The faculty for myth is innate in the human race. It seizes with avidity upon any incidents, surprising or mysterious, in the career of those who have at all distinguished themselves from their fellows, and invents a legend to which it then attaches a fanatical belief. It is the protest of romance against the commonplace of life. The incidents of the legend become the hero's surest passport to immortality. The ironic philosopher reflects with a smile that Sir Walter Raleigh is more safely inshrined in the memory of mankind because he set his cloak for the Virgin Queen to walk on than because he carried the English name to undiscovered countries. Charles Strickland lived obscurely. He made enemies rather than friends. It is not strange, then, that those who wrote of him should have eked out their scanty recollections with a lively fancy, and it is evident that there was enough in the little that was known of him to give opportunity to the romantic scribe; there was much in his life which was strange and terrible, in his character something outrageous, and in his fate not a little that was pathetic. In due course a legend arose of such circumstantiality that the wise historian would hesitate to attack it.

人类与生俱来就有编织神话的本领。对于那些在事业奋斗过程中从同辈中脱颖而出的人士，人们总是热衷于揪住他们的任何轶闻趣事不放，不管这些事情听起来多么令人咋舌，还是多么神秘莫测，人们都会编造出一个传奇故事，然后狂热地认为此事千真万确。这算得上是传奇故事对平凡生活的抗议。传奇故事中的各种轶闻趣事成为了主人公通向永恒不朽最可靠的通行证。罗沃特爵士之所以被当作神灵供奉起来，而且更甭担心从人类记忆中抹掉的危险，竟是因为他曾把自己身上穿的那件披风铺在地上，让童真女王从上面走了过去，而并非因为他当年到那些不为人知的国家去探险，并用英文给那些国家命名，诙谐幽默的哲学家一想到这件事定会哑然哂笑。司查尔生前默默无闻。他树敌不少，没交下什么朋友。由于能获得的有关他的回忆资料少得可怜，那些作家在为他著书立传时对这些资料尽可能地省吃俭用，更多的是添油加醋地发挥自己生动活泼的想像力，也就不足为奇了。而且显而易见，人们对他知之甚少，这样就有机会为其创作具有传奇色彩的故事；他的一生有许多事情令人感到匪夷所思、骇人听闻；他的性格多少有些违背常理，而他的命运有不少地方令人扼腕叹息。时机一旦成熟，就会敷演出一段如此迂回曲折的传奇故事，就连睿智的史学家也会优柔寡断，不敢轻易质疑故事的真实性。

But a wise historian is precisely what the Rev. Robert Strickland is not. He wrote his biography avowedly to "remove certain misconceptions which had gained currency" in regard to the later part of his father's life, and which had "caused considerable pain to persons still living." It is obvious that there was much in the commonly received account of Strickland's life to embarrass a respectable family. I have read this work with a good deal of amusement, and upon this I congratulate myself, since it is colourless and dull. Mr. Strickland has drawn the portrait of an excellent husband and father, a man of kindly temper, industrious habits, and moral disposition. The modern clergyman has acquired in his study of the science which I believe is called exegesis an astonishing facility for explaining things away, but the subtlety with which the Rev. Robert Strickland has "interpreted" all the facts in his father's life which a dutiful son might find it inconvenient to remember must surely lead him in the fullness of time to the highest dignities of the Church. I see already his muscular calves encased in the gaiters episcopal. It was a hazardous, though maybe a gallant thing to do, since it is probable that the legend commonly received has had no small share in the growth of Strickland's reputation; for there are many who have been attracted to his art by the detestation in which they held his character or the compassion with which they regarded his death; and the son's well-meaning efforts threw a singular chill upon the father's admirers. It is due to no accident that when one of his most important works, The Woman of Samaria, was sold at Christie's shortly after the discussion which followed the publication of Mr. Strickland's biography, it fetched POUNDS 235 less than it had done nine months before when it was bought by the distinguished collector whose sudden death had brought it once more under the hammer. Perhaps Charles Strickland's power and originality would scarcely have sufficed to turn the scale if the remarkable mythopoeic faculty of mankind had not brushed aside with impatience a story which disappointed all its craving for the extraordinary. And presently Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz produced the work which finally set at rest the misgivings of all lovers of art.

司若伯牧师恰恰不是这样的睿智历史学家。他自己宣称，之所以写这本传记，目的是为了“消除某些误解，这些误解”在其父亲的晚年生活中“已经流传颇广”，并且“给仍然在世的一些人造成了相当大的痛苦”。很显然，在人们普遍接受的关于司查尔生平的叙述中，有很多内容已经让一个名门望族陷入左右为难的尴尬境地。这部传记语言苍白无力，内容空洞乏味，我竟怀着极大的兴致把它读完，在这一点上我对自己都敬佩三分。司若伯笔下描绘出一位绝佳丈夫和绝好父亲的形象，脾气和善、勤奋努力、品行端正。现代神职人员在其科学研究（我相信即所谓的“解经学”）中学会了一套断章取义的惊人技能，而作为一名孝子，司若伯牧师可能不方便记住自己父亲生平的全部事迹，而是通过难以言传的精妙方式对这些事迹加以“诠释”，在不久的将来，这种方式一定会引领他登上教会的最高位置。我好像已经看到，只有主教才穿的长筒靴里，正裹着他两个肌肉发达的小腿肚呢。这是一种冒险行为，尽管也许有些英勇气概，因为在提升司查尔的名气方面，大众普遍接受的传说很可能已经占了不小份额；有许多人之所以被他的艺术所吸引，要么因为厌恶他的性格，要么对他的死亡表示同情；儿子出于一片好心的各种努力，结果给父亲的仰慕者浇了一头冷水。九个月前，司查尔先生最重要的画作之一《撒玛利亚的女人》曾通过佳士得拍卖行卖给了一位德高望重的收藏家。而那位收藏家突然去世，这幅画再次被拍卖，成交价竟比之前少了两百三十五英镑，此时正是司查尔的传记出版引起人们的纷纷议论之后不久，这件事的发生并非偶然所致。所有猎奇者为此大失所望，若非因为人类凭着非凡卓越的编织神话的本领，迫不及待地将此事推至一旁而置之不理的话，要想改变这种局面，司查尔的权威性和独创性几乎可以说是回天乏术了。而今魏若特博士创作了这部作品，最终平息了所有艺术爱好者的种种疑虑。