登陆注册
5382700000044

第44章

Well, sir, he said, I don't know who the devil you may be, but my conscience is certainly as good as yours.""That," returned Mr: Lavender with a sigh, is a great relief, for whether you rule the country or not, you are undoubtedly the source from which I, together with the majority of my countrymen, derive our inspirations.

You are the fountainhead at which we draw and drink.And to know that your waters are pure, unstained by taint of personal prejudice and the love of power, will fortify us considerably.Am I to assume, then, that above all passion and pettiness, you are an impersonal force whose innumerable daily editions reflect nothing but abstract truth, and are in no way the servants of a preconceived and personal view of the situation?""You want to know too much, don't you think?" said the Personage with a smile.

"How can that be, sir?" asked Mr.Lavender: If you are indeed the invisible king swaying the currents of national life, and turning its tides at will, it is essential that we should believe in you; and before we can believe in you must we not know all about you?""By Jove, sir," replied the Personage, "that strikes me as being contrary to all the rules of religion.I thought faith was the ticket."By this answer Mr.Lavender was so impressed that he sat for a moment in silence, with his eyebrow working up and down.

"Sir," he said at last, "you have given me a new thought.If you are right, to disbelieve in you and the acts which you perform, or rather the editions which you issue, is blasphemy.""I should think so," said the Personage, emitting a long whiff of smoke.

Hadn't that ever occurred to you before?""No," replied Mr.Lavender, naively, "for I have never yet disbelieved anything in those journals."The Personage coughed heartily.

"I have always regarded them," went on Mr.Lavender, "as I myself should wish to be regarded, 'without fear and without reproach.' For that is, as I understand it, the principle on which a gentleman must live, ever believing of others what he would wish believed of himself.With the exception of Germans," he added hastily.

"Naturally," returned the Personage."And I'll defy you to find anything in them which disagrees with that formula.Everything they print refers to Germans if not directly then obliquely.Germans are the 'idee fixe', and without an 'idee fixe', as you know, there's no such thing as religion.Do you get me?""Yes, indeed," cried Mr.Lavender, enthused, for the whole matter now seemed to him to fall into coherence, and, what was more, to coincide with his preconceptions, so that he had no longer any doubts."You, sir--the Unseen Power--are but the crystallized embodiment of the national sentiment in time of war; in serving you, and fulfilling the ideas which you concrete in your journals, we public men are servants of the general animus, which in its turn serves the blind and burning instinct of justice.This is eminently satisfactory to me, who would wish no better fate than to be a humble lackey in that house." He had no sooner, however, spoken those words than Joe Petty's remarks about Public Opinion came back to him, and he added: "But are you really the general animus, or are you only the animus of Mayors, that is the question?"The personage seemed to follow this thought with difficulty."What's that?" he said.

Mr.Lavender ran his hands through his hair.

"And turns," he said, "on what is the unit of national feeling and intelligence? Is it or is it not a Mayor?"The Personage smiled."Well, what do you think?" he said."Haven't you ever heard them after dinner? There's no question about it.Make your mind easy if that's your only trouble."Mr.Lavender, greatly cheered by the genial certainty in this answer, said: "I thank you, sir.I shall go back and refute that common scoffer, that caster of doubts.I have seen the Truth face, to face, and am greatly encouraged to further public effort.With many apologies I can now get out," he added, as the train stopped at South Croydon."Blink!"And, followed by his dog, he stepped from the train.

The Personage, who was indeed no other than the private secretary of the private secretary of It whom Mr.Lavender had designated as the Truth watched him from the window.

"Well, that WAS a treat, dear papa!" he murmured to himself, emitting a sigh of smoke after his retreating interlocutor.

