英语专业晨读美文-文化篇 7 On Going a Journey

[00:01.61]On Going a Journey

[00:06.09]One of the pleasantest things in the world is going a journey:

[00:11.67] but I like to go by myself. I can enjoy society in a room;

[00:16.81] but out of doors, nature is company enough for me.

[00:20.32]I am then never less alone than when alone.

[00:23.81]"The fields his study, nature was his book."

[00:27.76]I cannot see the wit of walking and talking at the same time.

[00:31.81]When I am in the country I wish to vegetate 2 like the country.

[00:36.07]I am not for criticizing hedges and black cattle.

[00:39.35]I go out for town in order to forget the town and all that is in it.

[00:43.84]There are those who for this purpose go to watering places,

[00:46.90]and carry the metropolis 3 with them.

[00:48.98]I like more space and fewer obstacles.

[00:52.26]I like solitude 4, when I give myself up to it, for the sake of solitude;

[00:57.19]nor do I ask for "a friend in my retreat,

[01:00.58] whom I may whisper solitude is sweet."

[01:02.98]The soul of journey is liberty, perfect liberty,

[01:07.03]to think, feel, do, just as one pleases.

[01:11.18]We go a journey chiefly to be free of all obstacles and all inconveniences;

[01:17.31] to leave ourselves behind, much more to get rid of others.

[01:21.36]It is because I want a little breathing space

[01:23.87] to ponder on indifferent matters,

[01:25.62]where contemplation "May plume 5 her feathers and let grow her wings,

[01:30.87]that in the various bustle 6 of resort were all too ruffled 7,

[01:34.58]and sometimes impaired 8."

[01:36.55]I absent myself from the town for a while,

[01:39.07]without feeling at a loss the moment I am left by myself.

[01:42.68]Instead of a friend in a post chaise or in a carriage,

[01:45.93]to exchange good things with, and vary the same stale topics over again,

[01:50.85] for once let me have a time free from manners.

[01:54.78]Give me the clear blue sky over my head,

[01:58.07]and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding 9 road before me,

[02:02.44]and the three hours' march to dinner — and then to thinking!

[02:05.83]It is hard if I cannot start some game on these lone 1 heaths.

[02:10.10]I laugh, I run, I leap, I sing for joy!

[02:14.69]From the point of yonder rolling cloud I plunge 10 into my past being,

[02:19.72]and revel 11 there as the sun-burnt Indian plunges 12 headlong into the wave

[02:24.21] that wafts 13 him to his native shore.

[02:26.72] Then long-forgotten things like "sunken wrack 14 and sumless treasuries 15",

[02:31.53]burst upon my eager sight, and I begin to feel, think, and be myself again.

[02:37.33] Instead of an awkward silence,

[02:39.52]broken by attempts at wit or dull commonplaces,

[02:42.85] mine is that undisturbed silence of the heart

[02:46.14]which alone is perfect eloquence 16.