In the vignettes and other embellishments of some ancient books you will at times meet with very curious touches at the whale, where all manner of spouts, jets d'eau, hot springs and cold, Saratoga and Baden-Baden, come bubbling up from his unexhausted brain. In the title-page of the original edition of the "Advancement of Learning" you will find some curious whales.
在若干古書的卷首章末各種小花飾中,人們有時(shí)還可以碰到許多有關(guān)鯨的希奇古怪的畫法,在那里,有各式各樣的噴水,噴泉,有溫泉也有冷氣,有薩拉托加(薩拉托加——美國(guó)紐約州的一個(gè)避暑勝地。)也有巴登—巴登(巴登—巴登——德國(guó)巴登的一個(gè)休養(yǎng)地方。),都從它那源源不竭的腦袋里泡沫飛騰地迸射出來(lái)。在初版的《學(xué)術(shù)進(jìn)步論》(《學(xué)術(shù)進(jìn)步論》——英國(guó)唯物主義哲學(xué)家弗蘭西斯。培根的哲學(xué)作品,出版于一六零五年。)的里封上,還可以找到一些奇異的鯨。
But quitting all these uNPRofessional attempts, let us glance at those pictures of leviathan purporting to be sober, scientific delineations, by those who know. In old Harris's collection of voyages there are some plates of whales extracted from a Dutch book of voyages, A.D. 1671, entitled "A Whaling Voyage to Spitzbergen in the ship Jonas in the Whale, Peter Peterson of Friesland, master." In one of those plates the whales, like great rafts of logs, are represented lying among ice-isles, with white bears running over their living backs. In another plate, the prodigious blunder is made of representing the whale with perpendicular flukes.
但是,我們不妨撇開所有這些外行的嘗試,看一看那些出自行家稱為嚴(yán)肅的、科學(xué)的圖解的那種大海獸的畫像吧。在哈里斯(約翰·哈里斯(1666—1719)——英國(guó)的神學(xué)家,地志學(xué)者。)的《航行集》中,就有幾張?chǎng)L的圖版,它們是從一本寫于公元一六七一年,題為《乘佛里斯蘭(佛里斯蘭——在荷蘭北部。)的彼得·彼得遜老板的捕鯨船"鯨肚里的約拿號(hào)"到斯匹茲卑爾根(斯匹茲卑爾根——在挪威北部。)捕鯨記》中選出來(lái)的。在這些圖版中,其中有一幅把那些鯨畫得象大木排躺在冰島中,還有許多白熊在它們的背上奔來(lái)跑去。在另外一個(gè)圖版上,鑄成大錯(cuò)的是把鯨的尾巴畫成垂直的了。
Then again, there is an imposing quarto, written by one Captain Colnett, a Post Captain in the English navy, entitled "A Voyage round Cape Horn into the South Seas, for the purpose of extending the Spermaceti Whale Fisheries."
其次,有一本由一個(gè)名叫科爾內(nèi)特(即詹姆斯·科爾內(nèi)特——生卒年代不詳。)的英國(guó)海軍的小艦長(zhǎng)寫的、富麗堂皇的四開本,那本書題為《為發(fā)展捕抹香鯨業(yè),繞合恩角入南海航行記》。