Economy-1
with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it
in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the
horizon, speaking all passing vessels bound coastwise; to keep up a
inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, that while his own party, who were
best, and sufficient for its coarser and simpler wants; but I think
hotter fires, and the like. When he has obtained those things which
exorbitant market; to keep yourself informed of the state of the
I must shift for myself, I turned my face more exclusively than ever
plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy
uncertainties. So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to
up the fire within us -- and Fuel serves only to prepare that Food
the year, except for a parasol, is unnecessary. In our climate, in
had not discovered that it was necessary for him to make it worth
which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line. You will
servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle
wigwam. It is a mistake to suppose that, in a country where the
life for man in this climate may, accurately enough, be distributed
What distant and different beings in the various mansions of the
faithful herdsman a good deal of trouble by leaping fences; and I
I refer to the degraded poor, not now to the degraded rich. To know
four years, when the country became adapted to agriculture, they
usual evidences of civilization exist, the condition of a very large
last. The luxuriously rich are not simply kept comfortably warm,
absorbed in thought, emphasizing to myself each word separately that
plains, or climbing the mountain-tops. But lo! men have become the
slipped from their bodies at those seasons when the sap is up, and
say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of
to the laborers in our Southern States who produce the staple
were. I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet
necessary that we be troubled, or at least careful. It would be
Granted that the majority are able at last either to own or hire
However, if one designs to construct a dwelling-house, it
the red pine and the black ash, the white grape and the yellow
a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, none so
in the company with a maggot in his head, hatched from an egg
Et documenta damus qua simus origine nati.
This is the reason he is poor; and for a similar reason we are all
breeches. Dress a scarecrow in your last shift, you standing
the average of civilized rulers. Their condition only proves what
accident happens to a gentlemans legs, they can be mended; but if a
little, while the civilized man hires his commonly because he cannot
nor do doves cherish their innocence in dovecots.
called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book,
to live a mans life, pushing all these things before them, and get
nor the Parcae, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with
will be earned. If we suppose him to pay a rent instead, this is
of my contributions, and, as is too common with writers, I got only
shirt. It is desirable that a man be clad so simply that he can lay
adds that they were commonly carpeted and lined within with
fast wearing or are already worn out, and have come to this page to
impossible to combine the hardiness of these savages with the
I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost
shellfish, and not overlaid with it. But, alas! I have been inside
way under the visitor while he is admiring the gewgaws upon the
after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not
roof of spars clear up, and cover the spars with bark or green sods,
same kind, as more and richer food, larger and more splendid houses,
or read every letter sent; to superintend the discharge of imports
pressing wants first. But are the more pressing wants satisfied
and industry of mankind offer. In such a neighborhood as this,
All heavenly comforts rarefies to air."
market. He has no time to be anything but a machine. How can he
Though we are not so degenerate but that we might possibly live
capital, it may not be easy to conjecture where those means, that
by a formula more complicated than the problem itself. To get his
but the poorer for it, and it be the house that has got him. As I
Make-a-stir? How godlike, how immortal, is he? See how he cowers
In short, I went on thus for a long time (I may say it without
progenitors of a noble race of men. But why do men degenerate ever?
nutshell of civility or dilating into an atmosphere of thin and
practically as their fathers did, and are in no sense the
the bargain, running in the face of it. If it had concerned either
When I ask for a garment of a particular form, my tailoress
required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. An
may call endless; a womans dress, at least, is never done.
of living because they preferred it to any other. Yet they honestly
its somersets, but the savage stands on the unelastic plank of
When the soldier is hit by a cannonball, rags are as becoming as
despair is concealed even under what are called the games and
moderate circumstances.
understand it, that was a valid objection urged by Momus against the
clothes are our epidermis, or false skin, which partakes not of our
are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain
timber and a little granite, always in native bottoms. These will
The childish and savage taste of men and women for new patterns
elsewhere. Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our
civilized man secures an abode which is a palace compared with the
highways, then of forest paths and all across-lot routes, keeping
can do. Thinking that when he had made the baskets he would have
imagination -- what Wilberforce is there to bring that about?
though I did not always know whether Jonas or Solomon worked in a
commonly a poor civilized man, while the savage, who has them not,
do, or rather something to be. Perhaps we should never procure a
fame won by his own deeds. Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared
baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling
what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and
us. From the cave we have advanced to roofs of palm leaves, of bark
and beautiful living be laid for a foundation: now, a taste for the
At the present day, and in this country, as I find by my own
prudence at least, as if their principle were to satisfy the more
made by some tailor or dressmaker to their majesties, cannot know
kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the
advance in the condition of man -- and I think that it is, though
full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a travellers cap,
Iolaus to burn with a hot iron the root of the hydras head, but as
whether from savageness, or poverty, or philosophy, ever attempt to
that "the Laplander in his skin dress, and in a skin bag which he
people an institution, in which the life of the individual is to a
torrid sun, would perhaps have nipped his race in the bud if he had
from heaven, bearers of divine gifts to man, I do not see in my mind
to the woods, where I was better known. I determined to go into
invented, not only houses, but clothes and cooked food; and possibly
cornfield the other day, close by a hat and coat on a stake, I
reached a friendly pier -- there is the untold fate of La Prouse;
ay, in all the worlds of the ages. History, Poetry, Mythology! -- I
wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the
we can adorn our houses with beautiful objects the walls must be
philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once
which, though they may be biennials, are cultivated only till they
Shelter and Clothing also serve only to retain the heat thus
life. Fuel, except to cook his Food, is then unnecessary; the sun
loss, of interest, of tare and tret, and gauging of all kinds in it,
despicable alternative. You could sit up as late as you pleased,
left for my proper pursuits, was a question which vexed me even more
the country affords, purely native products, much ice and pine
captured any monster or finished any labor. They have no friend
hire. But, answers one, by merely paying this tax, the poor
live in New England; something about your condition, especially your
has in this or any country risen to the dignity of an art. At
proportion as we are morally and intellectually his superiors! At
present condition of things, and cherish it with the fondness and
Approving that our bodies of a stony nature are."
interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of these
man obtains by his own exertions, has been from the first, or from
run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should
When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I
Empire, then some small counting house on the coast, in some Salem
be free. This did not appear the worst, nor by any means a
enthusiasm of lovers -- and, to some extent, I reckon myself in this
circumstances above the savage, others have been degraded below him.
utensils. The Indians had advanced so far as to regulate the effect
spend borrowed or stolen time, robbing your creditors of an hour.
dwellings, I am deterred, for, so to speak, the country is not yet
a day or two at most, and taken down and put up in a few hours; and
of Henry VIII, or Queen Elizabeth, as much as if it was that of the
only the wise improve their advantages -- it must be shown that it
are set on edge?
might improve them. There are some who complain most energetically
improvements of ages have had but little influence on the essential
we shall be found sailing under false colors, and be inevitably
number; I do not speak to those who are well employed, in whatever
reply. "What!" exclaimed the Indian as he went out the gate, "do
passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow,
sometimes try my acquaintances by such tests as this -- Who could
To anticipate, not the sunrise and the dawn merely, but, if
valued for the fruit they bear at last in the air and light, far
who fail, or the three who succeed? Answer me these questions, and
clothes, than to have a sound conscience. But even if the rent is
with a broken leg than with a broken pantaloon. Often if an
shore; -- to be your own telegraph, unweariedly sweeping the
break through and steal. It is a fools life, as they will find
the public heel had testified to their utility.
improvements in navigation; -- charts to be studied, the position of
-- his old coat, actually worn out, resolved into its primitive
cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people,
arrival; or waiting at evening on the hill-tops for the sky to fall,
than they who fail honestly. Bankruptcy and repudiation are the
his farm with labor on it is so rare that every neighbor can point
it in our own lives? The philosopher is in advance of his age even
Inde genus durum sumus, experiensque laborum,
can do by any precedents, so little has been tried. Whatever have
a more experienced and wiser savage. But to make haste to my own
religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with
is. Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor
One farmer says to me, "You cannot live on vegetable food
one were to wear any sort of coat which the tailor might cut out for
particular field to-day; that was none of my business. I have
the sun materially in his rising, but, doubt not, it was of the last
ancient slough, called by the L藏书网atins aes alienum, anothers brass,
museum, an almshouse, a prison, or a splendid mausoleum instead.
it is evident that the savage owns his shelter because it costs so
him, or, gradually leaving off palm-leaf hat or cap of woodchuck
impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent,
suggested to me that every man who was hard pushed might get such a
as it were a peg to bang the coat on? We worship not the Graces,
the Roman praetors have decided how often you may go into your
I have thought that Walden Pond would be a good place for
it cannot be improved as well as not. I have travelled a good deal
necessity of the young mans providing a certain number of
without any visible, often imaginable, wood-pile, and the forms of
never paint "No Admittance" on my gate.
things, and you would have lost your labor. Nevertheless, we will
not so good as the former.... Some I have seen, sixty or a hundred
divine, but the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself, a
road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty,
shiftless by, who would not soonest salute the scarecrow? Passing a
question which I am tempted to put to the proprietor of such great
inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these
state of society, to cover nakedness, and he may judge how much of
tools of their tools. The man who independently plucked the fruits
part of his life in obtaining gross necessaries and comforts merely,
time -- often the richest freight will be discharged upon a Jersey
obtained, and Clothing and Shelter are wholly or half unnecessary.
anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too;
body is a stove, and food the fuel which keeps up the internal
seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who
day, for if some receive more, others receive less; -- so that he
with our Food, and Clothing, and Shelter, but with our beds, which
get a new suit to do it in; for him the old will do, that has lain
cellar with plank, and wainscot it overhead for a ceiling, raise a
chest, or in a stocking behind the plastering, or, more safely, in
similar accident happens to the legs of his pantaloons, there is no
God in, they will do; will they not? Who ever saw his old clothes
seventy years, not without honor of a kind -- I hear an irresistible
and all the monkeys in America do the same. I sometimes despair of
have prevented some mistakes. This was not the light in which I
been said of the merchants, that a very large majority, even
luxurious than we have, which yet all would admit that man could not
some calculator the vessel often splits upon a rock that should have
the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is
and, whenever you got up, go abroad without any landlord or
authorities, for she "was now in a civilized country, where ...
called. It is not barbarous merely because the printing is
gross necessaries of life and what methods have been taken to obtain
Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of
a regard for the opinions of men, in procuring it, than by a true
remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too late to give up
the South. But to confine myself to those who are said to be in
was so, or to make something else which it would be worth his while
suent.
so that they can live dry and warm in these houses with their entire
now helps to keep them poor as long as they live. I do not mean to
air have their nests, and the foxes their holes, and the savages
rain-storms, and did my duty faithfully; surveyor, if not of
mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would
not maintain his vital heat by better methods than other men?
voice which invites me away from all that. One generation abandons
shall we say richer, who could do with less? I say, beware of all
we unwillingly say our prayers and commit ourselves to
wide, in which the laborers locked up their tools at night; and it
breaks down. But this puts an infinitely worse face on the matter,
the question, perhaps we are led oftener by the love of novelty and
annually, as if all the joints of the agricultural machine were
against the last day, not to betray too green an interest in their
but, unquestionably, that corporations may be enriched. In the long
benefactors of the race, whom we have apotheosized as messengers
nature. By proper Shelter and Clothing we legitimately retain our
utility. Let him who has work to do recollect that the object of
masters that enslave both North and South. It is hard to have a
stock to be taken from time to time, to know how you stand. It is a
by a string. Such a lodge was in the first instance constructed in
has produced better dwellings without making them more costly; and
secondly, in order not to discourage poor laboring people whom they
Or what if I were to allow -- would it not be a singular allowance?
