract.

Once adopted, their practical results unfolded themselves naturally.

In three years these dogmas installed the crocodile on the purple carpet insides the sanctuary behind the golden veil. He was selected for the place on account of the energy of his jaws and the capacity of his stomach; he became a god through his qualities as a destructive brute and man-eater. -- Comprehending this, the rites which consecrate him and the pomp which surrounds him need not give us any further concern. -- We can observe him, like any ordinary animal, and study his various attitudes, as he lies in wait for his prey, springs upon it, tears it to pieces, swallows it, and digests it. I have studied the details of his structure, the play of his organs, his habits, his mode of living, his instincts, his faculties, and his appetites. -- Specimens abounded. I have handled thousands of them, and have dissected hundreds of every species and variety, always preserving the most valuable and characteristic examples, but for lack of room I have been compelled to let many of them go because my collections was too large. Those that I was able to bring back with me will be found here, and, among others, about twenty individuals of different dimensions, which -- a difficult undertaking -- I have kept alive with great pains. At all events, they are intact and perfect, and particularly the three largest. These seem to me, of their kind, truly remarkable, and those in which the divinity of the day might well incarnate himself. - Authentic and rather well kept cookbooks inform us about the cost of the cult: We can more or less estimate how much the sacred crocodiles consumed in ten years; we know their bills of daily fare, their favorite morsels. Naturally, the god selected the fattest victims, but his voracity was so great that he likewise bolted down, and blindly, the lean ones, and in much greater number than the fattest. Moreover, by virtue of his instincts, and an unfailing effect of the situation, he ate his equals once or twice a year, except when they succeeded in eating him. -- This cult certainly is instructive, at least to historians and men of pure science. If any believers in it still remain I do not aim to convert them; one cannot argue with a devotee on matters of faith. This volume, accordingly, like the others that have gone before it, is written solely for amateurs of moral zoology, for naturalists of the understanding, for seekers of truth, of texts, and of proofs -- for these alone and not for the public, whose mind is made up and which has its own opinion on the Revolution. This opinion began to be formed between 1825 and 1830, after the retirement or withdrawal of eye witnesses. When they disappeared it was easy to convince a credulous public that crocodiles were philanthropists; that many possessed genius; that they scarcely ate others than the guilty, and that if they sometimes ate too many it was unconsciously and in spite of themselves, or through devotion and self-sacrifice for the common good.

H. A. Taine, Menthon Saint Bernard, July 1884.

同类推荐
  • A Man of Business

    A Man of Business

    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。
  • 圣金刚手菩萨一百八名梵赞

    圣金刚手菩萨一百八名梵赞

    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。
  • 文说

    文说

    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。
  • 炮炙全书

    炮炙全书

    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。
  • 效力篇

    效力篇

    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
  • 地理辨惑

    地理辨惑

    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。
  • 什么是道德?——李泽厚伦理学讨论班实录

    什么是道德?——李泽厚伦理学讨论班实录

    2014年5月,李泽厚在华东师范大学开设伦理学讨论班,与全国各地慕名而来的青年学生探讨道德和伦理问题,并与陈嘉映、杨国荣、童世骏和郁振华等教授围绕“何为哲学”这一话题,进行了深度交谈。这一事件成为2014上海学界一大盛事。本书的内容主要是李泽厚上海之行的讲课和对话录。
  • 审罚者

    审罚者

    光明终会消散,黑暗终会破晓。世间万物皆有兴衰,盛大的开场,终会在静默中结束。当秩序破败、混乱降临,一个力挽狂澜的身影,从黑暗中出现……
  • 随身领取升级礼包

    随身领取升级礼包

    穿越后成为大唐天骄王爷的甄开放得到了不知道哪位大神派送的新手大礼包和升级大礼包。自此以后,地球上少了个默默无闻的白领,斗仙大陆上多了一个拼命修炼,嚣张跋扈的天骄王唐瑾!——————————推荐一本书:《我是大反派呦》程小楼穿越了,还套上了一身标准的反派纨绔模板。没有办法,只能将这些废柴流、重生流、穿越流、种田流、奇遇流的主角们……全部干死了!刚穿越就发现对面站着废柴退婚流的主角要跟自己打赌单挑,自己还抢了对方的媳妇?程小楼表示:我能怎么办啊?只能让你绝望了!狗腿子们都给我上!弄死他!……偏黑暗。主角不会苟,遇事正面刚。从来不跟敌人打赌,也从来都不圣母。没有忍气吞声,谁敢惹主角谁死。就这样。
  • 妃常难宠:朕的皇后不好惹

