"Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Celestial Railroad" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hawthorne Nathaniel)

with the inhabitants productive of much amusement and instruction.

Being naturally of a serious turn, my attention was directed to the
solid advantages derivable from a residence here, rather than to the
effervescent pleasures, which are the grand object with too many
visitants. The Christian reader, if he have no accounts of the city
later than Bunyan's time, will be surprised to hear that almost
every street has its church, and that the reverend clergy are
nowhere held in higher respect than at Vanity Fair. And well do they
deserve such honorable estimation; for the maxims of wisdom and virtue
which fall from their lips, come from as deep a spiritual source,
and tend to as lofty a religious aim, as those of the sagest
philosophers of old. In justification of this high praise, I need only
mention the names of the Rev. Mr. Shallow-deep; the Rev. Mr.
Stumble-at-Truth; that fine old clerical character, the Rev. Mr.
This-to-day, who expects shortly to resign his pulpit to the Rev.
Mr. That-to-morrow; together with the Rev. Mr. Bewilderment; the
Rev. Mr. Clog-the-spirit; and, last and greatest, the Rev. Dr.
Wind-of-doctrine. The labors of these eminent divines are aided by
those of innumerable lecturers, who diffuse such a various profundity,
in all subjects of human or celestial science, that any man may
acquire an omnigenous erudition, without the trouble of even
learning to read. Thus literature is etherealized by assuming for
its medium the human voice; and knowledge, depositing all its
heavier particles- except, doubtless, its gold- becomes exhaled into a
sound, which forthwith steals into the ever-open ear of the community.
These ingenious methods constitute a sort of machinery, by which
thought and study are done to every person's hand, without his putting
himself to the slightest inconvenience in the matter. There is another
species of machine for the wholesale manufacture of individual
morality. This excellent result is effected by societies for all
manner of virtuous purposes; with which a man has merely to connect
himself, throwing, as it were, his quota of virtue into the common
stock; and the president and directors will take care that the
aggregate amount be well applied. All these, and other wonderful
improvements in ethics, religion, and literature, being made plain
to my comprehension, by the ingenious Mr. Smooth-it-away, inspired
me with a vast admiration of Vanity Fair.

It would fill a volume, in an age of pamphlets, were I to record
all my observations in this great capital of human business and
pleasure. There was an unlimited range of society- the powerful, the
wise, the witty, and the famous in every walk of life- princes,
presidents, poets, generals, artists, actors, and philanthropists, all
making their own market at the Fair, and deeming no price too
exorbitant for such commodities as hit their fancy. It was well
worth one's while, even if he had no idea of buying or selling, to
loiter through the bazaars, and observe the various sorts of traffic
that were going forward.