Old Mr Clare was a clergyman of a type which, within the last twenty years, has wellnigh dropped out of contemporary life. A spiritual descendant in the direct line from Wycliff, Huss, Luther, Calvin; an Evangelical of the Evangelicals, a Conversionist, a man of Apostolic simplicity in life and thought, he had in his raw youth made up his mind once for all on the deeper questions of existence, and admitted no further reasoning on them thenceforward. He was regarded even by those of his own date and school of thinking as extreme; while, on the other hand, those totally opposed to him were unwillingly won to admiration for his thoroughness, and for the remarkable power he showed in dismissing all question as to principles in his energy for applying them. He loved Paul of Tarsus, liked St John, hated St James as much as he dared, and regarded with mixed feelings Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. The New Testament was less a Christiad than a Pauliad to his intelligence - less an argument than an intoxication. His creed of determinism was such that it almost amounted to a vice, and quite amounted, on its negative side, to a renunciative philosophy which had cousinship with that of Schopenhauer and Leopardi. He despised the Canons and Rubric, swore by the Articles, and deemed himself consistent through the whole category which in a way he might have been. One thing he certainly was - sincere.
在最近二十年里，老克莱尔先生这样的牧师都差不多在现代人的生活里消失了。他是从威克利夫、胡斯、马丁·路德和加尔文一派传下来的真正传人，福音教派中的福音教徒，一个劝人信教的传教士，他是一个在生活和思想方面都像基督使徒一样简朴的人，在他毫无人生经验的年轻时候，对于深奥的存在问题就拿定了主意，再也不许有别的理由改变它们。和他同时代的人，还有和他一派的人，都认为他是一个极端的人；同时在另一方面，那些完全反对他的人，看到他那样彻底，看到他在倾注全部的热情运用原理时对所有的疑问都弃之不顾，表现出非同寻常的毅力，也不得不对他表示尊敬佩服。他爱的是塔苏斯的保罗，喜欢的是圣约翰，恨得最厉害的是圣詹姆斯，对提摩西、提多和腓力门则是既爱又恨的复杂感情。按照他的理解，《新约全书》与其说是记载基督的经典，不如说是宣扬保罗的史书——与其说是为了说服人，不如说是为了麻醉人。他深深地信仰宿命论，以至于这种信仰都差不多成了一种毒害，在消极方面简直就和放弃哲学一样，和叔本华与雷奥巴狄的哲学同出一源。他瞧不起法典和礼拜规程，却又坚信宗教条例，并且自己认为在这类问题上是始终如一的——这从某方面说他是做到了的。有一点肯定如此，那就是他的诚实。

To the aesthetic, sensuous, pagan pleasure in natural life and lush womanhood which his son Angel had lately been experiencing in Var Vale, his temper would have been antipathetic in a high degree, had he either by inquiry or imagination been able to apprehend it. Once upon a time Angel had been so unlucky as to say to his father, in a moment of irritation, that it might have resulted far better for mankind if Greece had been the source of the religion of modern civilization, and not Palestine; and his father's grief was of that blank description which could not realize that there might lurk a thousandth part of a truth, much less a half truth or a whole truth, in such a proposition. He had simply preached austerely at Angel for some time after. But the kindness of his heart was such that he never resented anything for long, and welcomed his son to-day with a smile which was as candidly sweet as a child's.
在瓦尔谷，他儿子克莱尔近来过的是自然的生活，接触的是鲜美的女性，得到的是美学的、感官的和异教的快乐，假如他通过打听或者想象知道了，按他的脾性对儿子是会毫不留情的。曾经有一次，安琪尔因为烦恼不幸对他的父亲说，假如现代文明的宗教是从希腊起源的，不是从巴勒斯坦起源的，结果可能对人类要好得多；他的父亲听了这句实实在在的话，不禁痛苦万分，一点儿也没有想到这句话里面会有干分之一的真理，更不用说会认识到里面有一半的真理或者是百分之百的真理了。后来，他不分青红皂白地把儿子狠狠地教训了好些日子。不过，他的内心是那样慈爱，对任何事情也不会恨得很久，看见儿子回家，就微笑着欢迎他，真诚可爱得像一个孩子。