    妃常难宠:朕的皇后不好惹

    当了替死鬼,被坑穿越了,不要紧。重生成了一个没爹疼没娘爱的小宫女,也不要紧。在宫里被瞧不起,在学堂被太子党欺负,更加完全不要紧。只要有一颗彪悍的新新人类的心,终有一日,她会雄起。
  • 易經証釋

    易經証釋

    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。
  • 威武不能娶

    威武不能娶

    新书《姑娘她戏多嘴甜》已开。------------前世,将门出身的顾云锦一心慕书香,哪怕把自己拧成了蕙质兰心、温柔贤淑的款儿,还是别庄病故的命。再睁眼,一切从头来!
  • 掉进魔鬼少爷窝

    掉进魔鬼少爷窝

    掉进魔鬼少爷窝》简介【传言简介】传言,腾云第一世家风家,风家七个少爷个个人中龙凤,貌若天人。传言,风家没有女子进入,而唯一可以入住风家的女人只能是妻子。传言,风家七个少爷豢养男宠,令人吃惊的是,七个少爷的男宠都是同一人。传言,风家男宠雪公子俊美无双,七个少爷每天轮流侍寝。传言,风家圈养的男宠居然是个女人。【正版简介】风家,腾云王朝第一世家,百年占据五大世家之首。风家七少个个都是风云人物,京城少女的怀春对象。风家的少爷俊美如此,人中龙凤。风家家训除了妻子外,风家不容许任何女子进入宗族。慕容雪化身男装,独自闯入阴谋重重的风家宗族。与七个魔鬼少爷斗智斗勇。殊不知她是江湖天山老人与毒株夫人的爱徒,她更是是江湖新秀‘雪公子’。大少爷:(由亲亲‘不是你的唯一’领养)风轻云,深沉稳重,敏感睿智,少年丞相,只手遮天。二少爷:(由亲亲‘颜若纯’领养)风倾情,美若妖精,热情似火,风家败家子一枚。三少爷:(由主子‘妆掩饰苍白’调教)风轻狂,年少轻狂,冷峻如斯,医谷谷主。四少爷:(由‘羽落吾家’领养)风英姿,男生女相,性格孤僻,身份神秘。五少爷:风飒爽,(由亲亲室友‘惠子’领养)与四少为双胞,腾云虎赫大将军,刚毅俊美。六少爷:(由亲亲‘981329934’领养)风懒兮,慵懒知己,貌若天人。七少爷:(有亲亲‘269112267’领养)风倾城,淡雅如仙,倾国倾城,绝代风华。……&………推荐萧的《大皇嫂》:【片段】“长兄为父,长嫂为母。轩儿可知道?”十二三岁的少女淡淡的看着青石上的稚童问道。“轩儿知道!”稚童跪下,清脆的声响让人心颤。“跪在大皇子府外直到日落,别让我觉得碍眼!”她云淡风轻的说完,转身离去。“大皇妃,小皇子他才五岁!”身后老奴看着当空的烈阳苦苦哀求。【片段】“皇嫂,你看这江山是何颜色?”俊美无双的男人看着眼前的一片翠绿山河,对着身旁容颜不变的女人问道。“血色!”她的语气苍凉,仿佛又回到金戈铁马、运筹帷幄的日子。“皇嫂,若是轩儿即位之时,你不出现!那么轩儿会让这血色江山染红你这身孝衣!”他笑的很温柔,可是话语中却又霸气凌然。女子望着眼前成熟的男人,当年的稚童已不复存在。【女主】顾云清:护国将军之女,谣传目不识丁。一道圣旨嫁于皇室大皇子,一月后狼烟四起。
  • 血路

    血路

    小说以清末革命先驱熊克武为主人公,通过描写百年前以他为代表的仁人志士在四川泸州、成都、叙府、广安、嘉定、屏山等地发动的数次革命武装起义,真实再现了跌宕起伏、波澜壮阔的辛亥风云。小说成功刻画了孙中山、熊克武、但懋辛、谢奉琦、佘英、喻培伦等英雄人物,讴歌了他们为推翻封建帝制,前仆后继、屡败屡战、不畏牺牲、英勇拼搏的奋斗历程。这是一部以清末革命先驱熊克武为主人公,全景式展现波澜壮阔的辛亥革命为主线的历史小说,讴歌了革命志士们为推翻清王朝的封建专制统治,建立民主国家,不畏牺牲、英勇拼搏的奋斗历程。作者文笔清晰流畅,描写细腻生动,是一部比较优秀的作品。
  • 尊瓠室诗话

    尊瓠室诗话

    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。