同类推荐
  • 临症验舌法

    临症验舌法

    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。
  • 灵宝大炼内旨行持机要

    灵宝大炼内旨行持机要

    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。
  • 佛本行经

    佛本行经

    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。
  • 独醒杂志

    独醒杂志

    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。
  • The Collection of Antiquities

    The Collection of Antiquities

    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
  • 查拉图斯特拉如是说(孙更俊译丛)

    查拉图斯特拉如是说(孙更俊译丛)

    《查拉图斯特拉如是说》是德国哲学家、思想家尼采的一部里程碑式的作品,几乎包括了尼采的全部思想;文笔绮丽,哲理深沉。这本以散文诗体写就的杰作,以振聋发聩的奇异灼见和横空出世的警世招语宣讲 "超人哲学"和"权力意志",用如诗如歌的语言,道出了作者对人生、痛苦、欢乐、期许的深邃体悟。
  • 细香

    细香

    吴文君,女,浙江海宁人,浙江省作家协会会员,上海首届作家研究生班学员,鲁迅文学院第十七届中青年作家高研班学员,作品发表在《北京文学》、《大家》、《收获》、《上海文学》、《中国作家》、《钟山》、《山花》等多家文学期刊。
  • 人生不可不知道的老狐狸说话法则

    人生不可不知道的老狐狸说话法则

    老狐狸认为,一个人要想把话说好,就必须遵循一些法则。在这些法则的指导下,自然能够在人群中游刃有余。具体来说这些法则主要涵盖了六个方面:谨慎、时机、底气、氛围、换位和自制等。这六个方面也是说话艺术的六个结点。老狐狸不是在教你诈,而是如何更好地适应社会,适应生存,不断地提升自己的说话能力和水准,同时寻找到发挥的舞台。希望本书对所有致力于提高说话技巧的读者有所帮助。
  • 草镯子(新版)

    草镯子(新版)

    青阳县的石家大小姐梅香是个天不怕地不怕的主儿,仗着天足的缘故,要么爬上墙头给黄黄送猫食,要么蹲在地上看一天的虫子。有一天,梅香发现隔壁的裁缝家里多了个俊俏的小童养媳秀秀,大小姐的生活会因为这个小伙伴而增添快乐吗?
  • star闪耀的我们

    star闪耀的我们

    昔日的我们已经长大成人,参加一次又一次的戏份只是为了自己的梦想去奋斗,虽然磕磕绊绊,但是,依然如此闪亮。一次次我们跌倒,却又重新在我们的人生路上再次爬起来,因为我们有梦想,我们有希望。
  • 天地神皇

    天地神皇

    新书《我家宗主是赘婿》已经上传,请多多支持!少年秦天无法修炼,被人欺负,意外成兵神传人,寻神兵踏九方,进圣山战魔族,降蛟龙横行妖族,得传承,斩神魔,傲天地!
  • 大明好国舅

    大明好国舅

    给皇帝当小舅子是个很有前途的职业,给凶名赫赫的朱重八当小舅子似乎就没那么开心了,想想洪武一朝的血腥与漫长主角表示压力很大.(读者群608717565)
  • 九尊天下

    九尊天下

    修士一途,强者为尊,成王败寇,而我,要做那世人敬仰、天下独尊的强者!
  • 高超推理的故事

    高超推理的故事

    探案故事是一种通俗文学体裁,主要描写刑事案件的调查和破案过程。我们编辑的这套《世界经典探案故事全集》包括《侦探出动的故事》、《高超推理的故事》、《蛛丝马迹的故事》、《扑朔迷离的故事》、《缉捕追踪的故事》、《原形毕露的故事》、《斗智斗勇的故事》、《智破奇案的故事》、《真相大白的故事》和《插翅难逃的故事》等19册,这些作品汇集了古今中外著名的疑案、迷案、奇案、悬案、冤案等近百篇,其故事情节惊险曲折,探案英雄大智大勇,阅读这些侦破故事,不仅可以启迪智慧、增强思思维、了解社会、增长知识,还可以学到自我保卫、推理破案的常识,防范日常生活的不测。
  • 泌尿系统疾病诊治绝招

    泌尿系统疾病诊治绝招

    本书旨在总结临证有效方剂,而不以学术探讨为目的,因此,药物组成、用量或比例均严格忠实于原方创制者,不做任何调整或补充。凡药涉巨毒,方涉峻烈者,或有其他注意事项者,均在【说明】项下对其详加说明。这些方剂屡试屡效,有较高的实用价值。本书集众家之所长,聚新方于一鉴,可供医务工作者、科研工作者、医学院校师生研究、学习、使用。