古代文论名篇选读【《远大前程》名篇选读】
时间：2019-01-08 03:25:15 来源：柠檬阅读网 本文已影响 人 
学习小提示：本文是原汁原味的文学选段，心理描写准确到位，个中道理发人深省，但生词及长句较多，建议先学习生词，对照中文读透全文，再配合朗读进行跟读模仿。另外要注意的是，由于写作年代的关系，原文中的标点符号用法与现
代文法有一定区别。
It is a most miserable thing to feel ashamed of home. There may be black 1)ingratitude in the thing, and the punishment may be 2)retributive and well deserved; but, that it is a miserable thing, I can testify.
Home had never been a very pleasant place to me, because of my sister’s temper. But, Joe had 3)sanctified it, and I had believed in it. I had believed in the best 4)parlour as a most elegant saloon; I had believed in the front door, as a mysterious 5)portal of the Temple of State whose 6)solemn opening was attended with a sacrifice of 7)roast 8)fowls; I had believed in the kitchen as a 9)chaste though not magnificent apartment; I had believed in the forge as the glowing road to manhood and independence. Within a single year, all this was changed. Now, it was all 10)coarse and common, and I would not have had Miss Havisham and Estella see it on any account.
How much of my 11)ungracious condition of mind may have been my own fault, how much Miss Havisham’s, how much my sister’s, is now of no moment to me or to any one. The change was made in me; the thing was done. Well or ill done, 12)excusably or inexcusably, it was done.
Once, it had seemed to me that when I should at last roll up my shirt-sleeves and go into the forge, Joe’s 13)’prentice, I should be distinguished and happy. Now the reality was in my hold, I only felt that I was dusty with the dust of small-coal, and that I had a weight upon my daily remembrance to which the 14)anvil was a feather. There have been occasions in my later life (I suppose as in most lives) when I have felt for a time as if a thick curtain had fallen on all its interest and romance, to shut me out from anything save dull endurance any more. Never has that curtain dropped so heavy and blank, as when my way in life lay stretched out straight before me through the newly- entered road of apprenticeship to Joe.
I remember that at a later period of my “time,”I used to stand about the churchyard on Sunday evenings when night was falling, comparing my own 15)perspective with the windy marsh view, and making out some likeness between them by thinking how flat and low both were, and how on both there came an unknown way and a dark mist and then the sea. I was quite as 16)dejected on the first workingday of my apprenticeship as in that after-time; but I am glad to know that I never breathed a 17)murmur to Joe while my 18)indentures lasted. It is about the only thing I am glad to know of myself in that connection.
For, though it includes what I proceed to add, all the 19)merit of what I proceed to add was Joe’s. It was not because I was faithful, but because Joe was faithful, that I never ran away and went for a soldier or a sailor. It was not because I had a strong sense of the virtue of 20)industry, but because Joe had a strong sense of the virtue of industry, that I worked with tolerable 21)zeal 22)against the grain. It is not possible to know how far the influence of any amiable honest-hearted duty-doing man flies out into the world; but it is very possible to know how it has touched one’s self in going by, and I know right well, that any good that 23)intermixed itself with my apprenticeship came of plain contented Joe, and not of restlessly aspiring discontented me.
天下最苦恼的事莫过于看不起自己的家。固然这多半是由于忘恩负义黑良心，受到惩罚也是理所当然，罪有应得；不过我可以作证，这毕竟是一件苦恼的事。
由于姐姐脾气太坏，我从来没有在家里过上一天好日子。可是因为有乔，家毕竟还是神圣的，我对家还是怀着一种信仰。我曾把我们家的客厅看作是最精致的沙龙；我曾把我们家的大门当做圣庙的神秘大门，每次开启，都要隆重其事，献上燔祭；我曾把我们家的厨房当做一个富丽 不足而雅洁有余的上等房间；还曾把打铁间当作一条通向成人和独立自主的辉煌道路。可是不到一年，一切都变了样。一切都显得那么粗俗下贱，我决不让郝薇香小姐和艾丝黛拉到这种地方来看我。
我这种见不得人的心理，究竟有几分是我自己的错，有几分是郝薇香小姐的错，有几分是姐姐的错，如今事过境迁，对我，对任何人，都无关紧要了。总之我身上已经起了变化，无法挽回了。好也罢，坏也罢，情有可原也罢，不可原谅也罢，反正是无法挽回了。
以前我还以为有朝一日我卷起袖管走进打铁间做了乔的学徒，我就算出头了，就很幸福了。如今希望成为事实之后，却只觉得遍身都是煤屑煤灰；每天思及往事，觉得心头无限沉重，相比之下，铁砧真是轻如鸿毛。我后来也曾不止一次地尝到过一种滋味（我看大多数人都尝到过这种滋味），觉得一时间仿佛天上落下一块厚厚的帷幕，盖没了人生的一切乐趣和美妙的幻想，使我百无聊赖，只有浑浑噩噩耐着性子度日。可是我觉得哪一次的滋味也赶不上这一回：刚刚做了乔的学徒，踏上了人生的征途，看到了自己一生的道 路，在这个当口压下来的帷幕，那才真叫沉重，真叫索然啊。
我记得后来有一段时期，我常常在星期天黄昏站在教堂公墓里，看夜幕降落，拿我自己的前程跟那一片寒风萧瑟的沼地景色相比较，觉得二者倒颇有些类似之处：一样单调，一样低下，一样看不见出路，一样是浓雾弥漫，大海茫茫。从做学徒的头一天起，我始终就是这样垂头丧气；不过，值得欣慰的是，我自信在整个学徒时期从来没有向乔表示过一言半语的怨尤。有关学徒时期的事，如今只有这一件我还乐于一提。
这件事说来话长，其中的始末原委尚待细述；不过，论起功劳来，那可完全是乔的功劳。当年我之所以没有逃出去当兵或是做水手，并不是因为我忠于所事，而是因为乔忠于所事。我之所以还能沉得住气，干活干得还算卖力，并不是因为我深深懂得勤劳是一种美德，而是因为乔深深懂得勤劳是一种美德。一个和蔼可亲、光明磊落、尽心竭力的人能起多少移风易俗的作用，固然难以判定，可是我们与这种人朝夕相处，自己受到的潜移默化则是可得而知的。我完全明白：我在学徒期间如果还有一点一滴可取之处，那都得归功于朴实知足的乔，决不应归功于我自己，因为我不守本份、心比天高、贪得无厌。
