May 10, 2024 • 38 mins
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Chapter one, LibriVox, Part two. Most of the luxuries in many of
these so called comforts of life arenot only not indispensable, but positive hindrances
to the elevation of mankind. Withrespect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest
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have ever lived a more simple andmeager life than the poor. The ancient
philosophers Chinese, Hindu, Persian,and Greek were a class than which none
has been poorer in outward riches,none so rich in inward We know not
much about them. It is remarkablethat we know so much of them as
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we do. The same is trueof the more modern reformers and benefactors of
their race. None can be animpartial or wise observer of human life.
But from the vantage round of whatwe should call voluntary poverty of a life
of luxury, the fruit is luxury, whether in agriculture or commerce, or
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literature or art. There are nowadaysprofessors of philosophy, but not philosophers.
Yet it is admirable to profess,because it was once admirable to live.
To be a philosopher is not merelyto have subtile thoughts, nor even to
found a school, but so tolove wisdom as to live according to its
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dictates, a life of simplicity,independence, magnanimity, and trust. It
is to solve some of the problemsof life, not only theoretically but practically.
The success of great scholars and thinkersis commonly a courtier like success,
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not kingly, not manly. Theymake shift to live merely by conformity,
practically as their fathers did, andare in no sense the progenitors of a
noble race of men. But whydo men degenerate? Ever? What makes
families run out? What is thenature of the luxury which enervates and destroys
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nations? Are we sure that thereis none of it in our own lives?
The philosopher is in advance of hisage. Even in the outward form
of his life. He is notfed, sheltered, clothed, warmed like
his contemporaries. How can a manbe a philosopher and not maintain his vital
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heat by better methods than other men? When a man is warmed by the
several modes which I have described,what does he want next? Surely not
more warmth of the same kind asmore and richer food, larger and more
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splendid houses, finer and more abundantclothing, more numerous, incessant and hotter
fires, and the like. Whenhe has obtained those things which are necessary
to life, there is another alternativethan to obtain the superfluities, and that
is to adventure on life. Nowhis vacation from humbler toil having commenced.
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The soil, it appears, issuited to the seed, for it has
sent its radical downward, and itmay now send its shoot upward also with
confidence. Why has man rooted himselfthus firmly in the earth, but that
he may rise in the same proportioninto the heavens above. For the nobler
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plants are valued for the fruit theybear at last in the air and light
far from the ground, and arenot treated like the humblower esculence, which
though they may be biennials, andcultivated only till they have perfected their root,
and often cut down at top forthis purpose, so that most would
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not know them in their flowering season. I do not mean to prescribe rules
to strong and valiant natures, whomind their own affairs, whether in heaven
or hell, and perchance build moremagnificently and spend more lavishly than the richest,
without ever impoverishing themselves, not knowinghow they live, if indeed there
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are any such as has been dreamed. Nor to those who find their encouragement
and inspiration in precisely the present conditionof things, and cherish it with the
fondness and enthusiasm of lovers, Andto some extent I reckon myself in this
number. I do not speak tothose who are well employed in whatever circumstances,
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and they know whether they are wellemployed or not, but mainly to
the mass of men who are discontentedand idly complaining of the hardness of their
lot or of the times when theymight improve them. There are some who
complain most energetically and inconsolably of anybecause they are, as they say,
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doing their duty. I also havein mind that seemingly wealthy, but most
terribly impoverished class of all, whohave accumulated dross but know not how to
use it or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden
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or silver fetters. If I shouldattempt 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 actualhistory. It would certainly astonish those who
know nothing about it. I willonly hint at some of the enterprises which
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I have cherished in any weather,at any hour of the day or night.
I have been anxious to improve thenick of time, and notch it
on my stick too, to standon the meeting of two eternities, the
past and future, which is preciselythe present moment. To tow that line,
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you will pardon some obscurities, forthere are more secrets in my trade
than in most men's, and yetnot voluntarily kept, but inseparable from its
very nature. I would gladly tellall that I know about it, and
never paint no admittance on my gait. I long ago lost hound, a
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bay horse, and a turtle dove, and am still on their trail.
Many are the travelers I have spokenconcerning them, describing their tracks, and
what cause they answered to. Ihave met one or two who had heard
the hound and the tramp of thehorse, and even seen the dove disappear
behind a cloud, And they seemedas anxious to recover them as if they
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had lost them themselves. To anticipatenot the sunrise and the dawn merely,
but if possible nature herself. Howmany mornings summer and winter before yet any
neighbor was stirring about his business.Have I been about mine? No doubt.
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Many of my townsmen have met mereturning from this enterprise, farmers starting
for Boston and the twilight, orwood choppers going to their work. It
is true I never assisted the sunmaterially in his rising, but doubt not
it was of the last importance onlyto be present at it. So many
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autumn days and winter days spent outsidethe town trying to hear what was in
the wind, to hear and carryit express, I well nigh sunk all
my capital in it, and lostmy own breath into the bargain running in
the face of it. If ithad concerned either of the political parties depend
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upon it, it would have appearedin the gazette with the earliest intelligence.
At other times, watching from theobservatory of some cliff or tree to telegraph
any new arrival, or waiting atevening on the hilltops for the sky to
fall that I might catch something,though I never caught much, and that
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manner wise would dissolve again in thesun. For a long time I was
reporter to a journal of no verywide circulation, whose editor has never yet
seen fit to print the bulk ofmy contributions. And as is too common
with writers, I got only mylabor for my pains. However, in
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this case, my pains were theirown reward. For many years I was
self appointed inspector of snow storms andrain storms, and did my duty faithfully
surveyor, if not of highways,then of forest paths and all across lot
roots, keeping them open and ravinesbridged and passable at all seasons where the
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public heel had testified to their utility. I have looked after the wild stock
of the town, which give afaithful herdsman a good deal of trouble by
leaping fences. And I have hadan eye to the unfrequented nooks and corners
of the farm. Though I didnot always know whether Jonas or Solomon worked
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in a particular field to day,that was none of my business. I
have watered the red huckleberry, thesand cherry, and the nettle tree,
the red pine and the black ash, the white grape and the yellow violet,
which might have withered else in dryseasons. In short, I went
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on thus for a long time,I may say it without boasting, faithfully
minding my business till it became moreand more evident that my townsmen would not,
after all admit me into the listof town officers, nor make my
place a cynosure with a moderate allowance. My accounts, which I can swear
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to have kept faithfully, I haveindeed never got audited, still less accepted,
still less paid and settled. However, I have not set my heart
on that. Not long since astrolling Indian went to sell baskets at the
house of a well known lawyer inmy neighborhood. Do you wish to buy
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any baskets? He asked? No, we do not want any, was
the reply. What exclaimed the Indianas he went out the gate, do
you mean to starve us? Havingseen his industrious white neighbors so well off
that the lawyer had only to weavearguments, and by some magic wealth and
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standing followed, he had said tohimself, I will go into business.
