We must take things as they are, if we take them at all. We may refuse
to say a word to English literature, if we will; we may have recourse to
French or to Italian instead, if we think either of these less
exceptionable than our own; we may fall back upon the Classics of Greece
and Rome; we may have nothing whatever to do with literature, as such,
of any kind, and confine ourselves to purely amorphous or monstrous
specimens of language; but if we do once profess in our Universities the
English language and literature, if we think it allowable to know the
state of things we live in, and that national character which we share,
if we think it desirable to have a chance of writing what may be read
after our day, and praiseworthy to aim at providing for Catholics who
speak English a Catholic Literature then—I do not
去书内
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GGBond123
如果我们接受的话,我们必须接受现状。如果我们愿意,我们可以拒绝对英国文学说一句话;如果我们认为法语或意大利语中的任何一种比我们自己的更不令人反感,我们可能会求助于法语或意大利语;我们可以回到希腊和罗马的经典;我们可能与任何类型的文学都没有任何关系,只局限于纯粹无定形或怪异的语言样本;但是,如果我们确实在大学里教授过英语语言和文学,如果我们认为可以了解我们所生活的事物的状态,以及我们共同的民族性格,如果我们希望有机会写下我们一天之后可以阅读的东西,并且值得称赞的是,我们的目标是为说英语的天主教徒提供天主教文学,那么——我不是说我们必须立即向年轻人、弱者或未受过训练的人开放每一本书,我不是说,我们可以免除我们的教会索引和校订,但是——我们不能幻想自己创造出已经创造出来的东西,而这些东西在任何时候都不可能创造出来通过我们,我们必须认识到,占据语言的历史文学既是事实,也是事实