-
Главная
-
- Книги
-
- Авторы
-
- Натаниэль Хоторн
-
- Алая буква
-
- Стр. 90/92
Для того чтобы воспользоваться озвучкой предложений, необходимо
Войти или зарегистрироваться
Озвучка предложений доступна при наличии PRO-доступа
Купить PRO-доступ
That
final
word
came
forth
with
the
minister
's
expiring
breath
.
The
multitude
,
silent
till
then
,
broke
out
in
a
strange
,
deep
voice
of
awe
and
wonder
,
which
could
not
as
yet
find
utterance
,
save
in
this
murmur
that
rolled
so
heavily
after
the
departed
spirit
.
After
many
days
,
when
time
sufficed
for
the
people
to
arrange
their
thoughts
in
reference
to
the
foregoing
scene
,
there
was
more
than
one
account
of
what
had
been
witnessed
on
the
scaffold
.
Most
of
the
spectators
testified
to
having
seen
,
on
the
breast
of
the
unhappy
minister
,
a
SCARLET
LETTER
--
the
very
semblance
of
that
worn
by
Hester
Prynne
--
imprinted
in
the
flesh
.
As
regarded
its
origin
there
were
various
explanations
,
all
of
which
must
necessarily
have
been
conjectural
.
Some
affirmed
that
the
Reverend
Mr.
Dimmesdale
,
on
the
very
day
when
Hester
Prynne
first
wore
her
ignominious
badge
,
had
begun
a
course
of
penance
--
which
he
afterwards
,
in
so
many
futile
methods
,
followed
out
--
by
inflicting
a
hideous
torture
on
himself
.
Others
contended
that
the
stigma
had
not
been
produced
until
a
long
time
subsequent
,
when
old
Roger
Chillingworth
,
being
a
potent
necromancer
,
had
caused
it
to
appear
,
through
the
agency
of
magic
and
poisonous
drugs
.
Others
,
again
and
those
best
able
to
appreciate
the
minister
's
peculiar
sensibility
,
and
the
wonderful
operation
of
his
spirit
upon
the
body
--
whispered
their
belief
,
that
the
awful
symbol
was
the
effect
of
the
ever-active
tooth
of
remorse
,
gnawing
from
the
inmost
heart
outwardly
,
and
at
last
manifesting
Heaven
's
dreadful
judgment
by
the
visible
presence
of
the
letter
.
The
reader
may
choose
among
these
theories
.
We
have
thrown
all
the
light
we
could
acquire
upon
the
portent
,
and
would
gladly
,
now
that
it
has
done
its
office
,
erase
its
deep
print
out
of
our
own
brain
,
where
long
meditation
has
fixed
it
in
very
undesirable
distinctness
.
It
is
singular
,
nevertheless
,
that
certain
persons
,
who
were
spectators
of
the
whole
scene
,
and
professed
never
once
to
have
removed
their
eyes
from
the
Reverend
Mr.
Dimmesdale
,
denied
that
there
was
any
mark
whatever
on
his
breast
,
more
than
on
a
new-born
infant
's
.
Neither
,
by
their
report
,
had
his
dying
words
acknowledged
,
nor
even
remotely
implied
,
any
--
the
slightest
--
connexion
on
his
part
,
with
the
guilt
for
which
Hester
Prynne
had
so
long
worn
the
scarlet
letter
.
According
to
these
highly-respectable
witnesses
,
the
minister
,
conscious
that
he
was
dying
--
conscious
,
also
,
that
the
reverence
of
the
multitude
placed
him
already
among
saints
and
angels
--
had
desired
,
by
yielding
up
his
breath
in
the
arms
of
that
fallen
woman
,
to
express
to
the
world
how
utterly
nugatory
is
the
choicest
of
man
's
own
righteousness
.
After
exhausting
life
in
his
efforts
for
mankind
's
spiritual
good
,
he
had
made
the
manner
of
his
death
a
parable
,
in
order
to
impress
on
his
admirers
the
mighty
and
mournful
lesson
,
that
,
in
the
view
of
Infinite
Purity
,
we
are
sinners
all
alike
.