I will weave baskets. It isa thing which I can do, thinking
that when he had made the baskets, he would have done his part,
and then it would be the whiteman's to buy them. He had not
discovered that it was necessary for himto make it worth the others while to
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buy them, or it least makehim think that it was so, or
to make something else which it wouldbe worth his while to buy. I
too had woven a kind of basketof a delicate texture, but I had
not made it worth any one's whileto buy them. Yet, not the
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less in my case did I thinkit worth my while to weave them.
And instead of studying how to makeit worth men's while to buy my baskets,
I studied rather how to avoid thenecessity of selling them. The life
which men praise and regard as successful, is but one kind. Why should
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we exaggerate any one kind at theexpense of the others. Finding that my
fellow citizens were not likely to offerme any room in the court house,
or any curacy, or living anywhereelse, but I must shift for myself,
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I turned my face more exclusively thanever to the woods, where I
was better known. I determined togo into business at once, and not
wait to acquire the usual capital usingsuch slender means as I had already got.
My purpose in going to walden Pondwas not to live cheaply, nor
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to live dearly there, but totransact some private business with the fewest obstacles
to be hindered from accomplishing, which, for want of a little common sense,
a little enterprise and business talent,appeared, not so sad as foolish.
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I have always endeavored to acquire strictbusiness habits. They are indispensable to
every man. If your trade iswith the celestial Empire, then some small
counting house on the coast, insome Salem Hume harbor will be fixture enough.
You will export such articles as thecountry affords purely native products, much
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ice and pine, timber, anda little granite, always in native bottoms.
These will be good ventures. Tooversee all the details yourself in person,
To be at once pilot and captain, and owner and underwriter, to
buy and sell and keep the accounts. To read every letter received, and
write or read every letter sent.To superintend the discharge of imports night and
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day, to be upon many partsof the coast almost at the same time.
Often the richest freight will be dischargedupon a Jersey shore. To be
your own telegraph, unweariedly sweeping thehorizon, speaking all passing vessels, bound
coastwise, to keep up a steadydispatch of commodities for the supply of such
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a distant and exorbitant market. Tokeep yourself informed of the state of the
markets, prospects of war and peaceeverywhere, and anticipate the tendencies of trade
and civilization, taking advantage of theresults of all exploring expeditions using new passages,
and all improvements in navigation charts tobe studied, the position of reefs
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and new lights and boys to beascertained, and ever and ever the logarithmic
tables to be corrected for by theerror of some calculator. The vessel often
splits upon a rock that should havereached a friendly peer. There is the
untold fate of La Prouse. Universalscience to be kept pace with studying the
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lives of all great discoverers and navigators, great adventurers and merchants, from Hanno
and the Phoenicians down to our day. In fine account of stock, to
be taken from time to time toknow how you stand. It is a
labor to task the faculties of aman, such problems of profit and loss
of interest, of tear and tretengaging of all kinds in it as demand
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a universal knowledge. I have thoughtthat walden Pond would be a good place
for business, not solely on accountof the railroad and the ice trade.
It offers advantages which it may notbe good policy to divulge. It is
a good port and a good foundation. No never marshes to be filled,
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though you must everywhere build on pilesof your own driving. It is said
that a flood tide with a westerlywind and ice in the Neva would sweep
Saint Petersburg from the face of theearth. As this business was to be
entered into without the usual capital,it may not be easy to conjecture where
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those means that will still be indispensableto every such undertaking were to be obtained.
As for clothing, come at onceto the practical part of the question.
Perhaps we are led oftener by thelove of novelty and a regard for
the opinions of men in procuring it, than by a true utility. Let
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him who has work to do recollectthat the object of clothing is first to
retain the vital heat, and secondly, in this state of society, to
cover nakedness. And he may judgehow much of any necessary or important work
may be accomplished without adding to hiswardrobe. Kings and queens who wear a
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suit but once, though made bysome tailor or dressmaker to their majesties,
cannot know the comfort of wearing asuit that fits. They are no better
than wooden horses to hang the cleanclothes on. Every day our garments become
more assimilated to ourselves, receiving theimp press of the wearer's character, until
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we hesitate to lay them aside withoutsuch delay, and medical appliances, and
some such solemnity even as our bodies. No man ever stood the lower in
my estimation, for having a patchin his clothes. Yet I am sure
that there is greater anxiety commonly tohave fashionable, or at least clean and
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unpatched clothes than to have a soundconscience. But even if the rent is
not mended, perhaps the worst vicebetrayed is improvidence. I sometimes try my
acquaintances by such tests as this,Who could wear a patch or two extra
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seams only over the knee? Mostbehave as if they believed that their prospects
for life would be ruined if theyshould do it. It would be easier
for them to hobble to town witha broken leg than with a broken pantuluon.
Often, if an accident happens toa gentleman's legs, they can be
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mended. But if a similar accidenthappens to the legs of his pantaloons,
there is no help for it.For he considers not what is truly respectable,
but what is respected. We knowbut few men, a great many
coats and breeches, dress a scarecrowin your latest shift, You standing shiftless
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by, who would not soonest salutethe scarecrow passing a cornfield the other day
close by a hat and coat ona steak, I recognized the owner of
the farm. He was only alittle more weather beaten than when I saw
him last. I have heard ofa dog that barked at every stranger who
approached his master's premises with clothes on, but as easily quieted by a naked
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thief. It is an interesting questionhow far men would retain their relative rank
if they were divested of their clothes. Could you, in such a case
tell surely of any company of civilizedmen which belonged to the most respected class.