family tomb. The best works of art are the expression of mans
the snow ... in a degree of cold which would extinguish the life of
have had an eye to the unfrequented nooks and corners of the farm;
great surprise, "to be streaming with perspiration at undergoing
the comfort of wearing a suit that fits. They are no better than
be removed without girdling and so destroying the man. I believe
roof, or the saint dwell there so long. Birds do not sing in caves,
in most mens, and yet not voluntarily kept, but inseparable from
to buy. I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but
modern reformers and benefactors of their race. None can be an
Not long since, a strolling Indian went to sell baskets at the
behind them:--
row of them cut or painted on the bark of a tree signified that so
A man who has at length found something to do will not need to
talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as
remarkable ways. What I have heard of Bramins sitting exposed to
experience, a few implements, a knife, an axe, a spade, a
that I speak within bounds when I say that, though the birds of the
is said that a flood-tide, with a westerly wind, and ice in the
-- but mainly to the mass of men who are discontented, and idly
his understanding, I foresee that all men at length establish their
townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call
houses, so called, soon discovers this, for the publicans presume
It may be guessed that I reduce almost the whole advantage of
them. Beside, clothes introduced sewing, a kind of work which you
not leave her mornings work undone. Morning work! By the blushes
any portion of our most primitive ancestor which still survived in
now? When I think of acquiring for myself one of our luxurious
from the ground, and are not treated like the humbler esculents,
combustion in the lungs. In cold weather we eat more, in warm less.
transact some private business with the fewest obstacles; to be
civilization especially prevails, the number of those who own a
wearers character, until we hesitate to lay them aside without such
duty. I also have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most
over their shoulders "until it becomes impossible for them to resume
part they have been toiling twenty, thirty, or forty years, that
not mended, perhaps the worst vice betrayed is improvidence. I
"The false society of men --
becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be
dollars, cowhide boots for a dollar and a half a pair, a summer hat
of the enterprises which I have cherished.
stay outdoors, even in wet and cold. It plays house, as well as
manifestation in dress and equipage alone, obtain for the possessor
it is to live in the open air, and our lives are domestic in more
squalidness may consist with civilization. I hardly need refer now
trying to get into business and trying to get out of debt, a very
amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes
list of town officers, nor make my place a sinecure with a moderate
afford to own it; nor can he, in the long run, any better afford to
admit the air at least, get into it when it rained and at night, and
is suited to the seed, for it has sent its radicle downward, and it
partitions are run through those cellars which are adapted to the
economy managed and sustained, I wonder that the floor does not give
or less of a particular color, the one will be sold readily, the
The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my
the others while to buy them, or at least make him think that it
help for it; for he considers, not what is truly respectable, but
must be a crisis in our lives. The loon retires to solitary ponds
Massachusetts Colony, writing in 1674, says, "The best of their
another. On the one side is the palace, on the other are the
holding this superfluous property as a fund in store against the
are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they
soon as one head is crushed, two spring up.
follows religiously the new. We are amused at beholding the costume
keeps how many shaking and squinting through kaleidoscopes that they
with their heads downward, over flames; or looking at the heavens
not decently buried themselves. The mason who finishes the cornice
labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh.
crop was so light that "they were forced to cut their bread very
animal heat; for while Food may be regarded as the Fuel which keeps
does not measure my character, but only the breadth of my shoulders,
its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land,
in civilized life again.
own internal heat; but with an excess of these, or of Fuel, that is,
conducted, so enterprised or sailed in some way, that we feel like
be at once pilot and captain, and owner and underwriter; to buy and
of the political parties, depend upon it, it would have appeared in
the railroad car we are inclined to spend more on luxury than on
In this course which our ancestors took there was a show of
house-lord dogging you for rent. Many a man is harassed to death to
live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence,
be urged, for our houses are such unwieldy property that we are
plow along in spite of every obstacle. Some things are really
plants by addition without. Our outside and often thin and fanciful
terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but
almost universal respect. But they yield such respect, numerous as
now are, and make our civilization a blessing. The civilized man is
savages. An annual rent of from twenty-five to a hundred dollars
families for two, three, and four years, it being understood that
Comparatively, tattooing is not the hideous custom which it is
purple.
are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy
make a smoky fire against the earth, at the highest side." They did
some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained.
The ancient philosophers, Chinese, Hindoo, Persian, and Greek, were
they were divested of their clothes. Could you, in such a case,
blessing, brought forth bread to feed them," and the first years
fruit is luxury, whether in agriculture, or commerce, or literature,
laws of mans existence; as our skeletons, probably, are not to be
possible, Nature herself! How many mornings, summer and winter,
Netherland, writing in Dutch, in 1650, for the information of those
in a cave or a wigwam or wear skins today, it certainly is better to
in years past, it would probably surprise those of my readers who
limbs and faculties is checked. It cert
九九藏书
ainly is fair to look atclothes. All men want, not something to do with, but something to
pecuniary failures, but merely failures to fulfil their engagements,
may discover the particular figure which this generation requires
built themselves handsome houses, spending on them several
circulation, whose editor has never yet seen fit to print the bulk
I have always endeavored to acquire strict business habits; they
described, what does he want next? Surely not more warmth of the
size of the family. The wealthy and principal men in New England,
over by their predecessors, both the heights and the valleys, and
such a roasting." So, we are told, the New Hollander goes naked
it. If I have any experience which I think valuable, I am sure to
the Fates, and I find it difficult to get made what I want, simply
and new deeds for new. Old people did not know enough once,
When one man has reduced a fact of the imagination to be a fact to
violet, which might have withered else in dry seasons.
hoed them. The stars are the apexes of what wonderful triangles!
Or, as Raleigh rhymes it in his sonorous way,--
to inherit it, being well acquainted with it, as he says. On
a little enterprise and business talent, appeared not so sad as
that just in proportion as some have been placed in outward
see what it was that men most commonly bought at the stores, what
hands. Gookin, who was superintendent of the Indians subject to the
exports of this country, and are themselves a staple production of
from this enterprise, farmers starting for Boston in the twilight,
When I consider my neighbors, the farmers of Concord, who are at
respectable citizen thus gravely teach, by precept and example, the
or art. There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not
reflect that this my Mentors said nothing about.
As for a Shelter, I will not deny that this is now a necessary
I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my
the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die."
shelter is a very small fraction of the whole. The rest pay an
brought over in numbers from Fatherland. In the course of three or
This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there
others?
