MS. Found in a bottle By Edgar Allan Poe Qui n'a plus qu'un moment a vivre N'a plus rien a dissimuler Quinault-A OF my country and of my family I have little to say. Ill usage and length of years have driven me from the one, and estranged- me from the other. Hereditary wealth afforded me an education of no common order, and a contemplative turn of mind enabled me to methodize the stores which early tudy very diligently garnered up*.-Beyond all things, the study of the German moralists gave me great delight; not from any ill-advised admiration of their eloquent madness, but from the ease with which my habits of rigid thought enabled me to detect their falsities. I have often been reproached with the aridity of my genius, a deficiency of imagination has been imputed to me as a crime, and the Pyrrhonism of my opinions has at all times rendered me notorious. Indeed, a strong relish for physical philosophy has, I fear, tinctured my mind with a very common error of this age-I mean the habit of referring occurrences, even the least susceptible of such reference, to the principles of that science. Upon the whole, no person could be less liable than myself to be led away from the severe precincts of truth by the ignes fatui?of superstition. I have thought proper to premise thus much, lest the incredible tale I have to tell should be considered rather the raving of a crude imagination, than the positive experience of a mind to which the reveries of fancy have been a dead letter and a nullity After many years spent in foreign travel, I sailed in the year 18- from the port of Batavia in the rich and populous island of Java, on a voyage to the Archipelago of the Sunda islands. I went as passenger-having no other inducement than a kind of nervous restlessness which haunted me as a fiend Our vessel was a beautiful ship of about four hundred tons, copper-fastened, and built at Bombay of Malabar teak. She was freighted with cotton-wool and oil, from the Lachadive islands We had also on board coir, jaggeree, ghee, cocoa-nuts, and a few cases of opium. The stowage was clumsily done, and the vessel consequently crank. We got under way with a mere breath of wind, and for many days stood along the eastern coast of Java, without any other incident to beguile the monotony of our course than the occasional meeting with some of the small grabs of the Archipelago to which we were bound One evening, leaning over the taffrail, I observed a very singular, isolated cloud, to the N w. 1此处为法语,意为“人之将死,无密可瞒。 —出自法国剧作家 Phillip quinault的戏剧《Atys》(1976) Estrange疏远,远离 3 turn of mind性情,气质倾向 garner up积累 5 the aridity of my genius指天赋平平 6 Pyrrhonism绝对怀疑主义(古希腊哲学家 Pyrrho所提出的怀疑学说) 7 ignes fatai为拉丁语表示鬼火或虚幻的错觉 8印尼首都雅加达的旧称 coir, jaggeree, ghee, coco a-nuts, and a few cases of opium椰壳纤维、椰子糖、奶油、椰子和几箱鸦片 l0 Taffrail船尾栏杆1 MS. Found in a Bottle By Edgar Allan Poe Qui n'a plus qu'un moment a vivre N'a plus rien a dissimuler. —Quinault—Atys1 OF my country and of my family I have little to say. Ill usage and length of years have driven me from the one, and estranged2 me from the other. Hereditary wealth afforded me an education of no common order, and a contemplative turn of mind3 enabled me to methodize the stores which early study very diligently garnered up4 .—Beyond all things, the study of the German moralists gave me great delight; not from any ill-advised admiration of their eloquent madness, but from the ease with which my habits of rigid thought enabled me to detect their falsities. I have often been reproached with the aridity of my genius5 ; a deficiency of imagination has been imputed to me as a crime; and the Pyrrhonism6 of my opinions has at all times rendered me notorious. Indeed, a strong relish for physical philosophy has, I fear, tinctured my mind with a very common error of this age—I mean the habit of referring occurrences, even the least susceptible of such reference, to the principles of that science. Upon the whole, no person could be less liable than myself to be led away from the severe precincts of truth by the ignes fatui7 of superstition. I have thought proper to premise thus much, lest the incredible tale I have to tell should be considered rather the raving of a crude imagination, than the positive experience of a mind to which the reveries of fancy have been a dead letter and a nullity. After many years spent in foreign travel, I sailed in the year 18—, from the port of Batavia8 , in the rich and populous island of Java, on a voyage to the Archipelago of the Sunda islands. I went as passenger—having no other inducement than a kind of nervous restlessness which haunted me as a fiend. Our vessel was a beautiful ship of about four hundred tons, copper-fastened, and built at Bombay of Malabar teak. She was freighted with cotton-wool and oil, from the Lachadive islands. We had also on board coir, jaggeree, ghee, cocoa-nuts, and a few cases of opium9 . The stowage was clumsily done, and the vessel consequently crank. We got under way with a mere breath of wind, and for many days stood along the eastern coast of Java, without any other incident to beguile the monotony of our course than the occasional meeting with some of the small grabs of the Archipelago to which we were bound. One evening, leaning over the taffrail10, I observed a very singular, isolated cloud, to the N.W. 1 此处为法语，意为“人之将死，无密可瞒。 ——出自法国剧作家 Phillip Quinault 的戏剧《Atys》（1976） 2 Estrange 疏远，远离 3 turn of mind 性情，气质倾向 4 garner up 积累 5 the aridity of my genius 指天赋平平 6 Pyrrhonism 绝对怀疑主义（古希腊哲学家 Pyrrho 所提出的怀疑学说） 7 ignes fatui 为拉丁语表示鬼火或虚幻的错觉 8 印尼首都雅加达的旧称 9 coir, jaggeree, ghee, cocoa-nuts, and a few cases of opium 椰壳纤维、椰子糖、奶油、椰子和几箱鸦片 10 Taffrail 船尾栏杆