When Madame Pfeiffer, in her adventuroustravels around the world from east to
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west, had got so near homeas Asiatic Russia. She says that she
felt the necessity of wearing other thana traveling dress when she went to meet
the authorities, for she was nowin a civilized country where people are judged
by their clothes. Even in ourdemocratic New England towns. The accidental possession
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of wealth and its manifestation in dressand equipage alone obtain for the possessor almost
universal respect. But they yield suchrespect numerous as they are are so far
heathen, and need to have amissionary sent to them. Besides clothes introduced,
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sewing a kind of work which youmay call endless. A woman's dress,
at least is never done. Aman who has at length found something
to do will not need to geta new suit to do it in for
him, the old will do thathas lain dusty in the garret for an
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indeterminate period. Old shoes will servea hero longer than they have served his
valet. If a hero ever hasa valet, bare feet are older than
shoes, and he can make themdo Only those who go to soirees and
legislative balls must have new coats,coats to change as often as the man
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changes in them. But if myjacket and trousers, my hat and shoes
are fit to worship God in,they will do, will they not?
Whoever saw his old clothes, hisold coat actually worn out, resolved into
its primitive elements, so that itwas not a deed of charity to bestow
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it on some poor boy, byhim perchance to be bestowed on some poorer
still, or shall we say richerwho could do with less? I say,
beware of all enterprises that require newclothes, and not rather a new
wearer of clothes. If there isnot a new man, how can the
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new clothes be made to fit?If you have any enterprise, before you
try it in your old clothes.All men want not something to do with,
but something to do, or rathersomething to be. Perhaps we should
never procure a new suit, howeverragged or dirty, the old, until
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we have so con so enterprised orsailed in some way that we feel like
new men in the old, andthat to retain it would be like keeping
new wine in old bottles. Ourmolting season, like that of the fowls,
must be a crisis in our lives, the loon retires to solitary ponds
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to spend it. Thus, alsothe snake casts its slough, and the
caterpillar its wormy coat by an internalindustry and expansion. For clothes are but
our outmost cutical and mortal coil.Otherwise we shall be found sailing under false
colors and be inevitably cashiered at lastby our own opinion, as well as
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that of mankind. We don garmentafter garment, as if we grew like
exogenous plants. By addition, withoutour outside and often thin and fanciful clothes
are our epidermis, our false skin, which partakes not of our life,
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and may be stripped off here andthere without fatal injury. Our thicker garments,
constantly worn are our cellular, integumentor cortex. But our shirts are
our liber or true bark, whichcannot be removed without girdling and so destroying
the man. I believe that allraces, at some seasons wear something equivalent
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to the shirt. It is desirablethat a man be clad so simply that
he can lay his hands on himselfin the dark, and that he live
in all respects so compactly and preparedlythat if an enemy take the town,
he can, like the old philosopher, walk out the gate empty handed without
anxiety. While one thick garment isfor most purposes as good as three thin
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ones, and cheap clothing can beobtained at prices really to suit customers,
while a thick coat can be boughtfor five dollars which will last as many
years, thick pantaloons for two dollars, cowhide boots for a dollar and a
half, a pair a summer hatfor a quarter of a dollar, and
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a winter cap for sixty two anda half cents, or a better be
made at home at a nominal cost. Where is he so poor that,
clad in such a suit of hisown earning, there will not be found
wise men to do him reverence.When I ask for a garment of a
particular form, my tailoress tells megravely, they do not make them so
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now, not emphasizing the they atall, as if she quoted an authority
as impersonal as the fates. AndI find it difficult to get what I
want, simply because she cannot believethat I mean what I say. That
I am so rash when I hearthis oracular sentence, I am, for
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a moment absorbed in thought, emphasizingto myself each word separately, that I
may come at the meaning of it, that I may find out by what
degree of consanguinity they are related tome, and what authority they may have
in an affair which affects me.So nearly and finally, I am inclined
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to answer her with equal mystery,and without any more emphasis of the they
quote. It is true they didnot make them so recently, but they
do now end quote. Of whatuse this measuring of me? If she
does not measure my character but onlythe breadth of my shoulders, as it
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were a peg to bang the coaton. We worship not the graces nor
the parsee, but fashion. Shespins, weaves, and cuts with full
authority. The head monkey at Parisputs on a traveler's cap, and all
the monkeys in America do the same. I sometimes despair of getting anything quite
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simple and honest done in this worldby the help of men. They would
have to be passed through a powerfulpress, first to squeeze their old notions
out of them, so that theywould not so soon get upon their legs
again. And then there would besomeone in the company with a maggot in
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his head, hatched from an eggdeposited there. Nobody knows when, for
not even fire kills these things,and you would have lost your labor.
Nevertheless, we will not forget thatsome Egyptian wheat was handed down to us
by a mummy. On the whole, I think that it cannot be maintained
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that dressing has in this or anycountry, risen to the dignity of an
art. Present men make shift towear what they can get. Like shipwrecked
sailors. They put on what theycan find on the beach, and at
a little distance, whether of spaceor time, laugh at each other's masquerade.
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
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We are amused at beholding the costumeof Henry the Eighth or Queen Elizabeth,
as much as if it was thatof the King and Queen of the Cannibal
Islands. All costume off a manis pitiful or grotesque. It is only
the serious eye peering from and thesincere life passed within it, which restrain
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laughter and consecrate the costume of anypeople. Let Harlequin be taken with a
fit of the colic, and histrappings will have to serve that mood too.
When the soldier is hit by acannon ball, rags are as becoming
as purple. The childish and savagetaste of men and women for new patterns
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keeps how many shaking and squinting throughkaleidoscopes, that they may discover the particular
figure which this generation requires. Today, the manufacturers have learned that this
taste is merely whimsical. Of twopatterns which differ only by a few threads
more or less of a particular color, the one will be sold readily,
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the other lie on the shelf,though it frequently happens that after the lapse
of a season, the latter becomesthe more fashionable. Comparatively, tattooing is
not the hideous custom which it iscalled. It is not barbarous merely because
the printing is skin deep and unalterable. I cannot believe that our factory system
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is the best mode by which menmay get clothing. The condition of the
operatives is becoming every day more likethat of the English, and it cannot
be wondered at since, as faras I have heard, or observed.