Finding that my fellow-citizens were not likely to offer me any
But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is
pump, spring lock, a commodious cellar, and many other things. But
other than a travelling dress, when she went to meet the
which in others are luxuries merely, and in others still are
day or night; does any divinity stir within him? His highest duty
we know so much of them as we do. The same is true of the more
not made haste to clothe himself with the shelter of a house. Adam
themselves.
springboards from which much of our civilization vaults and turns
boasting), faithfully minding my business, till it became more and
of a kind of bulrush, and are also indifferently tight and warm, but
people are judged of by their clothes." Even in our democratic New
sell and keep the accounts; to read every letter received, and write
obtained. As for Clothing, to come at once to the practical part of
with impunity, while the European shivers in his clothes. Is it
warmed, like his contemporaries. How can a man be a philosopher and
circumstances, and they know whether they are well employed or not;
Solomon prescribed ordinances for the very distances of trees; and
emphasis of the "they" -- "It is true, they did not make them so
both old and young are permanently contracted by the long habit of
great discoverers and navigators, great adventurers and merchants,
rash. When I hear this oracular sentence, I am for a moment
our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can
for shelter, a housekeeper. We now no longer camp as for a night,
thoughts with winter or the rainy season chiefly, and two thirds of
weather-beaten than when I saw him last. I have heard of a dog that
under some hillside, and, casting the soil aloft upon timber, they
trying to hear what was in the wind, to hear and carry it express!
or cortex; but our shirts are our liber, or true bark, which cannot
paid and settled. However, I have not set my heart on that.
superfluous glow-shoes, and umbrellas, and empty guest chambers for
when he was hungry is become a farmer; and he who stood under a tree
pertinently that a great part of their failures are not genuine
I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese
many times they had camped. Man was not made so large limbed and
you mean to starve us?" Having seen his industrious white neighbors
value by living. Practically, the old have no very important advice
to spend it. Thus also the snake casts its slough, and the
Neva, would sweep St. Petersburg from the face of the earth.
shall assign to thee what thou hast left undone?"
poor that, clad in such a suit, of his own earning, there will not
savage race before it was degraded by contact with the civilized
for some of their coins were made of brass; still living, and dying,
contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every
neighborhood to be avoided is our own scurvy selves. I know one or
gratuitously sometimes, and recruit him with our cordials, before we
means to build farmhouses at first according to their wishes, dig a
desperate things.
live -- that is, keep comfortably warm -- and die in New England at
coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits.
farmers. With regard to the merchants, however, one of them says
is his fire, and many of the fruits are sufficiently cooked by its
my labor for my pains. However, in this case my pains were their
daylight, the rainy season and the winter, to say nothing of the
When a man is warmed by the several modes which I have
and suggests, beside, that probably not even the other three succeed
well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness
entirely unknown.
in the outward form of his life. He is not fed, sheltered, clothed,
generation are accomplished. Such too, to a greater or less extent,
tell surely of any company of civilized men which belonged to the
what is respected. We know but few men, a great many coats and
neighbors land to gather the acorns which fall on it without
Old Johnson, in his "Wonder-Working Providence," speaking of the
are green.... The meaner sort are covered with mats which they make
I do not mean to prescribe rules to strong and valiant natures,
everywhere border our railroads, that last improvement in
simple as the Arabs or the Indians? When I think of the
I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have
contemplated his journey again. He dwelt, as it were, in a tent in
Some of you, we all know, are poor, find it hard to live, are
boards and shingles, of stones and tiles. At last, we know not what
are no worthier than the savages, if he is employed the greater
I will therefore ask those of my readers who feel no particular
today. The manufacturers have learned that this taste is merely
do without it. To many creatures there is in this sense but one
as if they believed that their prospects for life would be ruined if
I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle dove, and am
have inherited with encumbrances, or else bought with hired money --
Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and
that all races at some seasons wear something equivalent to the
Think, also, of the ladies of the land weaving toilet cushions
For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snow-storms and
to them. I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the
tramp of the horse, and even seen the dove disappear behind a cloud,
(these are the country rates) entitles him to the benefit of the
In the savage state every family owns a shelter as good as the
think there is no choice left. But alert and healthy natures
You may say the wisest thing you can, old man -- you who have lived
in this world? I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I
Self-emancipation even in the West Indian provinces of the fancy and
which means a bad neighborhood might be avoided"; and it may still
my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?
are our night-clothes, robbing the nests and breasts of birds to
witness. The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison
encumbrances sometimes outweigh the value of the farm, so that the
more than of the family; though these must be extremely partial and
The farmer is endeavoring to solve the problem of a livelihood
almost entirely of such materials as Nature furnished ready to their
our lives, our houses and streets, furnish no proper pedestal for
which you have actually eaten, or for the coats and shoes which are
and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not
receive the bust of a hero or a saint. When I consider how our
informing as this would be.
creation requires more than Food and Shelter. The necessaries of
and inconsolably of any, because they are, as they say, doing their
a system of earths like ours. If I had remembered this it would
of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us! or, what if
little distance, whether of space or time, laugh at each others
from the observatory of some cliff or tree, to telegraph any new
born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have
thought that they would be glad to have it deeper to keep out the
the enterprises of another like stranded vessels.
to sit by it. We observe cats and dogs acquiring the same second
they are, are so far heathen, and need to have a missionary sent to
inches of palatable grass, with water to drink; unless he seeks the
so well off -- that the lawyer had only to weave arguments, and, by
delay and medical appliances and some such solemnity even as our
consecrate the costume of any people. Let Harlequin be taken with a
business at once, and not wait to acquire the usual capital, using
impropriety is, Who bolsters you? Are you one of the ninety-seven
magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of
soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be
that the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the childrens teeth
harbor, will be fixture enough. You will export such articles as
King and Queen of the Cannibal Islands. All costume off a man is
of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be mans morning work
convenience which there is in a house, the domestic comforts, which
done his part, and then it would be the white mans to buy them. He
long and as broad as they think proper, case the earth inside with
remember well his ignorance -- which his growth requires -- who has
famine. Yet the Middlesex Cattle Show goes off here with eclat
admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle
inclined to answer her with equal mystery, and without any more
clothing is, first, to retain the vital heat, and secondly, in this
fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.
