Unit 4B - Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts
Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts
Bruce Catton
When Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met in the parlor of a modest house at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, to work out the terms for the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, a great chapter in American life came to a close, and a great new chapter began.
These men were bringing the Civil War to its virtual finish. To be sure, other armies had yet to surrender, and for a few days the fugitive Confederate government would struggle desperately and vainly, trying to find some way to go on living now that its chief support was gone. But in effect it was all over when Grant and Lee signed the papers. And the little room where they wrote out the terms was the scene of one of the poignant, dramatic contrasts in American history.
They were two strong men, these oddly different generals, and they represented the strengths of two conflicting currents that, through them, had come into final collision.
Back of Robert E. Lee was the notion that the old aristocratic concept might somehow survive and be dominant in American life.
Lee was tidewater Virginia, and in his background were family, culture, and tradition... the age of chivalry transplanted to a New World which was making its own legends and its own myths. He embodied a way of life that had come down through the age of knighthood and the English country squire. America was a land that was beginning all over again, dedicated to nothing much more complicated than the rather hazy belief that all men had equal rights, and should have an equal chance in the world. In such a land Lee stood for the feeling that it was somehow of advantage to human society to have a pronounced inequality in the social structure. There should be a leisure class, backed by ownership of land; in turn, society itself should be keyed to the land as the chief source of wealth and influence. It would bring forth (according to this ideal) a class of men with a strong sense of obligation to the community; men who lived not to gain advantage for themselves, but to meet the solemn obligations which had been laid on them by the very fact that they were privileged. From them the country would get its leadership; to them it could look for the higher values—of thought, of conduct, of personal deportment—to give it strength and virtue.
Lee embodied the noblest elements of this aristocratic ideal. Through him, the landed nobility justified itself. For four years, the Southern states had fought a desperate war to uphold the ideals for which Lee stood. In the end, it almost seemed as if the Confederacy fought for Lee; as if he himself was the Confederacy... the best thing that the way of life for which the Confederacy stood could ever have to offer. He had passed into legend before Appomattox. Thousands of tired, underfed, poorly clothed Confederate soldiers, long since past the simple enthusiasm of the early days of the struggle, somehow considered Lee the symbol of everything for which they had been willing to die. But they could not quite put this feeling into words. If the Lost Cause, sanctified by so much heroism and so many deaths, had a living justification, its justification was General Lee.
Grant, the son of a tanner on the Western frontier, was everything Lee was not. He had come up the hard way, and embodied nothing in particular except the eternal toughness and sinewy fiber of the men who grew up beyond the mountains. He was one of a body of men who owed reverence and obeisance to no one, who were self-reliant to a fault, who cared hardly anything for the past but who had a sharp eye for the future.
These frontier men were the precise opposites of the tidewater aristocrats. Back of them, in the great surge that had taken people over the Alleghenies and into the opening Western country, there was a deep, implicit dissatisfaction with a past that had settled into grooves. They stood for democracy, not from any reasoned conclusion about the proper ordering of human society, but simply because they had grown up in the middle of democracy and knew how it worked. Their society might have privileges, but they would be privileges each man had won for himself. Forms and patterns meant nothing. No man was born to anything, except perhaps to a chance to show how far he could rise. Life was competition.
Yet along with this feeling had come a deep sense of belonging to a national community. The Westerner who developed a farm, opened a shop or set up in business as a trader, could hope to prosper only as his own community prospered—and his community ran from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada down to Mexico. If the land was settled, with towns and highways and accessible markets, he could better himself.
He saw his fate in terms of the nation's own destiny. As its horizons expanded, so did his. He had, in other words, an acute dollars-and-cents stake in the continued growth and development of his country.
And that, perhaps, is where the contrast between Grant and Lee becomes most striking. The Virginia aristocrat, inevitably, saw himself in relation to his own region. He lived in a static society which could endure almost anything except change. Instinctively, his first loyalty would go to the locality in which that society existed. He would fight to the limit of endurance to defend it, because in defending it he was defending everything that gave his own life its deepest meaning.
The Westerner, on the other hand, would fight with an equal tenacity for the broader concept of society. He fought so because everything he lived by was tied to growth, expansion, and a constantly widening horizon. What he lived by would survive or fall with the nation itself. He could not possibly stand by unmoved in the face of an attempt to destroy the Union. He would combat it with everything he had, because he could only see it as an effort to cut the ground out from under his feet.
So Grant and Lee were in complete contrast, representing two diametrically opposed elements in American life. Grant was the modern man emerging; beyond him, ready to come on the stage, was the great age of steel and machinery, of crowded cities and a restless, burgeoning vitality. Lee might have ridden down from the old age of chivalry, lance in hand, silken banner fluttering over his head. Each man was the perfect champion of his cause, drawing both his strengths and his weaknesses from the people he led.