It
was
to
teach
them
,
that
the
holiest
amongst
us
has
but
attained
so
far
above
his
fellows
as
to
discern
more
clearly
the
Mercy
which
looks
down
,
and
repudiate
more
utterly
the
phantom
of
human
merit
,
which
would
look
aspiringly
upward
.
Without
disputing
a
truth
so
momentous
,
we
must
be
allowed
to
consider
this
version
of
Mr.
Dimmesdale
's
story
as
only
an
instance
of
that
stubborn
fidelity
with
which
a
man
's
friends
--
and
especially
a
clergyman
's
--
will
sometimes
uphold
his
character
,
when
proofs
,
clear
as
the
mid-day
sunshine
on
the
scarlet
letter
,
establish
him
a
false
and
sin-stained
creature
of
the
dust
.
The
authority
which
we
have
chiefly
followed
--
a
manuscript
of
old
date
,
drawn
up
from
the
verbal
testimony
of
individuals
,
some
of
whom
had
known
Hester
Prynne
,
while
others
had
heard
the
tale
from
contemporary
witnesses
fully
confirms
the
view
taken
in
the
foregoing
pages
.
Among
many
morals
which
press
upon
us
from
the
poor
minister
's
miserable
experience
,
we
put
only
this
into
a
sentence
:
--
"
Be
true
!
Be
true
!
Be
true
!
Show
freely
to
the
world
,
if
not
your
worst
,
yet
some
trait
whereby
the
worst
may
be
inferred
!
"
Nothing
was
more
remarkable
than
the
change
which
took
place
,
almost
immediately
after
Mr.
Dimmesdale
's
death
,
in
the
appearance
and
demeanour
of
the
old
man
known
as
Roger
Chillingworth
.
All
his
strength
and
energy
--
all
his
vital
and
intellectual
force
--
seemed
at
once
to
desert
him
,
insomuch
that
he
positively
withered
up
,
shrivelled
away
and
almost
vanished
from
mortal
sight
,
like
an
uprooted
weed
that
lies
wilting
in
the
sun
.
This
unhappy
man
had
made
the
very
principle
of
his
life
to
consist
in
the
pursuit
and
systematic
exercise
revenge
;
and
when
,
by
its
completest
triumph
consummation
that
evil
principle
was
left
with
no
further
material
to
support
it
--
when
,
in
short
,
there
was
no
more
Devil
's
work
on
earth
for
him
to
do
,
it
only
remained
for
the
unhumanised
mortal
to
betake
himself
whither
his
master
would
find
him
tasks
enough
,
and
pay
him
his
wages
duly
.
But
,
to
all
these
shadowy
beings
,
so
long
our
near
acquaintances
--
as
well
Roger
Chillingworth
as
his
companions
we
would
fain
be
merciful
.
It
is
a
curious
subject
of
observation
and
inquiry
,
whether
hatred
and
love
be
not
the
same
thing
at
bottom
.
Each
,
in
its
utmost
development
,
supposes
a
high
degree
of
intimacy
and
heart-knowledge
;
each
renders
one
individual
dependent
for
the
food
of
his
affections
and
spiritual
fife
upon
another
:
each
leaves
the
passionate
lover
,
or
the
no
less
passionate
hater
,
forlorn
and
desolate
by
the
withdrawal
of
his
subject
.
Philosophically
considered
,
therefore
,
the
two
passions
seem
essentially
the
same
,
except
that
one
happens
to
be
seen
in
a
celestial
radiance
,
and
the
other
in
a
dusky
and
lurid
glow
.
In
the
spiritual
world
,
the
old
physician
and
the
minister
--
mutual
victims
as
they
have
been
--
may
,
unawares
,
have
found
their
earthly
stock
of
hatred
and
antipathy
transmuted
into
golden
love
.
Leaving
this
discussion
apart
,
we
have
a
matter
of
business
to
communicate
to
the
reader
.