and Eve, according to the fable, wore the bower before other
safety and convenience, and it threatens without attaining these to
I may come at the meaning of it, that I may find out by what degree
those who find their encouragement and inspiration in precisely the
But if my jacket and trousers, my hat and shoes, are fit to worship
complain that this is a cold world; and to cold, no less physical
with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only
paper, Rumford fire-place, back plastering, Venetian blind藏书网s, copper
What makes families run out? What is the nature of the luxury which
almshouse and "silent poor." The myriads who built the pyramids to
travels round the world, from east to west, had got so near home as
not forget that some Egyptian wheat was handed down to us by a
present men make shift to wear what they can get. Like shipwrecked
housewife would sweep out the greater part into the dust hole, and
art is merely to make this low state comfortable and that higher
ever has a valet -- bare feet are older than shoes, and he can make
may have in an affair which affects me so nearly; and, finally, I am
principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad,
skin-deep and unalterable.
is sure to come to earth again beyond that distance. The first
on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met
expression, animal life, is nearly synonymous with the expression,
feet long and thirty feet broad.... I have often lodged in their
cents, or a better be made at home at a nominal cost, where is he so
insist here on the disadvantage of hiring compared with owning, but
watered the red huckleberry, the sand cherry and the nettle-tree,
our thicker garments, constantly worn, are our cellular integument,
themselves to trade for ten or twenty years, in order that they may
the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out
first settlers of this town, with whom he was contemporary, tells us
they may become the real owners of their farms, which commonly they
to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from
designs on us for our benefit, in making the life of a civilized
twenty-five feet on level ground. Without factitious support, man
square pit in the ground, cellar fashion, six or seven feet deep, as
long use has become, so important to human life that few, if any,
will still be indispensable to every such undertaking, were to be
train and breathe a malaria all the way.
"As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any
"those in New Netherland, and especially in New England, who have no
so-called rich and refined life is a thing jumped at, and I do not
begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got
the greatest genuine leap, due to human muscles alone, on record, is
Walden Pond was not to live cheaply nor to live dearly there, but to
who will mind their own affairs whether in heaven or hell, and
like the old philosopher, walk out the gate empty-handed without
them. The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one
estimating the pecuniary value of every mans labor at one dollar a
poor boy, by him perchance to be bestowed on some poorer still, or
well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the
elements, so that it was not a deed of charity to bestow it on some
which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord,
If you would know the history of these homesteads, inquire at the
instance, that the same sun which ripens my beans illumines at once
shall say what prospect life offers to another? Could a greater
obtained than suitable caves, or whole logs, or bark in sufficient
they stored, that is, what are the grossest groceries. For the
which belies that experience, and they are only less young than they
well-wrought embroidered mats, and were furnished with various
first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not
beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where there is no house
not to waste time in building, and not to want food the next season;
the families own a shelter. In the large towns and cities, where
For a long time I was reporter to a journal, of no very wide
sojourner in nature. When he was refreshed with food and sleep, he
dusty in the garret for an indeterminate period. Old shoes will
We don garment after garment, as if we grew like exogenous
resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you
The animal heat is the result of a slow combustion, and disease and
trespass, and what share belongs to that neighbor." Hippocrates has
not "provide them houses," says he, "till the earth, by the Lords
hook down the lid, and so have freedom in his love, and in his soul
with an external heat greater than our own internal, may not cookery
by faith if we can avoid it; all the day long on the alert, at night
Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I
access to a few books, rank next to necessaries, and can all be
I had not made it worth any ones while to buy them. Yet not the
other lie on the shelf, though it frequently happens that after the
empty guests, before he dies? Why should not our furniture be as
to create noblemen and kings. And if the civilized mans pursuits
civilization; where I see in my daily walks human beings living in
hardly more incredible and astonishing than the scenes which I daily
often imprisoned rather than housed in them; and the bad
I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.
Asiatic Russia, she says that she felt the necessity of wearing
four fires and looking in the face of the sun; or hanging suspended,
under the several heads of Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel; for
It is the luxurious and dissipated who set the fashions which
honest though earthy foundation. I cannot but perceive that this
interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if
the window in disgust. How, then, could I have a furnished house?
the modern house with all its improvements. While civilization has
when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they
I will go into business; I will weave baskets; it is a thing which I
is the condition of the operatives of every denomination in England,
dollars, and to lay up this sum will take from ten to fifteen years
The grand necessity, then, for our bodies, is to keep warm, to
own reward.
questions in this book. In most books, the I, or first person, is
then perhaps I may look at your bawbles and find them ornamental.
they should do it. It would be easier for them to hobble to town
-- for earthly greatness
solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with"; and so he
new suit, however ragged or dirty the old, until we have so
In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been
cloth, while the snow was nearly a foot deep around them, and I
become more assimilated to ourselves, receiving the impress of the
generated and absorbed.
be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence
complaining of the hardness of their lot or of the times, when they
the Gazette with the earliest intelligence. At other times watching
he find himself in a workhouse, a labyrinth without a clue, a
be the tombs of the Pharaohs were fed on garlic, and it may be were
independence, and then, as he turned away, got his own leg into it.
cashiered at last by our own opinion, as well as that of mankind.
to him. I doubt if there are three such men in Concord. What has
omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism,
adapted to human culture, and we are still forced to cut our
spiritual bread far thinner than our forefathers did their wheaten.
a la mode.
any retinue at their heels, any carload of fashionable furniture.
own golden or silver fetters.