Yet it was not all contrast, after all. Different as they were—in background, in personality, in underlying aspiration—these two great soldiers had much in common. Under everything else, they were marvelous fighters. Furthermore, their fighting qualities were really very much alike.
Each man had, to begin with, the great virtue of utter tenacity and fidelity. Grant fought his way down the Mississippi Valley in spite of acute personal discouragement and profound military handicaps. Lee hung on in the trenches at Petersburg after hope itself had died. In each man there was an indomitable quality... the born fighter's refusal to give up as long as he can still remain on his feet and lift his two fists.
参考译文——对比研究格兰特和李
对比研究格兰特和李
布鲁斯·卡顿
1865年4月9日，尤利西斯·辛普森·格兰特和罗伯特·爱德华·李在弗吉尼亚阿波马托克斯的一间普通的会客厅里会面，并商议李的北弗吉尼亚军队投降的条件，这意味着在美国历史上一个伟大的篇章宣告结束，进而一个新的伟大篇章拉开了序幕。
这两个人最终将美国内战画上了句号。诚然还有一些军队在负隅顽抗，在接下来的一段日子里，逃亡的联邦政府还会作最后的徒劳挣扎，企图在失去主力部队之后寻找再生力量。事实上格兰特和李在签署文件时一切就已经宣告结束了。他们签订条款的那个小房间却成了美国历史上令人动容，极具反差、极富戏剧性的场所之一。
他们是两位强人，这两位迥然不同的将军代表立场相左的两股势力，通过他们这两股势力进行了最后一次交锋。
罗伯特·爱德华·李代表的观点认为，古老的贵族观念可以通过某种方式存活下来，并在美国社会中占统治地位。
李生于弗吉尼亚的沿海低洼地区，家庭、文化和传统等联系起来构成了他的背景。他所处的时代正是由骑士时代向崇尚创造个人传奇和个人神话的新世界转变的时代。他所体现的生活方式由骑士时代和英国乡绅时代传承而来。美国这片土地上，一切都将重新开始，人们崇尚的也不是什么复杂的信仰，不过是“人人生而平等、机会均等”这个模糊的主张。在这片大陆上，李所代表的观点认为：社会结构上有一种明显的不平等，在某种程度上对人类社会是有益的。应该有一个依靠土地所有权支撑的安逸的阶层。反过来，社会自身也会以土地作为财富和影响力的主要来源。（根据这一理想）这将促生一个对社会有强烈责任感的阶级，这个阶级中的人活着不再是为自己谋利益，而是要履行因为他们本身享有特权而肩负的那份庄严的义务。国家领导人将会从他们当中产生。国家将能从他们身上看到崇高的思想价值、行为价值和个人价值，来获取力量和品德。
李体现了这种贵族理想中的最高贵的品质。通过他，拥有土地的贵族阶层能证明自己存在的合理性。在四年中，南方诸州孤注一掷地发动战争来维护李代表的理想。最后，联邦政府看起来像是在为李而战，好像李本身就代表了南部联邦……是联邦政府代表的生活方式所能造就的最优秀的人。在阿波马托克斯之前他就已经成了传奇人物。成千上万疲惫不堪、食不果腹、衣衫褴褛的联邦士兵，经过了战争初期单纯的热情之后，在某种程度上把李当作他们随时可以为之献身的所有理想的象征。但是他们不会将这种情感化为文字表达出来。这个失败的奋斗目标，已经因如此之多的英勇行为和流血牺牲变得神圣，倘若它还有一个存在的理由，这个理由就是李将军。
格兰特是西部边疆一个制革匠的儿子，和李完全不同。他成长的道路是艰辛的，他展现出的正是在山边长大的人所具有的一贯的坚韧和健壮。他是那种不敬畏任何人也不向任何人屈膝的人，是那种极其自立的人，他不关心过去，但是却敏锐地关注着未来。
这些来自边疆的人与生活在沿海低洼地区的贵族们截然相反。在他们身后，一股激流已经把人们从阿勒格尼山脉带到了开放的西部疆土，这些人意识中潜藏着一种对墨守成规的过去的深深不满。他们支持民主，并非源于对人类社会合理秩序的理性思考得出的结论，而是因为他们成长于民主环境下，了解民主是如何运作的。他们的社会中也许有特权，但他们要获得这些必须自己去争取。现有的规矩和模式对他们来说一文不值。也许除了一个能够展示个人潜力的机会，人生来就一无所有。生活就是竞争。
