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本章的目的，是论述“焦点意识有竞争”这一原则。前章在证明“推移是渐进”的时候，已经涉及人类活动的各方面，举了种种例子，所以本章所要说的事实，也可以说大体在上一章中得到了证明，而这里之所以要特设一章，是因为这个问题很有趣味，颇能引起我们的兴趣。这种竞争，拿短时间内的个人意识加以考察解剖时，便可以清楚地看到真相。当一个F住于意识的波头时，继F而起的F′，纷至沓来，数量极多，并试图取而代之。有时，F的联想所到之处，在性质上、在形式上，或在抽象的关系上，都聚集在一起，相互推搡着，由识末而向上扩张，犹如水底的瓦斯，争先恐后地冲出水面化为泡沫；有时，体内脏器的刺激，如胃痛、空腹饥饿，拉屎撒尿之感，忽而压倒别的事物而称霸于意识的顶点；有时，身外周边的事物，如炭火之热、墨汁之色、树梢之风、天日之丽、地壳之纹等，森罗万象，向我聚拢过来，强要引起我的注意；当聚精会神读书时，忽然被臭虫所叮咬而吃了一惊，这无异于臭虫占领了意识的天下；当一心一意在思考时，突为奔马所惊扰，这就是让奔马占据了意识的天下。似这样，我们的意识界就像一个不停歇的修罗场，群魔乱舞、争雄称霸，不可或止。
一个时代的风潮也是如此，文学界的思潮流派也是此起彼伏。19世纪初期出现于文学界的浪漫派、古典派两派之争，即是此种现象中饶有兴味者。尤其是其论争作为自然的反响而出现于小说，我在这一特殊方面曾有所研究，更觉得很有意思。在小说中可以举出两个例子。一是盖斯凯尔夫人[1]的《克兰弗镇》，一是萨克雷的《钮可谟一家》。
《克兰弗镇》中有这样一段：
“When the trays reappeared with biscuits and wine, punctually at a quarter to nine, there was conversation, comparing of cards, and talking over tricks; but by and by Captain Brown sported a bit of literature.
‘Have you seen any numbers of The Pickwick Papers?’ said he. (They were then publishing in parts.) ‘Capital thing!’
Now Miss Jenkyns was daughter of a deceased rector of Cranford; and, on the strength of a number of manuscript sermons, and a pretty good library of divinty, considered herself literary, and looked upon any coversation about books as a challenge to her. So she answered and said, ‘Yes, she had seen them; indeed, she might say she had read them.’
‘And what do you think of them?’ exclaimed Captain Brown. ‘Aren’t they famously good?’
So urged, Miss Jenkyns could not but speak.
‘I must say, I don’t think they are by any means equal to Dr. Johnson. Still, perhaps, the author is young. Let him persevere, and who knows what he may become if he will take the great Doctor for his model.’ This was evidently too much for Captain Brown to take placidly, and I saw the words on the tip of his tongue before Miss Jenkyns had f inished her sentence.
‘It is quite a different sort of thing, my dear madam,’ he began.
‘I am quite aware of that,’ returned she. ‘And I make allowances, Captain Brown.’
‘Just allow me to read you a scene out of this month’s number,’ pleaded he. ‘I had it only this morning, and I don’t think the company can have read it yet. ’
‘As you please,’ said she, settling herself with an air of resignation. He read the account of the ‘swarry’ which Sam Weller gave at Bath. Some of us laughed heartily. I did not dare, because I was staying in the house. Miss Jenkyns sat in patient gravity. When it was ended, she turned to me, and said, with mild dignity ——
‘Fetch me Rasselas, my dear, out of the book-room.’
When I brought it to her she turned to Captain Brown ——
‘Now allow me to read you a scene, and then the present company can judge between your favourite, Mr. Boz, and Dr. Johnson.’
She read one of the conversations between Rasselas and Imlac, in a high-pitched majestic voice; and when she had ended she said, ‘I imagine I am now justif ied in my preference of Dr. Johnson as a writer of f iction.’ The Captain screwed his lips up, and drummed on the table, but he did not speak. She thought she would give a f inishing blow or two.
‘I cosider it vulgar, and below the dignity of literature, to publish in numbers.’
‘How was The Rambler published, ma’am?’ asked Captain Brown, in a low voice, which I think Miss Jenkyns could not have heard.
‘Dr. Johnson’s style is a model for young beginners. My father recommended it to me when I began to write letters——I have formed my own style upon it; I recommend it to your favourite.’
‘I should be very sorry for him to exchange his style for any such pompous writing,’said Captain Brown.
