One half of the passengers, weakened and half-dead with the inconceivable anxiety and sickness which the rolling of a vessel at sea occasions through the whole human frame, were lost to all sense of the danger that surrounded them. The others made loud outcries, or betook themselves to their prayers;the sails were blown into shreds, and the masts were brought by the board.The vessel was a total wreck.Everyone was busily employed, but nobody could be either heard or obeyed.The Anabaptist, being upon deck, lent a helping hand as well as the rest, when a brutish sailor gave him a blow and laid him speechless;but, not withstanding, with the violence of the blow the tar himself tumbled headforemost overboard, and fell upon a piece of the broken mast, which he immediately grasped.Honest James, forgetting the injury he had so lately received from him, few to his assistance, and, with great diffculty, hauled him in again, but, not withstanding, in the attempt, was, by a sudden jerk of the ship, thrown overboard himself, in sight of the very fellow whom he had risked his life to save and who took not the least notice of him in this distress.Candide, who beheld all that passed and saw his benefactor one moment rising above water, and the next swallowed up by the merciless waves, was preparing to jump after him, but was prevented by the philosopher Pangloss, who demonstrated to him that the roadstead of Lisbon had been made on purpose for the Anabaptist to be drowned there.While he was proving his argument a priori, the ship foundered, and the whole crew perished, except Pangloss, Candide, and the sailor who had been the means of drowning the good Anabaptist.The villain swam ashore;but Pangloss and Candide reached the land upon a plank.
As soon as they had recovered from their surprise and fatigue they walked towards Lisbon;with what little money they had left they thought to save themselves from starving after having escaped drowning.
Scarcely had they ceased to lament the loss of their benefactor and set foot in the city, when they perceived that the earth trembled under their feet, and the sea, swelling and foaming in the harbor, was dashing in pieces the vessels that were riding at anchor. Large sheets of fames and cinders covered the streets and public places;the houses tottered, and were tumbled topsy-turvy even to their foundations, which were themselves destroyed, and thirty thousand inhabitants of both sexes, young and old, were buried beneath the ruins.
The sailor, whistling and swearing, cried,“Damn it, there's something to be got here.”
“What can be the sufficing reason of this phenomenon?”said Pangloss.
“It is certainly the day of judgment,”said Candide.
The sailor, defying death in the pursuit of plunder, rushed into the midst of the ruin, where he found some money, with which he got drunk, and, after he had slept himself sober he purchased the favors of the frst good-natured wench that came in his way, amidst the ruins of demolished houses and the groans of half-buried and expiring persons.
Pangloss pulled him by the sleeve.“Friend,”said he,“this is not right, you trespass against the universal reason, and have mistaken your time.”
“Death and zounds!”answered the other,“I am a sailor and was born at Batavia, and have trampled four times upon the crucifix in as many voyages to Japan;you have come to a good hand with your universal reason.”
In the meantime, Candide, who had been wounded by some pieces of stone that fell from the houses, lay stretched in the street, almost covered with rubbish.
“For God's sake,”said he to Pangloss,“get me a little wine and oil!I am dying.”
“This concussion of the earth is no new thing,”said Pangloss,“the city of Lima in South America experienced the same last year;the same cause, the same effects;there is certainly a train of sulphur all the way underground from Lima to Lisbon.”
“Nothing is more probable,”said Candide;“but for the love of God a little oil and wine.”
“Probable!”replied the philosopher,“I maintain that the thing is demonstrable.”
Candide fainted away, and Pangloss fetched him some water from a neighboring spring.
The next day, in searching among the ruins, they found some eatables with which they repaired their exhausted strength. After this they assisted the inhabitants in relieving the distressed and wounded.Some, whom they had humanely assisted, gave them as good a dinner as could be expected under such terrible circumstances.The repast, indeed, was mournful, and the company moistened their bread with their tears;but Pangloss endeavored to comfort them under this affiction by affrming that things could not be otherwise that they were.“For,”said he,“all this is for the very best end, for if there is a volcano at Lisbon it could be in no other spot;and it is impossible but things should be as they are, for everything is for the best.”
By the side of the preceptor sat a little man dressed in black, who was one of the familiars of the Inquisition. This person, taking him up with great complaisance, said,“Possibly, my good sir, you do not believe in original sin;for, if everything is best, there could have been no such thing as the fall or punishment of man.”
“Your Excellency will pardon me,”answered Pangloss, still more politely;“for the fall of man and the curse consequent thereupon necessarily entered into the system of the best of worlds.”
“That is as much as to say, sir,”rejoined the familiar,“you do not believe in free will.”
“Your Excellency will be so good as to excuse me,”said Pangloss,“free will is consistent with absolute necessity;for it was necessary we should be free, for in that the will—”
Pangloss was in the midst of his proposition, when the familiar beckoned to his attendant to help him to a glass of port wine.
