評論
打印
Our table manners, and company manners, and street manners change from time to time, but the changes are not reasoned out; we merely notice and conform. We are creatures of outside influences; as a rule we do not think, we only imitate. We cannot invent standards that will stick; what we mistake for standards are only fashions, and perishable. We may continue to admire them, but we drop the use of them. We notice this in literature. Shakespeare is a standard, and fifty years ago we used to write tragedies which we couldn’t tell from—from somebody else's; but we don't do it any more, now. Our prose standard,three quarters of a century ago, was ornate and diffuse; some authority or other changed it in the direction of compactness and simplicity, and conformity followed, without argument. The historical novel starts up suddenly, and sweeps the land. Everybody writes one, and the nation is glad. We had historical novels before; but nobody read them, and the rest of us conformed—without reasoning it out. We are conforming in the other way, now, because it is another case of everybody.
我們的餐桌禮儀、交際方式和街頭風(fēng)俗都在不時發(fā)生改變，但是，這些變化沒有被思考過；我們只不過是注意和順從罷了。我們是一種受外界影響的生物，通常我們不思考，僅僅是在模仿。我們無法發(fā)明出持久的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)；我們誤認(rèn)為標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的只不過是時尚潮流而已，而那是轉(zhuǎn)瞬即逝的。我們可能會繼續(xù)贊美它們，但是已不再使用它們。我們在文學(xué)方面注意到了這一點(diǎn)。莎士比亞是一個標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，五十年前，我們常常寫悲劇，而這些悲劇無法——無法與別人的作品相區(qū)別；但是如今我們不再那樣做了。七十五年前，我們散文的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)是辭藻華麗、行文冗贅；某些權(quán)威人物改變了這種標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，使之走向緊湊簡潔的風(fēng)格，然后人們毫無異議，紛紛效仿這種做法。歷史小說突然流行起來，一時風(fēng)靡全國。每人都寫一部，全國上下皆大歡喜。我們以前有過歷史小說，但沒有人去讀，我們其余的人也都照做不誤一沒有多加思考。我們現(xiàn)在以另外一種方式來遵循著，就因?yàn)樗怯忠患蠹叶甲龅氖隆?/p>