Miss Jenkyns felt this as a personal affront, in a way of which the Captain had not dreamed. Epistolary writing she and her friends considered as her forte. Many a copy of many a letter have I seen written and corrected on the slate, before she ‘seized the half-hour just previous to post time to assure’ her friends of this or of that; and Dr. Johnson was, as she said, her model in these compositions. She drew herself up with dignity, and only replied to Captain Brown’s last remark by saying, with marked emphasis on every syllable, ‘I prefer Dr. Johnson to Mr. Boz.’
It is said——I won’t vouch for the fact——that Captain Brown was heard to say, sotto voce, ‘D-n Dr. Johnson!’ If he did, he was penitent afterwards, as he showed by going to stand near Miss Jenkyns’s arm-chair, and endeavouring to beguile her into conversation on some more pleasing subject. But she was inexorable. The next day she made the remark I have mentioned about Miss Jessie’s dimples.”
—— Chap. i.
篇中的布朗上尉是代表新派的，詹金斯是追慕旧派的，而两人的会话，都将其好恶置于焦点，各不相让。故与其说这是会话，不如说是在吵架。而这两人的吵架，不外是当时的综合意识之间的战争。而像《匹克威克外传》这样的作品，很有特色，以前文学界未曾出现过，所以那些以陈旧趣味为满足的人、虽有推移而又不能完全脱离旧趣味的人，和厌恶陈旧、追新求变的人之间，不得不有激烈的斗争。能放眼大局，综观百年的人，对于两者的成败，是明察秋毫，洞若观火；但是思维迟钝、因循守旧的少数或多数的读书人，却不明大势所趋，不悟兴衰之必然，却顽固地视落日为朝阳，因而他们不得不战。一旦时过境迁，回头一看，事事皆非，时时不再，于是喟然长叹。而且他们不知道此乃天运推移，却以为这是人工安排不当所致。为什么会这样呢？因为趣味不是道理。悖理者，虽可以说服，使之服从于理，但无奈趣味是个好恶的问题。好恶，在某种意义上说，不是人的一部分，而是人的全体。不能以是非曲直的道理来说明，不能以成败兴废的利害来改变。只是因为好其所好，而且是好之入骨，若要改变之，就非得把整个的人都改变不可。要改变这个人，非得让趣味意识自然离开他不可。有些人，当世事推移之际，不知道与他人一起推移，而且也没有任何不得推移的理由，却抱残守缺、对新事物加以无意义的抵抗。此辈之至死不悟，即是为此。
萨克雷所写的，也是将这样的论战作为小说中的人物会话写进去，来表现新旧两种趣味的冲突。钮可谟上校久居印度，有一次回到伦敦，和他的儿子克莱武的朋友相见，发现这些青年在文学的趣味上大异于自己，便觉得不平衡。作者做了这样的描述：
“Sometimes he would have a company of such gentlemen as Messrs. Warrington, Honeyman, and Pendennis, when haply a literatry conversation would ensue after dinner; and the merits of our present poets and writers would be discussed with the claret. Honeyman was well enough read in profane literature, especially of the lighter sort; and, I daresay, could have passed a satisfactory examination in Balzac, Dumas, and Paul de Kock himself, of all whose works our good host was entirely ignorant,——as indeed he was of graver books, and of earlier books, and of books in general,——except those few, which, we have said, formed his travelling library. He heard opinions that amazed and bewildered him: he heard that Byron was no great poet, though a very clever man: he heard that there had been a wicked persecution against Mr. Pope’s memory and fame, and that it was time to reinstate him; that his favourite, Dr. Johnson, talked admirably, but did not write English; that young Keats was a genius to be estimated in future days with young Raphael; and that a young gentleman of Cambridge who had lately published two volumes of verses, might take rank with the greatest poets of all. Doctor Johnson not write English! Lord Byron not one of the greatest poets of the world! Sir Walter a poet of the second order! Mr. Pope attacked for the inferiority and want of imagination; Mr. Keats and this young Mr. Tennyson of Cambridge, the chief of modern poetic literature! What were these new dicta, which Mr. Warrington delivered with a puff of tobacco-smoke; to which Mr. Honeyman blandly assented, and Clive listened with pleasure? Such opinions were not of the Colonel’s time. He tried in vain to construe ‘Œnone’ , and to make sense of ‘Lamia.’ Ulysses he could understand; but what were these prodigious laudations bestowed on it? And that reverence for Mr. Wordsworth, what did it mean? Had he not written ‘Peter Bell,’ and been turned into deserved ridicule by all the reviews? Was that dreary ‘Excursion’ to be compared to Goldsmith’s ‘Traveller,’ or Dr. Johnsons’s ‘Imitation of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal?’ If the young men told the truth, where had been the truth in his own young days, and in what ignorance had our forefathers been brought up? Mr. Addison was only an elegant essayist and shallow trif ler! All these opinions were openly uttered over the Colonel’s claret, as he and Mr. Binnie sat wondering at the speakers, who were knocking the gods of their youth about their ears. To Binnie the shock was not so great; the hard-headed Scotchman had read Hume in his college days, and sneered at some of the gods even at that early time. But with Newcome, the admiration for the literature of the last century was an article of belief, and the incredulity of the young men seemed rank blasphemy. ‘You will be sneering at Shakespeare next,’ he said: and was silenced, though not better pleased, when his youthful guests told him, that Dr. Goldsmith sneered at him too; that Dr. Johnson did not understand him; and that Congreve, in his own day and afterwards, was considered to be, in some points, Shakespeare’s superior. ‘What do you think a man’s criticism is worth, sir,’ cries Mr. Warrington, ‘who says those lines of Mr. Congreve about a church ——
“How reverend is the face of you tall pile,
Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads,
To bear aloft its vast and ponderous roof,
By its own weight made stedfast and immovable;
Looking tranquility. It strikes an awe
And terror on my aching sight”——et cætera ——
What do you think of a critic who says those lines are f iner than anything Shakespeare ever wrote?’ A dim consciousness of danger for Clive, a terror that his son had got into the society of heretics and unbelievers, came over the Colonel; and then presently, as was the wont with his modest soul, a gentle sense of humility.”
