The French and the English 法国人和英国人

G. K. 切斯特顿(G. K. Chesterton)

The thing can only be made clear to Englishmen by turning it round. Suppose a Frenchman came out of democratic France to live in England, where the shadow of the great houses still falls everywhere, and where even freedom was, in its origin, aristocratic . If the Frenchman saw our aristocracy and liked it, if he saw our snobbishness and liked it, if he set himself to imitate it, we all know what we should feel. We all know that we should feel that that particular Frenchman was a repulsive little gnat. He would be imitating English aristocracy; he would be imitating the English vice. But he would not even understand the vice he plagiarised : especially he would not understand that the vice is partly a virtue. He would not understand those elements in the English which balance snobbishness and make it human: the great kindness of the English, their hospitality, their unconscious poetry, their sentimental conservatism, which really admires the gentry. The French Royalist sees that the English like their King. But he does not grasp that while it is base to worship a King, it is almost noble to worship a powerless King. The impotence of the Hanoverian Sovereigns has raised the English loyal subject almost to the chivalry and dignity of a Jacobite . The Frenchman sees that the English servant is respectful: he does not realise that he is also disrespectful; that there is an English legend of the humorous and faithful servant, who is as much a personality as his master. He sees that the English do admire a nobleman; he does not allow for the fact that they admire a nobleman; he does not allow for the fact that they admire a nobleman most when he does not behave like one. They like a noble to be unconscious and amiable: the slave may be humble, but the master must not be proud. The master is Life, as they would like to enjoy it; and among the joys they desire in him there is none which they desire more sincerely than that of generosity, of throwing money about among mankind, or, to use the noble medieval word, largesse — the joy of largeness . That is why a cabman tells you you are no gentleman if you give him his correct fare. Not only his pocket, but his soul is hurt. You have wounded his ideal. You have defaced his vision of the perfect aristocrat. All this is really very subtle and elusive; it is very difficult to separate what is mere slavishness from what is a sort of vicarious nobility in the English love of a lord. And no Frenchman could easily grasp it at all. He would think it was mere slavishness; and if he liked it, he would be a slave. So every Englishman must (at first) feel French candour to be mere brutality. And if he likes it, he is a brute. These national merits must not be understood so easily. It requires long years of plenitude and quiet, the slow growth of great parks, the seasoning of oaken beams, the dark enrichment of red wine in cellars and in inns, all the leisure and the life of England through many centuries, to produce at last the generous and genial fruit of English snobbishness. And it requires battery and barricade, songs in the streets, and ragged men dead for an idea, to produce and justify the terrible flower of French indecency.

- aristocratic [ˌærɪstəˈkrætɪk] a. 贵族的

- plagiarise [ˈpleɪdʒəraɪz] v. 抄袭

Hanoverian Sovereigns 汉诺威王朝君主们

- chivalry [ˈtʃɪvəlrɪ] n. 骑士精神

Jacobite(英国1688年革命后)英王詹姆斯二世的追随者，拥护詹姆斯二世及其后裔复辟王政的人

- largeness [ˈlɑːdʒnɪs] n. 宽容，慷慨

- deface [dɪˈfeɪs] v. 损伤……外观，毁损

- vicarious [vɪˈkeərɪəs] a. 间接感受到的

- candor [ˈkændə] n. 真诚；诚恳；坦率

- plenitude [ˈplenɪtjuːd] n. 充足，丰富

要使英国人弄明白英国本身的文化特色，只有靠兜个圈子来解说。假设有个法国人从民主政体法兰西来英国定居，在这里到处都是高楼大厦的投影，在这里甚至自由，也是原汁原味，带着贵族的气息。如果这个法国人看到我们的贵族气派，而喜欢上了它，如果他看到了我们的势利眼处世，也喜欢上了它，如果他又开始努力去仿效它，我们都知道这会给我们什么感受了。大家明白我们都会觉得这么个法国人就是一只讨厌的小飞虫。他将会模仿英国人的贵族气派，会模仿英国人的缺点。然而他甚至都不理解他所剽窃的缺点，尤其不会理解这种缺点跟美德难解难分，混为一体。他不会理解英国人身上有那么些绅士素质，起着抵消他们势利眼处世的态度，使他们很有人情味：乐善好施，殷勤待客，无意中流露出的诗意，那种真正景仰贵族阶层的多愁善感的保守主义。法国的保皇党人看到英国人爱戴他们的国王，但他不确切了解虽然尊崇国王是个起码的事，去尊崇一个无权的国王才接近于高尚。汉诺威王朝的统治者们的无能，已经把忠诚的英国国民培养得接近于有骑士精神和詹姆士二世党人的尊严。法国人看到英国仆人是恭敬的：他没有意识到他也是不恭敬的；他不知道英国还有一个幽默而忠诚的仆人的传说，他有着和他主人一样的个性。他看到英国人确实仰慕贵族；他没有考虑到英国人仰慕贵族的实际情况；他没有考虑到英国人是在贵族表现得不像贵族的时候，最仰慕这个贵族这样一个事实。他们喜欢的是没有主子意识，又和蔼可亲的贵族：奴隶是要低声下气的，但主人决不可高傲。主人就是自己的生活，因为他们很想享受生活；从主人那里渴求得到的欢乐之中，最真诚渴求的无非是慷慨大方，到处给人类施舍钱财，或者用一个中世纪的高雅的词汇“largesse”——慷慨之乐。这就是为什么马车车夫在你如数付清车资时说你不是什么绅士的原因了。伤害的不仅仅是他的口袋，还有他的心灵。你挫伤了他的理想。你损毁了他心目中完美的贵族形象。这一切确实很微妙而且令人难以捉摸；我们很难区分纯粹的奴性和英国式的爱主子的过程中间接感受到的那一种高贵。因而，根本没有一个法国人能够轻而易举透彻了解这一点。他会认为这纯粹是奴性；而且如果他喜欢，就要当一个奴隶。为此，每个英国人肯定（最初）会觉得法国人的直率纯粹是野蛮。如果他喜欢，就成了粗野的人。这些民族的美德不可能轻易被人家理解。要最终培育出英国人的势利眼处世带来的慷慨、给人快慰的果实，就必须要有长年累月的富足和安宁环境，慢慢增加并扩大的大公园，橡木栋梁逐渐风干成材，酒窖和酒馆里的红葡萄酒色泽加深，更加香醇，以及许多世纪以来英国人所有的消闲和生活。而另一方面，需要排炮和街垒，街头的歌声，为某种思想阵亡的衣衫褴褛的兵士，才能产生并且维护那法国不体面的可怕的花朵。

G. K. 切斯特顿是一位多产的作家，他的著作包括小说、诗歌、随笔、报纸文章等，同时也是一位基督教护教学家。他的一生著书八十余部，出版有自己的刊物。14

切斯特顿还是一位哲学家、平信徒神学家和文学艺术评论家。他的作品在文学界有着深远的影响。15

他的一些作品，如《萧伯纳传》和《布朗神父探案全集》，在文学上具有重要地位。《萧伯纳传》是切斯特顿为著名剧作家萧伯纳所写的思想传记经典，而《布朗神父探案全集》则是他创作的侦探小说，其中的布朗神父是现代犯罪文学中真正不朽的人物之一。

他最有影响的作品是文艺评论，对许多知名作家(如罗伯特·布朗宁、萧伯纳、狄更斯、乔叟等)作了热情洋溢的评述，著有二十多部小说和两本诗集。