wear a patch, or two extra seams only, over the knee? Most behave
life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the
put a little dry wood under a pot, and are whirled round the globe
readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my
richest, without ever impoverishing themselves, not knowing how they
for a work of fine art, if any had come down to us, to stand, for
bodies. No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a
and sneaks, how vaguely all the day he fears, not being immortal nor
them do. Only they who go to soires and legislative balls must
anxiety. While one thick garment is, for most purposes, as good as
with the shipping interests? Does not he drive for Squire
Not that all architectural ornament is to be neglected even in the
whimsical. Of two patterns which differ only by a few threads more
present obtained, and to suggest that we may possibly so live as to
think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have. As if
sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields. What old people say you
skin, complain of hard times because he could not afford to buy him
"Behold all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also
from some defect in the draught, the fire goes out. Of course the
made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres,
because it is inconvenient; that is, it is the moral character that
that I might catch something, though I never caught much, and that,
vacation from humbler toil having commenced. The soil, it appears,
not till we have secured these are we prepared to entertain the true
wheelbarrow, etc., and for the studious, lamplight, stationery, and
finer and more abundant clothing, more numerous, incessant, and
night and day; to be upon many parts of the coast almost at the same
rays; while Food generally is more various, and more easily
and boughs, of linen woven and stretched, of grass and straw, of
been thy failures hitherto, "be not afflicted, my child, for who
have been wishing to sell their houses in the outskirts and move
occasional in those climates where the house is associated in our
recently, but they do now." Of what use this measuring of me if she
into the village, but have not been able to accomplish it, and only
their wigwams, in modern civilized society not more than one half
struggle to free himself from this condition, but the effect of our
analogy. It appears, therefore, from the above list, that the
his hands on himself in the dark, and that he live in all respects
with it both theoretically and practically. With a little more wit
that of certain wandering Arabs, who are said to have cleared
serve a hero longer than they have served his valet -- if a hero
outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what
because she cannot believe that I mean what I say, that I am so
to fit? If you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old
of the palace returns at night perchance to a hut not so good as a
our days and nights without any obstruction between us and the
him to be a Sardanapalus, and if he resigned himself to their tender
The luxury of one class is counterbalanced by the indigence of
merely what he has heard of other mens lives; some such account as
What mean ye by saying that the poor ye have always with you, or
If I should attempt to tell how I have desired to spend my life
between the civilized man and the savage; and, no doubt, they have
things, and not sometimes to be content with less? Shall the
But how do the poor minority fare? Perhaps it will be found
room in the court house, or any curacy or living anywhere else, but
I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner
so compactly and preparedly that, if an enemy take the town, he can,
keep the vital heat in us. What pains we accordingly take, not only
"From thence our kind hard-hearted is, enduring pain and care,
new men in the old, and that to retain it would be like keeping new
necessary of life, Food. To the bison of the prairie it is a few
these naked savages, who were farther off, were observed, to his
distance. It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of
still on their trail. Many are the travellers I have spoken
the 九_九_藏_书_网map. Contrast the physical condition of the Irish with that of
an instant? We should live in all the ages of the world in an hour;
is rich as a savage? If it is asserted that civilization is a real
live -- if, indeed, there are any such, as has been dreamed; nor to
it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether
of life, though there are instances of men having done without it
secure all the advantage without suffering any of the disadvantage.
We may imagine a time when, in the infancy of the human race,
business, not solely on account of the railroad and the ice trade;
but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent.
mercies he would soon be completely emasculated. I think that in
in the beginning of the colonies, commenced their first
for a quarter of a dollar, and a winter cap for sixty-two and a half
lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house
ottomans, and sun-shades, and a hundred other oriental things, which
know of no reading of anothers experience so startling and
least as well off as the other classes, I find that for the most
its very nature. I would gladly tell all that I know about it, and
at the foot of a tree; or measuring with their bodies, like
to pay, tomorrow, and dying today, insolvent; seeking to curry
but have settled down on earth and forgotten heaven. We have
-- but commonly they have not paid for them yet. It is true, the
masquerade. Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but
must have spent more than half his life commonly before his wigwam
inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand
wooden horses to hang the clean clothes on. Every day our garments
When we consider what, to use the words of the catechism, is the
at once name a dozen in the town who own their farms free and clear.
bury himself. Nevertheless this points to an important distinction
that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge."
after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do
Ireland, which is marked as one of the white or enlightened spots on
oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering
applying to the assessors, I am surprised to learn that they cannot
are somewhat acquainted with its actual history; it would certainly
that "they burrow themselves in the earth for their first shelter
houses are built and paid for, or not paid for, and their internal
than it does now, for unfortunately I am become somewhat callous, I
ages imply this advantage, at least, that they left him still but a
struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it
state to be forgotten. There is actually no place in this village
these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students. As
kingly, not manly. They make shift to live merely by conformity,
So many autumn, ay, and winter days, spent outside the town,
consequent use of it, at first a luxury, arose the present necessity
instead of studying how to make it worth mens while to buy my
anything to the purpose. Here is life, an experiment to a great
adopted Christianity merely as an improved method of agri-culture.
summer, in some climates, makes possible to man a sort of Elysian
tells me gravely, "They do not make them so now," not emphasizing
capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he
stones over their heads behind them, and not seeing where they fell.
go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the
Southern overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of
of consanguinity They are related to me, and what authority they
necessaries of life in some circles, the most helpless and diseased,
future, so far as the individual is concerned, mainly to the
which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is
less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and
for long periods in colder countries than this. Samuel Laing says
are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been
mantelpiece, and let him through into the cellar, to some solid and
they come in contact with our lives, like the tenement of the
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called
to fodder and water his horses! What is his destiny to him compared
The very simplicity and nakedness of mans life in the primitive
the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the
and buried by this others brass; always promising to pay, promising
help of men. They would have to be passed through a powerful press
clothes. Man wanted a home, a place of warmth, or comfort, first of
markets, prospects of war and peace everywhere, and anticipate the
hindered from accomplishing which for want of a little common sense,
to his wardrobe. Kings and queens who wear a suit but once, though
fit of the colic and his trappings will have to serve that mood too.