—— The Newcomes, chap. xxi.
这不过是借老上校和当时的青年之口，来论述存在于两者之间的趣味的不同。自古及今，世间对“暗示”的期待，犹如大旱之望云霓。一朝一夕翕然而实现推移者，也不足为奇。构成社会的各个成员，在天赋、教育、习惯上，都不相同，因为在这些方面不同，所以为这种不同所支配的意识之推移，也亘乎上下，及于四方，而不能同时实现。在得到一个暗示之前，在个人意识的波线上已经有不少的矛盾斗争，更因为此暗示及于“集合意识”上面，在一般情况下，大都会引起剧烈反抗。因此，要想卓尔不群，不立他人篱下，不遛他人门墙，毅然自立一家之言，就需要预先觉悟到要与世为敌了，就要具备压倒敌人的气魄与能力。华兹华斯说过：任何一个具有伟大的独创性的作家，都需要去创建人们的趣味，使他们爱读我的书，自古及今，乃至将来都是如此。我把这句话再翻译一下，就是华兹华斯所说的“独创”，不外是崭新的“暗示”，所谓的“创建”，就是以F′压倒F的意思。查普曼[2]的诗所写 ：
“No truth of excellence was ever seen
But bore the venom of the vulgar’s spleen.”
就是这个意思。虽然只比普通人多一分的才分，而超越世俗也不过半步之远，然而展示自己的才干，不囿于成见的人，就得负有“天不负己，而已负天”的责任。欲不负天者，有一分便须争一分，有半步便须先半步。有一分的人、快半步的人，都同样是为了经历这一斗争而应天命降生于世的。然而斗争终不过是战争，斗争里面并不包含成功的意义。因而一些俊才奇杰，往往中途挫折，而流入凡庸之群。因为入了凡庸之群时，便平安无事了。凡庸，对处世而言才是最安全的。俗语说“君子不入危邦”，就是这个意思。君子是凡庸的骁将，和那些把钱财掩埋于土中而甘守清贫的人属于同类。平庸莫过于此，愚蠢也莫过于此。
关于君子，我知之甚少。至于前面所说到的天才，在立身出世方面，就不能像君子那样如意了。他们是顾不上成功与失败，义无反顾，不实现自我便不罢休的人。禀性既如此，虽然也不想被人视为狂人、痴人，也无可奈何。而且天才所意识者，较之能才，距世俗更远。要想贯彻自己的思想，便必须敢做超乎寻常的激烈斗争。从这一点看天才，其为人是最不幸、最可怜的。我们之所以讴歌天才，无非是将其遥遥安置于天的一方，头顶着天才既成事业的余光，而俯首沉思、想象，遥寄思慕之情。若讴歌天才是为了自己欲作天才，或因艳羡天才并欲得其地位，那就大错特错了。考察历史，就知道今人所已承认的天才，在当时曾经受了孤愤、穷愁、奋斗、迫害，就像是为着把自己痛苦生涯中的滴滴鲜血遗留给后人似的。但是，这些不过是就传之于世的天才而言的。至于那些不见经传的、在世俗压迫下漂泊湖海、沉沦沟壑、犹如断蓬者，则更为多见；自古至今埋没于草莽、淹灭于陋巷的天才，多得无法列举。说天才出现，必受欢迎，至少死后必被歌颂，这是世俗的臆断，这是因为他们以为除了传至现代的天才以外，末尝出过天才。依我所见，天才人物生前无名，身后不存者，肯定十有二三。但是他们不为名誉而动，也不为“不名誉”而动；因为不为所动，这些在他们的生活中便没有意义了。天才都最富于执著之心，所以他们与世俗的战斗必定很猛烈。而通常的情形是寡不敌众，所以天才都战斗不止，死而后已，其中大半死于穷途。这里举出了他们与一般人的“集合意识”做斗争的两三个例证，而且都是以天才战胜而告终的。至于那些跌蹉者，因世人不承认其存在，所以我们也就不再说什么了。
