【英文原著类】Hunted Down(被猎).pdf

Hunted Down
Hunted Down
by Charles Dickens
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Hunted Down
I.
Most of us see some romances in life. In my capacity as Chief
Manager of a Life Assurance Office, I think I have within the last thirty
years seen more romances than the generality of men, however
unpromising the opportunity may, at first sight, seem.
As I have retired, and live at my ease, I possess the means that I used
to want, of considering what I have seen, at leisure. My experiences
have a more remarkable aspect, so reviewed, than they had when they
were in progress. I e home from the Play now, and can recall
the scenes of the Drama upon which the curtain has fallen, free from the
glare, bewilderment, and bustle of the Theatre.
Let me recall one of these Romances of the real world.
There is nothing truer than physiognomy, taken in connection with
manner. The art of reading that book of which Eternal Wisdom obliges
every human creature to present his or her own page with the individual
character written on it, is a difficult one, perhaps, and is little studied. It
may require some natural aptitude, and it must require (for everything
does) some patience and some pains. That these are not usually given to
it, - that numbers of people accept a few monplace expressions
of the face as the whole list of characteristics, and neither seek nor know
the refinements that are truest, - that You, for instance, give a great deal of
time and attention to the reading of music, Greek, Latin, French, Italian,
Hebrew, if you please, and do not qualify yourself to read the face of the
master or mistress looking over your shoulder teaching it to you, - I
assume to be five hundred times more probable than improbable.
Perhaps a little self-sufficiency may be at the bottom of this; facial
expression requires no study from you, you think; es by nature to
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Hunted Down
you to know enough about it, and you are not to be taken in.
I confess, for my part, that I HAVE been taken in, ove