Thus Roger Chillingworth scrutinised his patient carefully, both as he saw him in his ordinary life, keeping an accustomed pathway in the range of thoughts familiar to him, and as he appeared when thrown amidst other moral scenery, the novelty of which might call out something new to the surface of his character. He deemed it essential, it would seem, to know the man, before attempting to do him good. Wherever there is a heart and an intellect, the diseases of the physical frame are tinged with the peculiarities of these. In Arthur Dimmesdale, thought and imagination were so active, and sensibility so intense, that the bodily infirmity would be likely to have its groundwork there. So Roger Chillingworth- the man of skill, the kind and friendly physician- strove to go deep into his patient's bosom, delving among his principles, prying into his recollections, and probing everything with a cautious touch, like a treasure-seeker in a dark cavern. Few secrets can escape an investigator, who has opportunity and license to undertake such a quest, and skill to follow it up. A man burdened with a secret should especially avoid the intimacy of his physician. If the latter possess native sagacity, and a nameless something more- let us call it intuition; if he show no intrusive egotism, nor disagreeably prominent characteristics of his own; if he have the power, which must be born with him, to bring his mind into such affinity with his patient's, that this last shall unawares have spoken what he imagines himself only to have thought; if such revelations be received without tumult, and acknowledged not so often by an uttered sympathy as by silence, an inarticulate breath, and here and there a word, to indicate that all is understood; if to these qualifications of a confidant be joined the advantages afforded by his recognised character as a physician- then, at some inevitable moment, will the soul of the sufferer be dissolved, and flow forth in a dark, but transparent stream, bringing all its mysteries into the daylight.
羅杰·齊靈渥斯就是這樣仔細檢查他的病人的：一方面，觀察他的日常生活，看他在熟悉的思緒上所保持的慣常的途徑，另一方面，也觀察他被投入另一種道德境界時的表現(xiàn)，因為那種境界的新意可能喚起某些新東西浮出他性格的表面?？磥?，醫(yī)生認為首先要了解其人，然后才能對癥下藥。凡有心智的東西，其軀體上的病痛必然染有心智上的特色。在阿瑟，丁梅斯代爾的身上，他的思維和想象力十分活躍，他的情感又是十分專注，他身體上的病癥大概根源于此。于是，羅杰·齊靈渥斯，那位和善友好又技藝精湛的醫(yī)生，就竭力深入他病人的心扉，挖掘于他的準則之中，探詢著他的記憶，而且如同一個在黑暗的洞穴中尋找寶藏的人一樣，小心翼翼地觸摸每一件東西。象他這樣一個得到機會和特許來從事這種探索，而且又有熟巧將其進行下去的調(diào)查人，很少有秘密能逃過他的眼睛。一個荷有秘密的人應該特別避免與醫(yī)生親密相處。假如那醫(yī)生有天生的洞察力，還有難以名狀的某種能力——我們姑且稱之為直覺吧，假如他沒有流露出頤指氣使的唯我獨尊，他自己又沒有鮮明的難以相處的個性，假如他生來就有一種與病人脈脈相通鮑能力，借此使病人喪失警覺，以致自言自語地說出心中所想的事，假如他平靜地聽到這些表白，只是偶爾用沉默無聲的同情，用自然而然的喘息，以及間或的一兩個字眼，表示充分的理解，假如在一個可信賴的人的這些品格上加上他那醫(yī)生身分所提供的有利條件——那么，在某些難以避免的時刻，患者的靈魂便會融解，在一個黑暗而透明的小溪中涓涓向前，把全部隱私帶到光天化日之下。

Roger Chillingworth possessed all, or most, of the attributes above enumerated. Nevertheless, time went on; a kind of intimacy, as we have said, grew up between these two cultivated minds, which had as wide a field as the whole sphere of human thought and study, to meet upon; they discussed every topic of ethics and religion, of public affairs, and private character; they talked much, on both sides, of matters that seemed personal to themselves; and yet no secret, such as the physician fancied must exist there, ever stole out of the minister's consciousness into his companion's ear. The latter had his suspicions, indeed, that even the nature of Mr. Dimmesdale's bodily disease had never fairly been revealed to him. It was a strange reserve!
上述這些特色，羅杰·齊靈渥斯全部或者大部分具備。然面，隨著時間的流逝，如我們所說，在這兩個有教養(yǎng)的頭腦之間發(fā)展起了親密無間的關系，他們有如同人類思維與研究的整個領域那么廣闊的地帶可以交匯；他們討論涉及倫理和宗教、公共事業(yè)和私人性格的各種題目；他們就似乎涉及兩人自己私事的問題大量交談；然而醫(yī)生想象中肯定存在的那種隱私，卻始終沒有溜出牧師的意識傳進他的同伴的耳中。的確，醫(yī)生懷疑連丁梅斯代爾先生身體痼疾的本質(zhì)都從來沒有坦率地泄露給他。這種含蓄實在是太奇特了！