Let us consider for a moment what most of the trouble and
probably, man did not live long on the earth without discovering the
perchance, to fetch fresh fuel to keep the fire a-going; new people
rich in inward. We know not much about them. It is remarkable that
but a doubtful choice of evils. Would the savage have been wise to
how happens it that he who is said to enjoy these things is so
steady despatch of commodities, for the supply of such a distant and
Deucalion and Pyrrha created men by throwing stones over their heads
he has set his trap with a hair spring to catch comfort and
thin for a long season." The secretary of the Province of New
afford to pay for. Shall we always study to obtain more of these
that class by whose labor the works which distinguish this
something else to prevent the caving in of the earth; floor this
wigwams, and found them as warm as the best English houses." He
first, to squeeze their old notions out of them, so that they would
race. But I wish to show at what a sacrifice this advantage is at
impartial or wise observer of human life but from the vantage ground
interest with which, when young, he looked at shelving rocks, or any
reefs and new lights and buoys to be ascertained, and ever, and
was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when
why should he have a better dwelling than the former?
is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is,
the effeminate natives of the Celestial Empire, which Jonathan
their lives have been such miserable failures, for private reasons,
about mine! No doubt, many of my townsmen have met me returning
as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost. One may
the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his
mummy.
instant. Confucius said, "To know that we know what we know, and
sailors, they put on what they can find on the beach, and at a
it offers advantages which it may not be good policy to divulge; it
Consider first how slight a shelter is absolutely necessary. I have
patch in his clothes; yet I am sure that there is greater anxiety,
luxuries. As Chapman sings,
On the whole, I think that it cannot be maintained that dressing
judge of him. The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on
Economy()
most respected class? When Madam Pfeiffer, in her adventurous
getting anything quite simple and honest done in this world by the
intellectualness of the civilized man? According to Liebig, mans
midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the
prepare this shelter within a shelter, as the mole has its bed of
vaporous generosity, that you may persuade your neighbor to let you
thus. Yet he adds, "They are not hardier than other people." But,
quantities, or even well-tempered clay or flat stones. I speak
houses are covered very neatly, tight and warm, with barks of trees,
life, it appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode
concerning them, describing their tracks and what calls they
one exposed to it in any woollen clothing." He had seen them asleep
results of all exploring expeditions, using new passages and all
extent untried by me; but it does not avail me that they have tried
Every child begins the world again, to some extent, and loves to
them open, and ravines bridged and passable at all seasons, where
manna-wise, would dissolve again in the sun.
death will set them free.
for clothes are but our outmost cuticle and mortal coil. Otherwise
of the wind by a mat suspended over the hole in the roof and moved
rooted himself thus firmly in the earth, but that he may rise in the
is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.
circulation, than go to heaven in the fancy car of an excursion
boards and shingles, lime and bricks, are cheaper and more easily
life, and may be stripped off here and there without fatal injury;
ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and
We have built for this world a family mansion, and for the next a
annual tax for this outside garment of all, become indispensable
leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain
vital heat is not to be confounded with fire; but so much for
clothes on, but was easily quieted by a naked thief. It is an
but unnaturally hot; as I implied before, they are cooked, of course
enervates and destroys nations? Are we sure that there is none of
as they must believe; and it may be that they have some faith left
answered to. I have met one or two who had heard the hound, and the
some enterprising mortal crept into a hollow in a rock for shelter.
even left directions how we should cut our nails; that is, even with
barked at every stranger who approached his masters premises with
caterpillars, the breadth of vast empires; or standing on one leg on
which is the great workhouse of the world. Or I could refer you to
-- universal science to be kept pace with, studying the lives of all
strength. The incessant anxiety and strain of some is a well-nigh
bank where they are mortgaged. The man who has actually paid for
this world, and was either threading the valleys, or crossing the
to suit customers; while a thick coat can be bought for five
it cannot so be disposed of. A comfortable house for a rude and
robust but that he must seek to narrow his world and wall in a space
though you must everywhere build on piles of your own driving. It
foolish.
such slender means as I had already got. My purpose in going to
rudest periods; but let our houses first be lined with beauty, where
them; or even to look over the old day-books of the merchants, to
I would rather sit in the open air, for no dust gathers on the
By the words, necessary of life, I mean whatever, of all that
any necessary or important work may be accomplished without adding
the Indian gazettes a wigwam was the symbol of a days march, and a
house which Minerva made, that she "had not made it movable, by
almost doubt if the wisest man has learned anything of absolute
incurable form of disease. We are made to exaggerate the importance
deposited there nobody knows when, for not even fire kills these
more to use this proverb in Israel.
pardon some obscurities, for there are more secrets in my trade than
average house in this neighborhood costs perhaps eight hundred
as demand a universal knowledge.
shoestrings he speculates in herds of cattle. With consummate skill
seen Penobscot Indians, in this town, living in tents of thin cotton
puts over his head and shoulders, will sleep night after night on
in man! Look at the teamster on the highway, wending to market by
experiment.
the North American Indian, or the South Sea九九藏书网 Islander, or any other
fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we
house of a well-known lawyer in my neighborhood. "Do you wish to
tendencies of trade and civilization -- taking advantage of the
so often to use his knowledge? We should feed and clothe him
should be ashamed to know the names of. I would rather sit on a
sometimes, as it were, gasping for breath. I have no doubt that
well clothed and sitting close to a fire, were far from too warm,
who wished to take up land there, states more particularly that
thousands."
live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change.
So much for a blind obedience to a blundering oracle, throwing the
all things to have been cared for. According to Evelyn, "the wise
be found wise men to do him reverence?
wine in old bottles. Our moulting season, like that of the fowls,
from the accidental discovery of the warmth of fire, and the
perchance build more magnificently and spend more lavishly than the
are indispensable to every man. If your trade is with the Celestial
can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to
we had been taken sick? How vigilant we are! determined not to live
accept the advantages, though so dearly bought, which the invention
present our houses are cluttered and defiled with it, and a good
elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the
I have looked after the wild stock of the town, which give a
soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly
used to see a large box by the railroad, six feet long by three
made into great flakes, with pressure of weighty timber, when they
though this was pleasant enough in serene and warm weather, by
get on in the enjoyment of the fine arts which adorn it, my
we might use these materials so as to become richer than the richest
labor to task the faculties of a man -- such problems of profit and
universe are contemplating the same one at the same moment! Nature
Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only.
and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who
a crown! It is possible to invent a house still more convenient and
wind. Formerly, when how to get my living honestly, with freedom
was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn
lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me. Perhaps
their natural position, while from the twist of the neck nothing but
the herd so diligently follow. The traveller who stops at the best
exchange his wigwam for a palace on these terms?
dwelling-houses in this fashion for two reasons: firstly, in order
before yet any neighbor was stirring about his business, have I been
in saving their souls, but are perchance bankrupt in a worse sense
distinguished from those of our ancestors.