The principal object is not that mankindmay be well and honestly clad, but
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unquestionably that corporations may be enriched inthe long run. Men hit only what
they aim at. Therefore, thoughthey should fail immediately, they had better
aim at something high. As fora shelter, I will not deny that
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this is now a necessary of life, though there are instances of men having
done without it for long periods incolder countries than this. Samuel Lang says
that quote the laplander, in hisskin dress and in a skin bag which
he puts over his head and shoulders, will sleep night after night on the
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snow, in a degree of cold, which would exc distinguished the life of
one exposed to it in any woolenclothing. He had seen them asleep.
Thus, yet he adds quote,they are not hardier than other people.
End. But probably the man didnot live long on the earth without discovering
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the convenience which there is in ahouse, the domestic comforts which phrase may
have originally signified the satisfactions of thehouse more than of the family, though
these must be extremely partial and occasionalin those climates where the house is associated
in our thoughts, with winter orthe rainy season chiefly, and two thirds
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of the year, except for aparasol, is unnecessary in our climate.
In the summer it was formerly almostsolely a covering at night. In the
Indian gazettes, a wigwam was thesymbol of a day's march, and a
row of them cut her painted onthe bark of a tree signified that so
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many times they had camped. Manwas not made so large, limbed and
robust, but that he must seekto narrow his world and wall in a
space such as fitted him. Hewas at first bare and out of doors,
But though this was pleasant enough inserene and warm weather by daylight,
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the rainy season and the winter,to say nothing of the torrid sun,
would perhaps have nipped his race inthe bud if he had not made haste
to clothe himself with the shelter ofa house. Adam and Eve, according
to the fable, wore the bowerbefore other clothes. Man wanted a home,
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a place of warmth or comfort,first of warmth, then the warmth
of the affections. We may imaginea time when, in the infancy of
the human race, some enterprising mortalcrept into a hollow in a rock for
shelter. Every child begins the worldagain to some extent, and loves to
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stay outdoors, even in wet andcold. It plays house as well as
horse, having an instinct for it. Who does not remember the interest with
which, when young he looked atshelving rocks, or any approach to a
cave. It was the natural yearningof that portion, any portion of our
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most primitive ancestor, which still survivedin us. From the cave we have
advanced to roofs of palm, leavesof bark, and boughs of linen woven
and stretched of grass and straw,of boards, and shingles of stones and
tiles. At last we know notwhat it is to live in the open
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air, and our lives are domesticin more senses than we think. From
the hearth, the field is agreat distance. It would be well,
perhaps, if we were to spendmore of our days and nights without any
obstruction between us and the celestial bodies, if the poet did not speak so
much from under a roof, orthe saint dwell there so long. Birds
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do not sing in caves, nordo doves cherish their innocence in dovecots.
However, if one designs to constructa dwelling house, it behooves him to
exercise a little Yankee shrewdness, lest, after all, he find himself in
a workhouse, a labyrinth without aclue, a museum, an almshouse,
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a prison, or a splendid mausoleum. Instead, consider first, how slight
a shelter is absolutely necessary. Ihave seen Panobscot Indians in this town living
in tents of thin cotton cloth whilethe snow was nearly a foot deep around
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them, and I thought that theywould be glad to have it deeper to
keep out the wind. Formerly,when how to get my living honestly with
freedom left for my proper pursuits,was a question which vexed me even more
than it does now, for unfortunatelyI am become somewhat callous. I used
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to see a large box by therailroad, six feet long by three wide,
in which the laborers locked up theirtools at night, and it suggested
to me that every man who hashard pushed might get such a one for
a dollar, and having bored afew auger holes in it to admit the
air at least get into it whenit rained, and at night, and
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hook down the lid, and sohave freedom in his love and in his
soul, be free. This didnot appear the worst, nor by any
means a despicable alternative. You couldsit up as late as you pleased,
and whenever you got up, goabroad, without any landlord or house lord
dogging you for rent. Many aman is harassed to death to pay the
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rent of a larger and more luxuriousbox. Who would not have frozen to
death in such a box as this? I am far from jesting. Economy
is a subject which admits of beingtreated with levity. But I cannot so
be disposed of a comfortable house fora rude and hardy race that lived mostly
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out of doors was once made herealmost entirely of such materials as nature furnished
ready to their hands. Guchan,who was superintendent of the Indians subject to
the Massachusetts Colony, writing in sixteenseventy four, says, quote, the
best of their houses are covered veryneatly, tight and warm, with barks
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of trees slipped from their bodies.At those seasons when the sap is up
and may into great flakes with pressureof weighty timber when they are green.
The meaner sort are covered with mats, which they make of a kind of
bulrush, and are also indifferently tightand warm, but not so good as
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the former. Some I have seensixty or a hundred feet long and thirty
feet broad. I have often lodgedin their wigwams, and found them as
warm as the best English houses.He adds that they were commonly carpeted and
lined within with well wrought embroidered mats, and were furnished with various utensils.
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The Indians had advanced so far asto regulate the effect of the wind by
a mat suspended over the hole inthe roof and moved by a string.
Such a lodge was, in thefirst instance, constructed in a day or
two at most, and taken downand put up in a few hours,
and every family owned one or itsapartment. In one end of Chapter one, Part two
Chapter one, LibriVox, Part two. Most of the luxuries in many of
these so called comforts of life arenot only not indispensable, but positive hindrances
to the elevation of mankind. Withrespect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest
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have ever lived a more simple andmeager life than the poor. The ancient
philosophers Chinese, Hindu, Persian,and Greek were a class than which none
has been poorer in outward riches,none so rich in inward We know not
much about them. It is remarkablethat we know so much of them as
(00:45):
we do. The same is trueof the more modern reformers and benefactors of
their race. None can be animpartial or wise observer of human life.