船身顛簸打滾,人身上所有的液質(zhì)[8]和神經(jīng)都被攪亂了:這些難以想象的痛苦使半數(shù)乘客軟癱了,快死了,沒有氣力再為眼前的危險著急。另外一半乘客大聲叫喊,做著禱告。帆破了,桅斷了,船身裂了一半。大家忙著搶救,七嘴八舌,各有各的主意,誰也指揮不了誰。雅各幫著做點兒事;他正在艙面上,被一個發(fā)瘋般的水手狠狠一拳打倒在地;水手用力過猛,也摔出去倒掛著吊在折斷的桅桿上。好心的雅各上前援救,幫他爬上來;不料一使勁,雅各竟沖下海去,水手讓他淹死,看都不屑一看。老實人瞧著恩人在水面上冒了一冒,不見了。他想跟著雅各跳海;哲學(xué)家邦葛羅斯把他攔住了,引經(jīng)據(jù)典地說:為了要淹死雅各,海上才有這個里斯本港口的。他正在高談因果以求證明的當(dāng)口,船裂開了,所有的乘客都送了性命,只剩下邦葛羅斯、老實人和淹死善人雅各的野蠻水手,那壞蛋很順利地泅到了岸上;邦葛羅斯和老實人靠一塊木板把他們送上陸地。
他們驚魂略定,就向里斯本進(jìn)發(fā);身邊還剩幾個錢,只希望憑著這點兒盤纏,他們從颶風(fēng)中逃出來的命,不至于再為饑餓送掉。
一邊走一邊悼念他們的恩人;才進(jìn)城,他們覺得地震了[9]。港口里的浪像沸水一般往上直冒,停泊的船給打得稀爛。飛舞回旋的火焰和灰燼,蓋滿了街道和廣場;屋子倒下來,房頂壓在地基上,地基跟著坍毀;三萬名男女老幼都給壓死了。
水手打著呼哨,連咒帶罵地說道:“哼,這兒倒可以發(fā)筆財呢?!?/p>
邦葛羅斯說:“這現(xiàn)象究竟有何根據(jù)呢?”
老實人嚷道:“??!世界末日到了!”
水手闖進(jìn)瓦礫場,不顧性命,只管找錢,找到了便揣在懷里;喝了很多酒,醉醺醺地睡了一覺,在倒坍的屋子和將死已死的人中間,遇到第一個肯賣笑的姑娘,他就掏出錢來買。
邦葛羅斯扯著他袖子,說道:“朋友,使不得,使不得,你違反理性了,干這個事不是時候?!?/p>
水手答道:“天殺的,去你的吧!我是當(dāng)水手的,生在巴太維亞;到日本去過四次,好比十字架上爬過四次。理性,理性,你的理性找錯人了!”
幾塊碎石頭砸傷了老實人;他躺在街上,埋在瓦礫中間,和邦葛羅斯說道:“唉,給我一點兒酒和油吧;我要死了?!?/p>
邦葛羅斯答道:“地震不是新鮮事兒;南美洲的利馬去年有過同樣的震動;同樣的因,同樣的果;從利馬到里斯本,地底下準(zhǔn)有一道硫黃的伏流。”
“那很可能,”老實人說,“可是看在上帝分上,給我一些油和酒呀?!?/p>
哲學(xué)家回答:“怎么說可能?我斷定那是千真萬確的事?!?/p>
老實人暈過去了,邦葛羅斯從近邊一口井里拿了點兒水給他。
第二天,他們在破磚碎瓦堆里爬來爬去,弄到一些吃的,略微長了些氣力。他們跟旁人一同救護(hù)死里逃生的居民。得救的人中有幾個請他們吃飯,算是大難之中所能張羅的最好的一餐。不用說,飯桌上空氣凄涼得很;同席的都是一把眼淚,一口面包。邦葛羅斯安慰他們,說那是定數(shù):“因為那安排得不能再好了;里斯本既然有一座火山,這座火山就不可能在旁的地方。因為物之所在,不能不在,因為一切皆善?!?/p>
旁邊坐著一位穿黑衣服的矮個子,是異教裁判所的一個小官;他挺有禮貌地開言道:“先生明明不信原始罪惡了;倘使一切都十全十美,人就不會墮落,不會受罰了[10]。”
邦葛羅斯回答的時候比他禮貌更周到:“敬請閣下原諒,鄙意并非如此。人的墮落和受罰,在好得不能再好的世界上,原是必不可少的事?!?/p>
那小官兒又道:“先生莫非不信自由嗎?”
邦葛羅斯答道:“敬請閣下原諒;自由與定數(shù)可以并存不悖;因為我們必須自由,因為堅決的意志……”
邦葛羅斯說到一半,那小官兒對手下的衛(wèi)兵點點頭,衛(wèi)兵便過來替他斟包多酒或是什么奧包多酒。
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