美国语文第六册 第191期:新英格兰清教徒先辈的品格(3)
只要这块土地上的居民在行使他们重要权利的过程中没有被宗主国干扰，
they submitted to the form of English government; but when those rights were invaded, they spurned even the form away.
他们会屈从英国政府的体制。但是，当这些权利被侵犯时，他们甚至会将这种体制一脚踢开。
This act was the Revolution, which came of course and spontaneously, and had nothing in it of the wonderful or unforeseen.
这种行动就是革命，自发而起，没有一点奇妙或不可预见性。
The wonder would have been if it had not occurred.
倘若没发生的话，那倒奇怪了。
It was, indeed, a happy and glorious event, but by no means unnatural;
的确，这场革命是一个愉快和辉煌的事件，再自然不过了。
and I intend no slight to the revered actors in the Revolution when I assert that their fathers before them were as free as they — every whit as free.
当我断定他们的先辈像他们一样渴望自由——事实上一点也不自由时，我不打算对这场大革命令人崇敬的演员轻描淡写了。
The principles of the Revolution were not the suddenly acquired property of a few bosoms: they were abroad in the land in the ages before;
革命的原则并非突然之间变成少数几个人内心的既得财产，以前很多年就在这块土地上广泛存在了。
they had always been taught, like the truths of the Bible; they had descended from father to son, down from those primitive days,
就像圣经中的真理一样，人们从小就对这些原则耳闻目染，从原始时代开始就父子相传。
when the Pilgrim, established in his simple dwelling, and seated at his blazing fire, piled high from the forest which shaded his door,
当时朝圣者在自己简陋的住所里，坐在熊熊燃烧的篝火旁边，而树木则是从在自己门上投下树荫的森林里砍伐来的，堆得很高，
repeated to his listening children the story of his wrongs and his resistance, and bade them rejoice,
向专心倾听的孩子们重复着关于自己做错事情和反抗的故事，孩子们听后欣喜若狂，
though the wild winds and the wild beasts were howling without, that they had nothing to fear from great men's oppression.
尽管外面没刮大风，也没有野兽的嚎叫，但他们从大人的郁闷听不出任何害怕。
Here are the beginnings of the Revolution.
这就是革命的开端。
Every settler's hearth was a school of independence; the scholars were apt, and the lessons sunk deeply;
每位定居者的炉边都是一所呼唤独立的学堂。学者们循循善诱，讲的课程令学生深深地陶醉在其中;
and thus it came that our country was always free; it could not be other than free.
因此，得出的结论是我们国家永远是自由的，舍此无他。
