Walden — Henry David Thoreau

Walden

Henry David Thoreau · Licencia: Public domain · Fuente

• Produced by Judith Boss, and David Widger ¶1
• Where I Lived, and What I Lived For ¶9
• Former Inhabitants and Winter Visitors ¶21
• =ON THE DUTY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE= ¶26
• Inde genus durum sumus, experiensque laborum, Et documenta damus qua simus origine nati. ¶34
• Or, as Raleigh rhymes it in his sonorous way,-- ¶35
• "From thence our kind hard-hearted is, enduring pain and care, Approving that our bodies of a stony nature are." ¶36
• So much for a blind obedience to a blundering oracle, throwing the stones over their heads behind them, and not seeing where they fell. ¶37
• If I should attempt to tell how I have desired to spend my life in years past, it would probably surprise those of my readers who are somewhat acquainted with its actual history; it would certainly astonish those who know nothing about it. I will only hint at some of the enterprises which I have cherished. ¶55
• For a long time I was reporter to a journal, of no very wide circulation, whose editor has never yet seen fit to print the bulk of my contributions, and, as is too common with writers, I got only my labor for my pains. However, in this case my pains were their own reward. ¶60
• For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snow-storms and rain-storms, and did my duty faithfully; surveyor, if not of highways, then of forest paths and all across-lot routes, keeping them open, and ravines bridged and passable at all seasons, where the public heel had testified to their utility. ¶61
• "As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. ¶80
• "Behold all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die." ¶81
• "The false society of men-- --for earthly greatness All heavenly comforts rarefies to air." ¶84
• So I went on for some days cutting and hewing timber, and also studs and rafters, all with my narrow axe, not having many communicable or scholar-like thoughts, singing to myself,-- ¶95
• Men say they know many things; But lo! they have taken wings-- The arts and sciences, And a thousand appliances; The wind that blows Is all that any body knows. ¶96
• Before winter I built a chimney, and shingled the sides of my house, which were already impervious to rain, with imperfect and sappy shingles made of the first slice of the log, whose edges I was obliged to straighten with a plane. ¶105
• These are all the materials, excepting the timber, stones, and sand, which I claimed by squatter's right. I have also a small woodshed adjoining, made chiefly of the stuff which was left after building the house. ¶108
• I intend to build me a house which will surpass any on the main street in Concord in grandeur and luxury, as soon as it pleases me as much and will cost me no more than my present one. ¶109
• $ 23.44 Deducting the outgoes............ 14.72-1/2 -------- There are left.................. $ 8.71-1/2 ¶116
• Clothing and some incidental expenses within the same dates, though little can be inferred from this item, amounted to ¶123
• $8.40-3/4 Oil and some household utensils........ 2.00 ¶124
• So that all the pecuniary outgoes, excepting for washing and mending, which for the most part were done out of the house, and their bills have not yet been received--and these are all and more than all the ways by which money necessarily goes out in this part of the world--were ¶125
• House................................. $ 28.12-1/2 Farm one year........................... 14.72-1/2 Food eight months....................... 8.74 Clothing, etc., eight months............ 8.40-3/4 Oil, etc., eight months................. 2.00 ------------ In all............................ $ 61.99-3/4 ¶126
• I address myself now to those of my readers who have a living to get. And to meet this I have for farm produce sold ¶127
• $23.44 Earned by day-labor.................... 13.34 -------- In all............................. $36.78, ¶128
• The reader will perceive that I am treating the subject rather from an economic than a dietetic point of view, and he will not venture to put my abstemiousness to the test unless he has a well-stocked larder. ¶132
• "we can make liquor to sweeten our lips Of pumpkins and parsnips and walnut-tree chips." ¶135
• Finally, as for salt, that grossest of groceries, to obtain this might be a fit occasion for a visit to the seashore, or, if I did without it altogether, I should probably drink the less water. I do not learn that the Indians ever troubled themselves to go after it. ¶136
• Not long since I was present at the auction of a deacon's effects, for his life had not been ineffectual:-- ¶142
• "The evil that men do lives after them." ¶143
• "On the fourth morning, the high priest, by rubbing dry wood together, produces new fire in the public square, from whence every habitation in the town is supplied with the new and pure flame." ¶146

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