| 词汇 | one touch of nature |
| 词源 | one touch of nature . . . The complete phrase is one touch of nature makes the whole world kin and it has come to mean that any appeal to the basic emotions of people will reveal, by their sympathetic response, the common humanity, the basic kin- ship of all people. Shakespeare, however, meant something quite different when he invented the line for the cynical Ulysses in Troilus and Cressida. There are no eternal verities of the heart, Ulysses says to Achilles; the one natural trait we all share is our preference for what’s au courant, or “in,” latest, no matter how superficial it may be: One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, That all with one consent praise new-born gauds [gaudy novelties] Then marvel not, thou great and complete man, That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax; Since things in motion sooner catch the eye Than what not stirs . . . In a world where there is perpetual chasing of things in mo- tion, Shakespeare’s meaning is far from obsolete. |
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