Economy
I do not propose to write an ode to dejection, but to brag as lustily as chanticleer [chanticleer〈n.〉公雞] in the morning, standing on his roost, if only to wake my neighbors up.
When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond [Walden Pond 瓦爾登湖，在美國馬薩諸塞州康科德附近，因為本文而著名，並成為原始自然風景的象征。], in Concord, Massachusetts [Massachusetts〈n.〉馬薩諸塞州，位於美國東北的新英格蘭地區，沿東西走向成條狀，長約170英裏，東臨大西洋。], and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner [sojourner〈n.〉寄居者] in civilized life again.
I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained. I will therefore ask those of my readers who feel no particular interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of these questions in this book. In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men’s lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me. Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students. As for the rest of my readers, they will accept such portions as apply to them. I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits.
I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese and Sandwich Islanders [Sandwich Islander 桑威奇島人。桑威奇島，也叫三明治群島，是英國航海家詹姆斯?庫克在1778年1月18日發現夏威夷時，對當地所起的名稱，以紀念時任第一海軍大臣、他的上司兼他的讚助者第四代三明治伯爵。在19世紀晚期開始，這個名稱不再被廣泛使用。] as you who read these pages, who are said to live in New England; something about your condition, especially your outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether it cannot be improved as well as not. I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. What I have heard of Brahmins sitting exposed to four fires and looking in the face of the sun; or hanging suspended, with their heads downward, over flames; or looking at the heavens over their shoulders “until it becomes impossible for them to resume their natural position, while from the twist of the neck nothing but liquids can pass into the stomach”; or dwelling, chained for life, at the foot of a tree; or measuring with their bodies, like caterpillars [caterpillar〈n.〉毛毛蟲], the breadth of vast empires; or standing on one leg on the tops of pillars – even these forms of conscious penance are hardly more incredible and astonishing than the scenes which I daily witness. The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor. They have no friend Iolas to burn with a hot iron the root of the hydra’s head, but as soon as one head is crushed, two spring up.
I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man’s life, pushing all these things before them, and get on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met well nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables [Augean stable 奧吉亞斯國王的牛舍，用來比喻極其肮髒的地方。古希臘傳說中，奧吉亞斯養牛3000頭，牛圈有30年未曾打掃。赫拉克勒斯完成的12項英雄事跡之一，便是引阿爾甫斯河水在一天之內將牛圈衝洗幹淨。奧吉亞斯曾許諾事成之後以牛群的十分之一作為報酬，後因食言被赫拉克勒斯殺死。] never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot! The portionless, who struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh.
But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before. It is said that Deucalion [Deucalion〈n.〉杜卡利翁，古希臘傳說中普羅米修斯的兒子。是在天神懲罰人類的大洪水裏，少數生存下來的古希臘人之一。赫爾墨斯要他們把“地母之骨”拋向背後以複興人類，他們悟出“地母之骨”指的就是石頭，便遵教而行。丈夫拋出的石頭變成了男子，妻子拋出的石頭變成了女子，這些人便成了希臘人的祖先。] and Pyrrha [Pyrrha〈n.〉希臘神話中杜卡利翁的妻子皮拉] created men by throwing stones over their heads behind them: –
Inde genus durum sumus, experiensque laborum,