favor, to get custom, by how many modes, only not state-prison
and Sandwich Islanders as you who read these pages, who are said to
fates! As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
cushion. I would rather ride on earth in an ox cart, with a free
or woodchoppers going to their work. It is true, I never assisted
become no better than a modern drawing-room, with its divans, and
side of the globe, to barbarous and unhealthy regions, and devote
such as fitted him. He was at first bare and out of doors; but
As this business was to be entered into without the usual
three thin ones, and cheap clothing can be obtained at prices really
or to increase the warmth of our bodies by addition from without --
one or two of them, and know what they are lined with.
hardy race, that lived mostly out of doors, was once made here
the very tedium and ennui which presume to have exhausted the
The cart before the horse is neither beautiful nor useful. Before
he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has
than social, we refer directly a great part of our ails. The
Economy is a subject which admits of being treated with levity, but
the ends of the fingers, neither shorter nor longer. Undoubtedly
We might try our lives by a thousand simple tests; as, for
to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future,
horse, having an instinct for it. Who does not remember the
defraying of funeral expenses. But perhaps a man is not required to
chief end of man, and what are the true necessaries and means of
buy any baskets?" he asked. "No, we do not want any," was the
the summer, it was formerly almost solely a covering at night. In
man. Yet I have no doubt that that peoples rulers are as wise as
wood all round the wall, and line the wood with the bark of trees or
grass and leaves at the end of its burrow! The poor man is wont to
ninety-seven in a hundred, are sure to fail, is equally true of the
make his shoes, or his hat, or his coat, or his carriage, or import
astonish those who know nothing about it. I will only hint at some
have new coats, coats to change as often as the man changes in them.
lives on that basis.
purpose, so that most would not know them in their flowering season.
I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by
thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to
lapse of a season the latter becomes the most fashionable.
I well-nigh sunk all my capital in it, and lost my own breath into
warmth, then the warmth of the affections.
and we may regard one third of that toil as the cost of their houses
do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.
tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot! The portionless, who
frozen to death in such a box as this. I am far from jesting.
And when the farmer has got his house, he may not be the richer
-- that our furniture should be more complex than the Arabs, in
of the laborers life, even if he is not encumbered with a family --
some of you who read this book are unable to pay for all the dinners
have perfected their root, and often cut down at top for this
some magic, wealth and standing followed -- he had said to himself:
may now send its shoot upward also with confidence. Why has man
some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the
problems of life with freedom and a prospect of success. Man has
and no housekeeper.
variety and the joys of life are as old as Adam. But mans
with the speed of birds, in a way to kill old people, as the phrase
and they seemed as anxious to recover them as if they had lost them
when they get to the end of it, if not before. It is said that
my seniors. They have told me nothing, and probably cannot tell me
sties, and all winter with an open door, for the sake of light,
properly be said to begin? Darwin, the naturalist, says of the
poor in respect to a thousand savage comforts, though surrounded by
of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer,
body of the inhabitants may not be as degraded as that of savages.
this I should not need to look farther than to the shanties which
phrase may have originally signified the satisfactions of the house
Shelter of the forest or the mountains shadow. None of the brute
the "They" at all, as if she quoted an authority as impersonal as
farm itself becomes one great encumbrance, and still a man is found
wisest have ever lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor.
the sincere life passed within it which restrain laughter and
superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be
miracle take place than for us to look through each others eyes for
for my sight has been whetted by experience; always on the limits,
grass, unless where man has broken ground.
improvements of centuries, spacious apartments, clean paint and
caterpillar its wormy coat, by an internal industry and expansion;
the superfluities; and that is, to adventure on life now, his
pay the rent of a larger and more luxurious box who would not have
the brick bank; no matter where, no matter how much or how little.
The whole ground of human life seems to some to have been gone
anxiety which I have referred to is about, and how much it is
the tops of pillars -- even these forms of conscious penance are
It is very evident what mean and sneaking lives many of you live,
behooves him to exercise a little Yankee shrewdness, lest after all
all when you are the slave-driver of yourself. Talk of a divinity
stripped, and our lives must be stripped, and beautiful housekeeping
from Hanno and the Phoenicians down to our day; in fine, account of
great extent absorbed, in order to preserve and perfect that of the
obtained at a trifling cost. Yet some, not wise, go to the other
shrinking from cold and misery, and the development of all their
know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their
it. There is not a nail to hang a picture on, nor a shelf to
life, not only theoretically, but practically. The success of great
pitiful or grotesque. It is only the serious eye peering from and
death take place when this is too rapid; or for want of fuel, or
been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who
pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet
attention being wholly occupied with the jump; for I remember that
every family owned one, or its apartment in one.
offenses; lying, flattering, voting, contracting yourselves into a
England towns the accidental possession of wealth, and its
bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious
I have, indeed, never got audited, still less accepted, still less
commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched
dollars, which will last as many years, thick pantaloons for two
liquids can pass into the stomach"; or dwelling, chained for life,
be good ventures. To oversee all the details yourself in person; to
to give the young, their own experience has been so partial, and
is a good port and a good foundation. No Neva marshes to be filled;
laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves
Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere
recognized the owner of the farm. He was only a little more
we are taking west with us, invented for the ladies of the harem and
something against a sick day, something to be tucked away in an old
We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow
scholars and thinkers is commonly a courtier-like success, not
approach to a cave? It was the natural yearning of that portion,
understandingly on this subject, for I have made myself acquainted
more evident that my townsmen would not after all admit me into the
same proportion into the heavens above? -- for the nobler plants are
enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of
summer and winter, which would buy a village of Indian wigwams, but
senses than we think. From the hearth the field is a great
ever, the logarithmic tables to be corrected, for by the error of
one for a dollar, and, having bored a few auger holes in it, to
of what we should call voluntary poverty. Of a life of luxury the
his groceries for him; making yourselves sick, that you may lay up
two families, at least, in this town, who, for nearly a generation,
allowance. My accounts, which I can swear to have kept faithfully,
not soon get upon their legs again; and then there would be some one
celestial bodies, if the poet did not speak so much from under a
for the rest of my readers, they will accept such portions as apply
clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made
importance only to be present at it.
twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or