WALDEN

Henry David Thoreau

Jan 1924 · YouHui Culture Publishing Company

About this ebook

Economy

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, in Concord,

Massachusetts, 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

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 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 Bramins 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, 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

Iolaus to burn with a hot iron the root of the hydra's head, but as

soon as one head is crushed, two spring up.