Much of the marble coldness of Hester's impression was to be attributed to the circumstance, that her life had turned, in a great measure, from passion and feeling, to thought. Standing alone in the world- alone, as to any dependence on society, and with little Pearl to be guided and protected- alone, and hopeless of retrievingher position, even had she not scorned to consider it desirable- she cast away the fragments of a broken chain. The world's law was no law for her mind. It was an age in which the human intellect, newly emancipated, had taken a more active and a wider range than for many centuries before. Men of the sword had overthrown nobles and kings. Men bolder than these had overthrown and rearranged- not actually, but within the sphere of theory, which was their most real abode- the whole system of ancient prejudice, wherewithwas linked much of ancient principle. Hester Prynne imbibedthis spirit. She assumed a freedom of speculation, then common enough on the other side of the Atlantic, but which our forefathers, had they known it, would have held to be a deadliercrime than that stigmatisedby the scarlet letter. In her lonesome cottage by the seashore, thoughts visited her, such as dared to enter no other dwelling in New England; shadowy guests, that would have been as perilousas demons to their entertainer could they have been seen so much as knocking at her door.
海丝特给人的那种如大理石般冰冷的印象,大部要归咎于这一事实:她的生活,在很大程度上已经从情和欲变成了思想。她形只影单地立足于世上——孤独得对社会无所依靠,只有小珠儿需要她指点和保护,——孤独得对恢复她的地位已不抱希望,即使她还没有鄙夷这种愿望,但是她已把断裂的锁链的碎片全然抛弃了。人世间的法律并非她心目中的法律。当年正处于人类智慧初获解放的时代,比起以前的许多世纪,有着广阔得多的天地任其驰骋。手执利剑的人已经推翻了王室贵胄。比他们更勇敢的人,则将与古代准则密切相关的古代偏见的完整体系,并非实际地,而是在理论范围之内——这是那些王室贵胃真正的藏身之地——予以颠覆并重新安排了。海丝特·白兰汲取了这一精神。她采取了思想自由的观点,这在当年的大西洋彼岸本是再普通不过的事,但设若我们的移民祖先们对这种自由思想有所了解的话,她的观点会被认为比红字烙印所代表的罪恶还要致命的。在她那独处海边的茅舍里,拜访她的那些思想是不敢进入新英格兰的其它住宅的;假如有人看见这些影子般的客人轻叩她的门扉的话,就会把接待他们的主人视同魔鬼般危险了。
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