Hints:

us:?it?rusts

of?flame?--?like?our?life?has,?...?their?ways.



Like the elements of which we are composed, the action of these forces extends beyond us: it rusts iron and ripens corn. Far out on every side of us those elements are broadcast, driven in many currents, and birth and gesture and death and the springing of violets from the grave are but a few out of ten thousand resultant combinations. That clear, perpetual outline of face and limb is but an image of ours, under which we group them a design in a web, the actual threads of which pass out beyond it. This at least of flame -- like our life has, that it is but the concurrence, renewed from moment to moment, of forces parting sooner or later on their ways.
正如我們身體賴以構(gòu)成的元素一樣，這些力量元素在我們身體以外也同樣發(fā)揮著作用——它可以使鐵生銹、使谷物成熟。這些元素，在種種氣流吹送之下，從我們的身體外向四面八方傳播；人的誕生，人的姿態(tài)，人的死亡以及在人的墳頭上生長(zhǎng)出紫羅蘭，這不過(guò)是成千上萬(wàn)化合結(jié)果的點(diǎn)滴例子而已。人類那輪廓分明、長(zhǎng)久不變的容顏和肢體，不過(guò)是一種表象，在那框架之下，我們把種種元素凝聚在一張網(wǎng)里，那織網(wǎng)的細(xì)絲從網(wǎng)中穿出，又引向其他地方。在這一點(diǎn)上，我們的生命有些像火焰——它也是種種力量匯合的結(jié)果，這匯合雖不斷延續(xù)，那些力量卻早晚要各自飄散。