But from the vantage round of whatwe should call voluntary poverty of a life
of luxury, the fruit is luxury, whether in agriculture or commerce, or
(01:11):
literature or art. There are nowadaysprofessors of philosophy, but not philosophers.
Yet it is admirable to profess,because it was once admirable to live.
To be a philosopher is not merelyto have subtile thoughts, nor even to
found a school, but so tolove wisdom as to live according to its
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dictates, a life of simplicity,independence, magnanimity, and trust. It
is to solve some of the problemsof life, not only theoretically but practically.
The success of great scholars and thinkersis commonly a courtier like success,
(01:57):
not kingly, not manly. Theymake shift to live merely by conformity,
practically as their fathers did, andare in no sense the progenitors of a
noble race of men. But whydo men degenerate? Ever? What makes
families run out? What is thenature of the luxury which enervates and destroys
(02:23):
nations? Are we sure that thereis none of it in our own lives?
The philosopher is in advance of hisage. Even in the outward form
of his life. He is notfed, sheltered, clothed, warmed like
his contemporaries. How can a manbe a philosopher and not maintain his vital
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heat by better methods than other men? When a man is warmed by the
several modes which I have described,what does he want next? Surely not
more warmth of the same kind asmore and richer food, larger and more
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splendid houses, finer and more abundantclothing, more numerous, incessant and hotter
fires, and the like. Whenhe has obtained those things which are necessary
to life, there is another alternativethan to obtain the superfluities, and that
is to adventure on life. Nowhis vacation from humbler toil having commenced.
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The soil, it appears, issuited to the seed, for it has
sent its radical downward, and itmay now send its shoot upward also with
confidence. Why has man rooted himselfthus firmly in the earth, but that
he may rise in the same proportioninto the heavens above. For the nobler
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plants are valued for the fruit theybear at last in the air and light
far from the ground, and arenot treated like the humblower esculence, which
though they may be biennials, andcultivated only till they have perfected their root,
and often cut down at top forthis purpose, so that most would
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not know them in their flowering season. I do not mean to prescribe rules
to strong and valiant natures, whomind their own affairs, whether in heaven
or hell, and perchance build moremagnificently and spend more lavishly than the richest,
without ever impoverishing themselves, not knowinghow they live, if indeed there
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are any such as has been dreamed. Nor to those who find their encouragement
and inspiration in precisely the present conditionof things, and cherish it with the
fondness and enthusiasm of lovers, Andto some extent I reckon myself in this
number. I do not speak tothose who are well employed in whatever circumstances,
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and they know whether they are wellemployed or not, but mainly to
the mass of men who are discontentedand idly complaining of the hardness of their
lot or of the times when theymight improve them. There are some who
complain most energetically and inconsolably of anybecause they are, as they say,
(05:34):
doing their duty. I also havein mind that seemingly wealthy, but most
terribly impoverished class of all, whohave accumulated dross but know not how to
use it or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden
(05:54):
or silver fetters. If I shouldattempt 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 actualhistory. It would certainly astonish those who
know nothing about it. I willonly hint at some of the enterprises which
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I have cherished in any weather,at any hour of the day or night.
I have been anxious to improve thenick of time, and notch it
on my stick too, to standon the meeting of two eternities, the
past and future, which is preciselythe present moment. To tow that line,
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you will pardon some obscurities, forthere are more secrets in my trade
than in most men's, and yetnot voluntarily kept, but inseparable from its
very nature. I would gladly tellall that I know about it, and
never paint no admittance on my gait. I long ago lost hound, a
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bay horse, and a turtle dove, and am still on their trail.
Many are the travelers I have spokenconcerning them, describing their tracks, and
what cause they answered to. Ihave met one or two who had heard
the hound and the tramp of thehorse, and even seen the dove disappear
behind a cloud, And they seemedas anxious to recover them as if they
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had lost them themselves. To anticipatenot the sunrise and the dawn merely,
but if possible nature herself. Howmany mornings summer and winter before yet any
neighbor was stirring about his business.Have I been about mine? No doubt.
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Many of my townsmen have met mereturning from this enterprise, farmers starting
for Boston and the twilight, orwood choppers going to their work. It
is true I never assisted the sunmaterially in his rising, but doubt not
it was of the last importance onlyto be present at it. So many
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autumn days and winter days spent outsidethe town trying to hear what was in
the wind, to hear and carryit express, I well nigh sunk all
my capital in it, and lostmy own breath into the bargain running in
the face of it. If ithad concerned either of the political parties depend
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upon it, it would have appearedin the gazette with the earliest intelligence.
At other times, watching from theobservatory of some cliff or tree to telegraph
any new arrival, or waiting atevening on the hilltops for the sky to
fall that I might catch something,though I never caught much, and that
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manner wise would dissolve again in thesun. For a long time I was
reporter to a journal of no verywide circulation, whose editor has never yet
seen fit to print the bulk ofmy contributions. And as is too common
with writers, I got only mylabor for my pains. However, in
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this case, my pains were theirown reward. For many years I was
self appointed inspector of snow storms andrain storms, and did my duty faithfully
surveyor, if not of highways,then of forest paths and all across lot
roots, keeping them open and ravinesbridged and passable at all seasons where the
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public heel had testified to their utility. I have looked after the wild stock
of the town, which give afaithful herdsman a good deal of trouble by
leaping fences. And I have hadan eye to the unfrequented nooks and corners
of the farm. Though I didnot always know whether Jonas or Solomon worked
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in a particular field to day,that was none of my business. I
have watered the red huckleberry, thesand cherry, and the nettle tree,
the red pine and the black ash, the white grape and the yellow violet,
which might have withered else in dryseasons. In short, I went
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on thus for a long time,I may say it without boasting, faithfully
minding my business till it became moreand more evident that my townsmen would not,
after all admit me into the listof town officers, nor make my
place a cynosure with a moderate allowance. My accounts, which I can swear
(10:50):
to have kept faithfully, I haveindeed never got audited, still less accepted,
still less paid and settled. However, I have not set my heart
on that. Not long since astrolling Indian went to sell baskets at the
house of a well known lawyer inmy neighborhood. Do you wish to buy
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any baskets? He asked? No, we do not want any, was
the reply. What exclaimed the Indianas he went out the gate, do
you mean to starve us? Havingseen his industrious white neighbors so well off
that the lawyer had only to weavearguments, and by some magic wealth and
(11:33):
standing followed, he had said tohimself, I will go into business.
