'By experience,' says Roger Ascham, 'we find out a short way by a long wandering.' Not seldom that long wandering unfits us for further travel, and of what use is our experience to us then? Tess Durbeyfield's experience was of this incapacitating kind. At last she had learned what to do; but who would now accept her doing?If before going to the d'Urbervilles' she had vigorously moved under the guidance of sundry gnomic texts and phrases known to her and to the world in general, no doubt she would never have been imposed on. But it had not been in Tess's power - nor is it in anybody's power - to feel the whole truth of golden opinions while it is possible to profit by them. She - and how many more - might have ironically said to God with Saint Augustine:?'Thou hast counselled a better course than Thou hast permitted.'
“依靠經(jīng)驗，”羅杰·阿斯坎說，“我們要經(jīng)過漫長的游蕩才能找到一條捷徑?！雹俾L的游蕩不適合我們繼續(xù)往前走，這并不少見，那么我們這種經(jīng)驗對我們又有什么用處呢？苔絲·德北菲爾德的經(jīng)驗就是毫無用處的那一種。后來她學(xué)會了去作什么，可是現(xiàn)在又會有誰接受呢？要是苔絲還沒有去德貝維爾家以前，就努力按照她自己和一般人所知道的各種各樣的警句格言前進(jìn)的話，她肯定是不會上當(dāng)受騙的?？墒?，對于這些金玉良言，在它們大有益處的時候，苔絲沒有能力、其他的人也沒有能力領(lǐng)會其中的全部道理。苔絲，還有許許多多別的人，可能會用圣奧古斯丁的話譏諷上帝：“你提出的是一條很好的路，但不是一條讓人走的路?！雹?

She remained in her father's house during the winter months, plucking fowls, or cramming turkeys and geese, or making clothes for her sisters and brothers out of some finery which d'Urberville had given her, and she had put by with contempt. Apply to him she would not. But she would often clasp her hands behind her head and muse when she was supposed to be working hard.
在冬季的幾個月里，她一直留在父親的家里，或者拔雞毛，或者給火雞和鵝的肚子里裝填料，或者把以前鄙夷地扔在一邊的德貝維爾送給她的一些漂亮服裝拿出來，改成她的弟弟妹妹們穿的衣服。她不會寫信給他，要他幫助。但是，在別人以為她用勁干活的時候，她卻經(jīng)常把兩手抱在腦后，在那兒想心思。

She philosophically noted dates as they came past in the revolution of the year; the disastrous night of her undoing at Trantridge with its dark background of The Chase; also the dates of the baby's birth and death; also her own birthday; and every other day individualized by incidents in which she had taken some share. She suddenly thought one afternoon, when looking in the glass at her fairness, that there was yet another date, of greater importance to her than those; that of her own death, when all these charms would have disappeared; a day which lay sly and unseen among all the other days of the year, giving no sign or sound when she annually passed over it; but not the less surely there. When was it? Why did she not feel the chill of each yearly encounter with such a cold relation? She had Jeremy Taylor's thought that some time in the future those who had known her would say: 'It is the - th, the day that poor Tess Durbeyfield died'; and there would be nothing singular to their minds in the statement. Of that day, doomed to be her terminus in time through all the ages, she did not know the place in month, week, season, or year.
她用一個哲學(xué)家的思想去回憶一年中從頭到尾的日子；她回想起在特蘭里奇的獵苑的黑暗背景中，毀了她的那個不幸的夜晚；回想起她的孩子出生和死去的日子；也回想起自己降生為人的那一天；還回想起那些因為與她有關(guān)的事件而變得特別的日子。有一天下午，她在對著鏡子觀看自己的美貌的時候，突然想到還有另外一個日子，對她來說比其它的日子更為重要；那就是她自己死去的日子，那個時候，她所有的美貌就要化為烏有了；這一天悄悄地躲在一年的所有日子里，誰也看不見它，她每一年都要遇見它一次，但它卻不露痕跡，一聲不響；但是這一天又肯定不會不在這一年里。這個日子是哪一天呢？為什么她每一年都要遇到的與她相關(guān)的那個冷酷日子，她卻沒有感覺到它的冷意呢？她的思想和杰里米·泰勒的思想是一樣的，就是認(rèn)識她的人在將來某個時候會說：“就是在——在今天，可憐的苔絲死了?！彼麄冊谡f這話的時候，心里也不會想到有什么特別之處。但是在歲月的長河中要注定成為她的人生終點的那一天，她卻不知道它究竟在哪一個月，在哪一個星期，在哪一個季節(jié)，在哪一年。

①羅杰·阿斯坎（Roger Ascham，1515-1568），英國散文家，曾做過英女王伊麗莎白的老師，上文引自所著《論教師》（The Scholermaster，1570）。

②圣奧古斯?。⊿aint Augustine，354-430），曾為希波主教，主要作品為《上帝城》和《懺悔錄》，是馬丁·路德和喀爾文教的思想先驅(qū)。