《抒情歌谣集》（Lyrical Ballads，1789年）作为刷新诗界的作品而耸动文坛。当时人们的“集合F”对此抱着什么样的态度呢？我们对此加以考察，可以了解当时的论争状况。《评论月刊》（The Monthly Review，1799年5月）评论说：“集子里所收诗篇，以其幻想，以其流畅，又以其情操，诚然能引起我们的很大的感兴，但是笔者认为，没有必要牺牲古代民谣诗人所想象不到的高级诗法（引者注：即现代发达的诗法），来鼓吹这种写法。踏袭粗野怪异的乔叟的韵脚而自鸣得意，这不但会使诗歌堕落，恐怕早晚也要使英语堕落吧！假如现在不把古代诗人近代化，反而把德莱顿[3]、蒲柏、格雷所吟咏的高雅题目和优丽明媚之调，改变而成14世纪的方言与风格，那将会如何呢？如此倒行逆施，我们得到了什么呢？要仿造古代钱币，带有锈斑是必要的。然而要模仿三四百年前的诗，在现代人的诗作上添加人为的锈斑，这只能说是巧妙的赝品，此外没有赞赏的价值。……”由此可以见当时的时代风潮之一斑。
同一杂志对柯勒律治的《古舟子咏》所写的评语是：“我们并非不承认此诗有微妙的风韵。但其荒唐无稽而且支离灭裂，也是事实。全篇的趣旨在何处，不得而知。有时不免使人觉得，这是故意让参加婚礼的来宾不能入筵席的那种恶作剧。……”可见得当时人大多属群盲，完全不解空冥缥缈之趣。
该杂志（1817年1月）对《克利斯特贝尔》批评道：“唐突芜杂到了这一步，真是令人忍无可忍！而且竟然还有拜伦那样的天才加以推赏！不过现在是诗道久废，比起破坏诗法来，守诗法者反而被世人视为迂腐，所以我不便多说什么了……”因为他们只认古典派的细工雕琢为纯正的诗法，所以评论家才会说出这样的话。
弗朗西斯·杰弗里[4]在《爱丁堡评论》杂志上（1802年10月），批评骚塞的《撒拉巴》（Thalaba the Destroyer），说它妖谲荒唐、不堪卒读：“此种故事，是糊弄小孩子的玩意儿吧。稀奇古怪的东西、层层叠叠的事件，乍看上去似能引人注意，但是这种注意往往会随着新奇之念的消失而很快消失，在好奇之心未满足之前，已令人昏昏了。”由此可知浪漫派的题材是不为当时所容的。杰弗里在此评论中，不单攻击骚塞，同时还攻击了一般的新派。在他看来，新派虽是以简易质朴为主旨，但他们的简易质朴，并不是对虚饰而言的简易质朴，而是对艺术（即在非艺术的意义上）的简易质朴；他又认为，下贱的农夫商贾的情感是不可以吟咏于诗的，因为它们本来就不属于诗。我们读了当时权威批评家弗朗西斯·杰弗里的话，再拿来和现代的评论相比较，真难免有隔世之感。
拜伦的《闲散时光》（Hours of Idleness）是年少时的作品，固不足以代表他的诗才，其瑕疵也显而易见。但布鲁厄姆勋爵在《爱丁堡评论》（1808年1月）这样评论说：“这位公子哥儿的诗，真是神人共厌恶。而他却死死地守住这一种标准，不接近神，也不接近人。”这种话，好像不该是对那席卷全欧的大诗人所做的评语。
简·奥斯丁，如今大家都承认是第一流的作家，是毫无异议的了。然若想一想她的作品是怎样问世的，也就可以明白个中情形。奥斯丁原本不是以文为生的人，只为了消遣而舞文弄墨，结果在18世纪末写成了两三部小说。她写的《傲慢与偏见》，父亲一看便称好，推荐给了出版商卡德尔（Cadell）。据说卡德尔甚至不屑一读，便拒绝出版，父亲也弃之不管了。一代杰作不能问世，在书桌里躺了多年，直到1813年才问世。像《诺桑觉寺》，其命运多舛更甚于前者。购买其书稿的是巴斯的一家... -->>
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