I will weave baskets. It isa thing which I can do, thinking
that when he had made the baskets, he would have done his part,
and then it would be the whiteman's to buy them. He had not
discovered that it was necessary for himto make it worth the others while to
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buy them, or it least makehim think that it was so, or
to make something else which it wouldbe worth his while to buy. I
too had woven a kind of basketof a delicate texture, but I had
not made it worth any one's whileto buy them. Yet, not the
(12:18):
less in my case did I thinkit worth my while to weave them.
And instead of studying how to makeit worth men's while to buy my baskets,
I studied rather how to avoid thenecessity of selling them. The life
which men praise and regard as successful, is but one kind. Why should
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we exaggerate any one kind at theexpense of the others. Finding that my
fellow citizens were not likely to offerme any room in the court house,
or any curacy, or living anywhereelse, but I must shift for myself,
(13:01):
I turned my face more exclusively thanever to the woods, where I
was better known. I determined togo into business at once, and not
wait to acquire the usual capital usingsuch slender means as I had already got.
My purpose in going to walden Pondwas not to live cheaply, nor
(13:24):
to live dearly there, but totransact some private business with the fewest obstacles
to be hindered from accomplishing, which, for want of a little common sense,
a little enterprise and business talent,appeared, not so sad as foolish.
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I have always endeavored to acquire strictbusiness habits. They are indispensable to
every man. If your trade iswith the celestial Empire, then some small
counting house on the coast, insome Salem Hume harbor will be fixture enough.
You will export such articles as thecountry affords purely native products, much
(14:07):
ice and pine, timber, anda little granite, always in native bottoms.
These will be good ventures. Tooversee all the details yourself in person,
To be at once pilot and captain, and owner and underwriter, to
buy and sell and keep the accounts. To read every letter received, and
write or read every letter sent.To superintend the discharge of imports night and
(14:31):
day, to be upon many partsof the coast almost at the same time.
Often the richest freight will be dischargedupon a Jersey shore. To be
your own telegraph, unweariedly sweeping thehorizon, speaking all passing vessels, bound
coastwise, to keep up a steadydispatch of commodities for the supply of such
(14:52):
a distant and exorbitant market. Tokeep yourself informed of the state of the
markets, prospects of war and peaceeverywhere, and anticipate the tendencies of trade
and civilization, taking advantage of theresults of all exploring expeditions using new passages,
and all improvements in navigation charts tobe studied, the position of reefs
(15:15):
and new lights and boys to beascertained, and ever and ever the logarithmic
tables to be corrected for by theerror of some calculator. The vessel often
splits upon a rock that should havereached a friendly peer. There is the
untold fate of La Prouse. Universalscience to be kept pace with studying the
(15:39):
lives of all great discoverers and navigators, great adventurers and merchants, from Hanno
and the Phoenicians down to our day. In fine account of stock, to
be taken from time to time toknow how you stand. It is a
labor to task the faculties of aman, such problems of profit and loss
of interest, of tear and tretengaging of all kinds in it as demand
(16:04):
a universal knowledge. I have thoughtthat walden Pond would be a good place
for business, not solely on accountof the railroad and the ice trade.
It offers advantages which it may notbe good policy to divulge. It is
a good port and a good foundation. No never marshes to be filled,
(16:29):
though you must everywhere build on pilesof your own driving. It is said
that a flood tide with a westerlywind and ice in the Neva would sweep
Saint Petersburg from the face of theearth. As this business was to be
entered into without the usual capital,it may not be easy to conjecture where
(16:51):
those means that will still be indispensableto every such undertaking were to be obtained.
As for clothing, come at onceto the practical part of the question.
Perhaps we are led oftener by thelove of novelty and a regard for
the opinions of men in procuring it, than by a true utility. Let
(17:14):
him who has work to do recollectthat the object of clothing is first to
retain the vital heat, and secondly, in this state of society, to
cover nakedness. And he may judgehow much of any necessary or important work
may be accomplished without adding to hiswardrobe. Kings and queens who wear a
(17:37):
suit but once, though made bysome tailor or dressmaker to their majesties,
cannot know the comfort of wearing asuit that fits. They are no better
than wooden horses to hang the cleanclothes on. Every day our garments become
more assimilated to ourselves, receiving theimp press of the wearer's character, until
(18:02):
we hesitate to lay them aside withoutsuch delay, and medical appliances, and
some such solemnity even as our bodies. No man ever stood the lower in
my estimation, for having a patchin his clothes. Yet I am sure
that there is greater anxiety commonly tohave fashionable, or at least clean and
(18:23):
unpatched clothes than to have a soundconscience. But even if the rent is
not mended, perhaps the worst vicebetrayed is improvidence. I sometimes try my
acquaintances by such tests as this,Who could wear a patch or two extra
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seams only over the knee? Mostbehave as if they believed that their prospects
for life would be ruined if theyshould do it. It would be easier
for them to hobble to town witha broken leg than with a broken pantuluon.
Often, if an accident happens toa gentleman's legs, they can be
(19:06):
mended. But if a similar accidenthappens to the legs of his pantaloons,
there is no help for it.For he considers not what is truly respectable,
but what is respected. We knowbut few men, a great many
coats and breeches, dress a scarecrowin your latest shift, You standing shiftless
(19:30):
by, who would not soonest salutethe scarecrow passing a cornfield the other day
close by a hat and coat ona steak, I recognized the owner of
the farm. He was only alittle more weather beaten than when I saw
him last. I have heard ofa dog that barked at every stranger who
approached his master's premises with clothes on, but as easily quieted by a naked
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thief. It is an interesting questionhow far men would retain their relative rank
if they were divested of their clothes. Could you, in such a case
tell surely of any company of civilizedmen which belonged to the most respected class.