但是与这种思想同时存在的是一种对国家的深深的归属感。那些开垦农场、经营商店，甚至成立公司经商的西部人，只有在国家繁荣昌盛的条件下才可能兴旺发达。他们的国家从大西洋扩展到太平洋，从加拿大延伸到墨西哥。如果人们在这片土地上定居，建立城镇、高速公路和开放的市场，他们能获得更大的成功。
他将个人的命运与国家的命运紧密相连。随着国家的疆域变得开阔，他们的视野也随之开阔了。换句话说，这个国家的持续成长和发展与他的经济利益息息相关。
或许，这就是格兰特和李最显著的不同之处吧。这位弗吉尼亚贵族不可避免地把自己同其所生存的地区联系在一起。他生活在一个固定的社会模式中，只要不改变社会模式，它就能够忍耐任何事。从本能上讲他首要的忠诚便是维护当地社会模式的存在。他会用尽全力去捍卫它，因为在捍卫这种社会模式的同时他也在捍卫着赋予他生命最深刻意义的一切东西。
相反，西部人会用同样的坚韧精神为更广泛的社会理念而奋斗。他为之奋斗是因为他赖以生存的一切都与发展、扩张和不断延伸的疆域相联系。他赖以生存的一切都与这个国家共存亡。看到有人企图分裂联邦，他不可能坐视不管。他愿意竭尽全力与之作战，因为他认为这一做法就是要使他的理想落空。
因此，格兰特和李是完全不同的，他们代表美国历史上截然不同的两派。格兰特是正在崛起的现代人，继他之后，准备要登上历史舞台的便是伟大的钢铁和机器时代、拥挤的城市、骚动不安又生机勃勃的活力。而李则好像是从古老的骑士时代骑马而来，手握长枪，丝绸旗在头上飘扬。他们两个都是各自事业的完美捍卫者，从他们所领导的人民那里获取他们的强势与弱点。
然而两人并非完全不同。尽管有背景、性格以及志向方面的不同，这两个伟大的军人却也有很多的共同点。除去其他的，他们都是伟大的战士。而且他们的战斗品质都非常相似。
首先，这两个人都具有坚强的意志和忠诚的品质。格兰特在个人受挫和军事上处于严重不利的局面时，仍率军沿密西西比河挺进。李则在希望全无之后仍坚持在彼得斯堡的战壕里作战。两个人都具有百折不挠的品质……两个生就的斗士，只要没有倒下，还能挥拳，就不会放弃战斗。
他们都骁勇而且足智多谋，他们思维敏捷并能先发制人。这样的品质为李在第二次马纳萨斯战役和钱瑟勒斯维尔战役中赢得了荣耀，同时为格兰特在维克斯堡赢得了胜利。
最后一个，也许是最伟大的一个品质就是在战斗结束后能迅速地从战争转向和平。格兰特和李在阿波马托克斯的谈判使调停和平成为可能。在战后的几年中，这一可能性并没有全部实现，但是最终促使双方重新统一成一个国家……而这场战争的残酷性本来使重新统一完全不可能。他们在阿波马托克斯的麦克莱小屋的短暂会面是他们一生中最伟大的时刻。他们在那里的和谈使美国人的后代受益无穷。这两位伟大的美国人——格兰特和李——迥然不同却又非常相似。他们在阿波马托克斯的会谈成为了美国历史上伟大的一刻。
Key Words:
concept ['kɔnsept]
n. 概念，观念
scene [si:n]
n. 场，景，情景
dramatic [drə'mætik]
adj. 戏剧性的，引人注目的，给人深刻印象的
poignant ['pɔinənt]
adj. 悲伤的，痛切的，严厉的，尖锐的，剧烈的，浓烈的
collision [kə'liʒən]
n. 碰撞，冲突
grant [grɑ:nt]
n. 授予物，补助金; 同意，给予
n. 财产
dominant ['dɔminənt]
adj. 占优势的，主导的，显性的
n. 主宰
modest ['mɔdist]
adj. 谦虚的，适度的，端庄的
survive [sə'vaiv]
vt. 比 ... 活得长，幸免于难，艰难度过
surrender [sə'rendə]
v. 投降，让与，屈服
dedicated ['dedi.keitid]
adj. 专注的，献身的，专用的
source [sɔ:s]
n. 发源地，来源，原始资料
virtue ['və:tju:]
n. 美德，德行，优点，贞操
complicated ['kɔmplikeitid]
adj. 复杂的，难懂的
advantage [əd'vɑ:ntidʒ]
n. 优势，有利条件
vt. 有利于
community [kə'mju:niti]
n. 社区，社会，团体，共同体，公众，[生]群落
conduct [kən'dʌkt]
n. 行为，举动，品行
v. 引导，指挥，管理
obligation [.ɔbli'geiʃən]
n. 义务，责任
inequality [.ini'kwɔliti]
n. 不平等，不平均，差异，多变性，不等式
solemn ['sɔləm]
adj. 庄严的，严肃的，隆重的
particular [pə'tikjulə]
adj. 特殊的，特别的，特定的，挑剔的
legend ['ledʒənd]
n. 传说，传奇
desperate ['despərit]
adj. 绝望的，不顾一切的
except [ik'sept]
vt. 除，除外
prep. & conj.