When Madame Pfeiffer, in her adventuroustravels around the world from east to
(20:21):
west, had got so near homeas Asiatic Russia. She says that she
felt the necessity of wearing other thana traveling dress when she went to meet
the authorities, for she was nowin a civilized country where people are judged
by their clothes. Even in ourdemocratic New England towns. The accidental possession
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of wealth and its manifestation in dressand equipage alone obtain for the possessor almost
universal respect. But they yield suchrespect numerous as they are are so far
heathen, and need to have amissionary sent to them. Besides clothes introduced,
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sewing a kind of work which youmay call endless. A woman's dress,
at least is never done. Aman who has at length found something
to do will not need to geta new suit to do it in for
him, the old will do thathas lain dusty in the garret for an
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indeterminate period. Old shoes will servea hero longer than they have served his
valet. If a hero ever hasa valet, bare feet are older than
shoes, and he can make themdo Only those who go to soirees and
legislative balls must have new coats,coats to change as often as the man
(21:52):
changes in them. But if myjacket and trousers, my hat and shoes
are fit to worship God in,they will do, will they not?
Whoever saw his old clothes, hisold coat actually worn out, resolved into
its primitive elements, so that itwas not a deed of charity to bestow
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it on some poor boy, byhim perchance to be bestowed on some poorer
still, or shall we say richerwho could do with less? I say,
beware of all enterprises that require newclothes, and not rather a new
wearer of clothes. If there isnot a new man, how can the
(22:37):
new clothes be made to fit?If you have any enterprise, before you
try it in your old clothes.All men want not something to do with,
but something to do, or rathersomething to be. Perhaps we should
never procure a new suit, howeverragged or dirty, the old, until
(22:59):
we have so con so enterprised orsailed in some way that we feel like
new men in the old, andthat to retain it would be like keeping
new wine in old bottles. Ourmolting season, like that of the fowls,
must be a crisis in our lives, the loon retires to solitary ponds
(23:21):
to spend it. Thus, alsothe snake casts its slough, and the
caterpillar its wormy coat by an internalindustry and expansion. For clothes are but
our outmost cutical and mortal coil.Otherwise we shall be found sailing under false
colors and be inevitably cashiered at lastby our own opinion, as well as
(23:45):
that of mankind. We don garmentafter garment, as if we grew like
exogenous plants. By addition, withoutour outside and often thin and fanciful clothes
are our epidermis, our false skin, which partakes not of our life,
(24:06):
and may be stripped off here andthere without fatal injury. Our thicker garments,
constantly worn are our cellular, integumentor cortex. But our shirts are
our liber or true bark, whichcannot be removed without girdling and so destroying
the man. I believe that allraces, at some seasons wear something equivalent
(24:30):
to the shirt. It is desirablethat a man be clad so simply that
he can lay his hands on himselfin the dark, and that he live
in all respects so compactly and preparedlythat if an enemy take the town,
he can, like the old philosopher, walk out the gate empty handed without
anxiety. While one thick garment isfor most purposes as good as three thin
(24:56):
ones, and cheap clothing can beobtained at prices really to suit customers,
while a thick coat can be boughtfor five dollars which will last as many
years, thick pantaloons for two dollars, cowhide boots for a dollar and a
half, a pair a summer hatfor a quarter of a dollar, and
(25:17):
a winter cap for sixty two anda half cents, or a better be
made at home at a nominal cost. Where is he so poor that,
clad in such a suit of hisown earning, there will not be found
wise men to do him reverence.When I ask for a garment of a
particular form, my tailoress tells megravely, they do not make them so
(25:41):
now, not emphasizing the they atall, as if she quoted an authority
as impersonal as the fates. AndI find it difficult to get what I
want, simply because she cannot believethat I mean what I say. That
I am so rash when I hearthis oracular sentence, I am, for
(26:03):
a moment absorbed in thought, emphasizingto myself each word separately, that I
may come at the meaning of it, that I may find out by what
degree of consanguinity they are related tome, and what authority they may have
in an affair which affects me.So nearly and finally, I am inclined
(26:26):
to answer her with equal mystery,and without any more emphasis of the they
quote. It is true they didnot make them so recently, but they
do now end quote. Of whatuse this measuring of me? If she
does not measure my character but onlythe breadth of my shoulders, as it
(26:48):
were a peg to bang the coaton. We worship not the graces nor
the parsee, but fashion. Shespins, weaves, and cuts with full
authority. The head monkey at Parisputs on a traveler's cap, and all
the monkeys in America do the same. I sometimes despair of getting anything quite
(27:11):
simple and honest done in this worldby the help of men. They would
have to be passed through a powerfulpress, first to squeeze their old notions
out of them, so that theywould not so soon get upon their legs
again. And then there would besomeone in the company with a maggot in
(27:33):
his head, hatched from an eggdeposited there. Nobody knows when, for
not even fire kills these things,and you would have lost your labor.
Nevertheless, we will not forget thatsome Egyptian wheat was handed down to us
by a mummy. On the whole, I think that it cannot be maintained
(27:53):
that dressing has in this or anycountry, risen to the dignity of an
art. Present men make shift towear what they can get. Like shipwrecked
sailors. They put on what theycan find on the beach, and at
a little distance, whether of spaceor time, laugh at each other's masquerade.
Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
(28:18):
We are amused at beholding the costumeof Henry the Eighth or Queen Elizabeth,
as much as if it was thatof the King and Queen of the Cannibal
Islands. All costume off a manis pitiful or grotesque. It is only
the serious eye peering from and thesincere life passed within it, which restrain
(28:40):
laughter and consecrate the costume of anypeople. Let Harlequin be taken with a
fit of the colic, and histrappings will have to serve that mood too.
When the soldier is hit by acannon ball, rags are as becoming
as purple. The childish and savagetaste of men and women for new patterns
(29:04):
keeps how many shaking and squinting throughkaleidoscopes, that they may discover the particular
figure which this generation requires. Today, the manufacturers have learned that this
taste is merely whimsical. Of twopatterns which differ only by a few threads
more or less of a particular color, the one will be sold readily,
(29:26):
the other lie on the shelf,though it frequently happens that after the lapse
of a season, the latter becomesthe more fashionable. Comparatively, tattooing is
not the hideous custom which it iscalled. It is not barbarous merely because
the printing is skin deep and unalterable. I cannot believe that our factory system
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is the best mode by which menmay get clothing. The condition of the
operatives is becoming every day more likethat of the English, and it cannot
be wondered at since, as faras I have heard, or observed.