uphold [ʌp'həuld]
v. 支撑，赞成，鼓励
obeisance [əu'beisəns]
n. 鞠躬，敬礼
tanner ['tænə]
n. 制革工人
symbol ['simbəl]
n. 符号，标志，象征
fault [fɔ:lt]
n. 缺点，过失，故障，毛病，过错，[地]断层
justification [.dʒʌstifi'keiʃən]
n. 辩护，证明正当，释罪
dissatisfaction [.dissætis'fækʃən]
n. 不满
competition [kɔmpi'tiʃən]
n. 比赛，竞争，竞赛
democracy [di'mɔkrəsi]
n. 民主，民主制，民主国家
precise [pri'sais]
adj. 精确的，准确的，严格的，恰好的
frontier ['frʌntjə]
n. 边界，边境，尖端，边缘
conclusion [kən'klu:ʒən]
n. 结论
implicit [im'plisit]
adj. 含蓄的，暗示的，固有的，无疑问的，无保留的，绝
settled ['setld]
adj. 固定的；稳定的 v. 解决；定居（settle
prosper ['prɔspə]
vi. 繁盛，成功，兴旺
ordering ['ɔ:dəriŋ]
n. [计]定序；排序；订购 v. 命令；指挥；订购
acute [ə'kju:t]
adj. 敏锐的，剧烈的
grant [grɑ:nt]
n. 授予物，补助金; 同意，给予
n. 财产
endurance [in'djuərəns]
n. 忍耐，忍耐力，耐性
tenacity [ti'næsiti]
n. 坚韧，固执，不屈不挠，顽固
survive [sə'vaiv]
vt. 比 ... 活得长，幸免于难，艰难度过
loyalty ['lɔiəlti]
n. 忠诚，忠心
expansion [iks'pænʃən]
n. 扩大，膨胀，扩充
combat ['kɔmbət]
n. 争斗，战斗
vt. 打斗
unmoved
adj. 不动摇的；无动于衷的
striking ['straikiŋ]
adj. 吸引人的，显著的
contrast ['kɔntræst,kən'træst]
n. 差别，对比，对照物
v. 对比，成对照<
banner ['bænə]
n. 旗帜，横幅，大标题
adj. 特别好的，
aspiration [.æspə'reiʃən]
n. 渴望，热望，抱负，志向
n. 吸气，抽吸
acute [ə'kju:t]
adj. 敏锐的，剧烈的
spite [spait]
n. 恶意，怨恨
vt. 刁难，伤害
marvelous ['mɑ:viləs]
adj. 令人惊异的，了不起的，不平常的
utter ['ʌtə]
adj. 全然的，绝对，完全
v. 发出，作声
machinery [mə'ʃi:nəri]
n. (总称)机器，机械
burgeoning
adj. 增长迅速的；生机勃勃的 v. 迅速发展；成长（
profound [prə'faund]
adj. 深奥的，深邃的，意义深远的
resourcefulness
n. 足智多谋
impossible [im'pɔsəbl]
adj. 不可能的，做不到的
encounter [in'kauntə]
n. 意外的相见，遭遇
v. 遇到，偶然碰到，
reconciliation [.rekənsili'eiʃən]
n. 调和，和解
n. [会]对账
grant [grɑ:nt]
n. 授予物，补助金; 同意，给予
n. 财产
bitterness ['bitənis]
n. 苦味，悲痛，怨恨
dazzling ['dæzliŋ]
adj. 令人眼花缭乱的，耀眼的 动词dazzle的现在
参考资料：
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第三册:U4B Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts Bruce Catton(1)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第三册:U4B Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts Bruce Catton(2)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第三册:U4B Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts Bruce Catton(3)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第三册:U4B Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts Bruce Catton(4)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第三册:U4B Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts Bruce Catton(5)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第三册:U4B Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts Bruce Catton(6)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 现代大学英语精读(第2版)第三册:U4B Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts Bruce Catton(7)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
1867
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