The principal object is not that mankindmay be well and honestly clad, but
(30:11):
unquestionably that corporations may be enriched inthe long run. Men hit only what
they aim at. Therefore, thoughthey should fail immediately, they had better
aim at something high. As fora shelter, I will not deny that
(30:33):
this is now a necessary of life, though there are instances of men having
done without it for long periods incolder countries than this. Samuel Lang says
that quote the laplander, in hisskin dress and in a skin bag which
he puts over his head and shoulders, will sleep night after night on the
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snow, in a degree of cold, which would exc distinguished the life of
one exposed to it in any woolenclothing. He had seen them asleep.
Thus, yet he adds quote,they are not hardier than other people.
End. But probably the man didnot live long on the earth without discovering
(31:18):
the convenience which there is in ahouse, the domestic comforts which phrase may
have originally signified the satisfactions of thehouse more than of the family, though
these must be extremely partial and occasionalin those climates where the house is associated
in our thoughts, with winter orthe rainy season chiefly, and two thirds
(31:41):
of the year, except for aparasol, is unnecessary in our climate.
In the summer it was formerly almostsolely a covering at night. In the
Indian gazettes, a wigwam was thesymbol of a day's march, and a
row of them cut her painted onthe bark of a tree signified that so
(32:01):
many times they had camped. Manwas not made so large, limbed and
robust, but that he must seekto narrow his world and wall in a
space such as fitted him. Hewas at first bare and out of doors,
But though this was pleasant enough inserene and warm weather by daylight,
(32:24):
the rainy season and the winter,to say nothing of the torrid sun,
would perhaps have nipped his race inthe bud if he had not made haste
to clothe himself with the shelter ofa house. Adam and Eve, according
to the fable, wore the bowerbefore other clothes. Man wanted a home,
(32:45):
a place of warmth or comfort,first of warmth, then the warmth
of the affections. We may imaginea time when, in the infancy of
the human race, some enterprising mortalcrept into a hollow in a rock for
shelter. Every child begins the worldagain to some extent, and loves to
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stay outdoors, even in wet andcold. It plays house as well as
horse, having an instinct for it. Who does not remember the interest with
which, when young he looked atshelving rocks, or any approach to a
cave. It was the natural yearningof that portion, any portion of our
(33:28):
most primitive ancestor, which still survivedin us. From the cave we have
advanced to roofs of palm, leavesof bark, and boughs of linen woven
and stretched of grass and straw,of boards, and shingles of stones and
tiles. At last we know notwhat it is to live in the open
(33:49):
air, and our lives are domesticin more senses than we think. From
the hearth, the field is agreat distance. It would be well,
perhaps, if we were to spendmore of our days and nights without any
obstruction between us and the celestial bodies, if the poet did not speak so
much from under a roof, orthe saint dwell there so long. Birds
(34:15):
do not sing in caves, nordo doves cherish their innocence in dovecots.
However, if one designs to constructa dwelling house, it behooves him to
exercise a little Yankee shrewdness, lest, after all, he find himself in
a workhouse, a labyrinth without aclue, a museum, an almshouse,
(34:38):
a prison, or a splendid mausoleum. Instead, consider first, how slight
a shelter is absolutely necessary. Ihave seen Panobscot Indians in this town living
in tents of thin cotton cloth whilethe snow was nearly a foot deep around
(34:58):
them, and I thought that theywould be glad to have it deeper to
keep out the wind. Formerly,when how to get my living honestly with
freedom left for my proper pursuits,was a question which vexed me even more
than it does now, for unfortunatelyI am become somewhat callous. I used
(35:19):
to see a large box by therailroad, six feet long by three wide,
in which the laborers locked up theirtools at night, and it suggested
to me that every man who hashard pushed might get such a one for
a dollar, and having bored afew auger holes in it to admit the
air at least get into it whenit rained, and at night, and
(35:43):
hook down the lid, and sohave freedom in his love and in his
soul, be free. This didnot appear the worst, nor by any
means a despicable alternative. You couldsit up as late as you pleased,
and whenever you got up, goabroad, without any landlord or house lord
dogging you for rent. Many aman is harassed to death to pay the
(36:07):
rent of a larger and more luxuriousbox. Who would not have frozen to
death in such a box as this? I am far from jesting. Economy
is a subject which admits of beingtreated with levity. But I cannot so
be disposed of a comfortable house fora rude and hardy race that lived mostly
(36:30):
out of doors was once made herealmost entirely of such materials as nature furnished
ready to their hands. Guchan,who was superintendent of the Indians subject to
the Massachusetts Colony, writing in sixteenseventy four, says, quote, the
best of their houses are covered veryneatly, tight and warm, with barks
(36:53):
of trees slipped from their bodies.At those seasons when the sap is up
and may into great flakes with pressureof weighty timber when they are green.
The meaner sort are covered with mats, which they make of a kind of
bulrush, and are also indifferently tightand warm, but not so good as
(37:15):
the former. Some I have seensixty or a hundred feet long and thirty
feet broad. I have often lodgedin their wigwams, and found them as
warm as the best English houses.He adds that they were commonly carpeted and
lined within with well wrought embroidered mats, and were furnished with various utensils.
(37:39):
The Indians had advanced so far asto regulate the effect of the wind by
a mat suspended over the hole inthe roof and moved by a string.
Such a lodge was, in thefirst instance, constructed in a day or
two at most, and taken downand put up in a few hours,
and every family owned one or itsapartment. In one end of Chapter one, Part two
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2
Season Two Out Now! Law & Order: Criminal Justice System tells the real stories behind the landmark cases that have shaped how the most dangerous and influential criminals in America are prosecuted. In its second season, the series tackles the threat of terrorism in the United States. From the rise of extremist political groups in the 60s to domestic lone wolves in the modern day, we explore how organizations like the FBI and Joint Terrorism Take Force have evolved to fight back against a multitude of terrorist threats.