When a man is warmed by the several modes which I have

rash. When I hear this oracular sentence, I am for a moment

some enterprising mortal crept into a hollow in a rock for shelter.

If you would know the history of these homesteads, inquire at the

some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained.

recognized the owner of the farm. He was only a little more

the map. Contrast the physical condition of the Irish with that of

clothes are our epidermis, or false skin, which partakes not of our

The luxury of one class is counterbalanced by the indigence of

bury himself. Nevertheless this points to an important distinction

almost entirely of such materials as Nature furnished ready to their

my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?

miracle take place than for us to look through each others eyes for

be the tombs of the Pharaohs were fed on garlic, and it may be were

Southern overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of

Not that all architectural ornament is to be neglected even in the

adds that they were commonly carpeted and lined within with

or art. There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not

the greatest genuine leap, due to human muscles alone, on record, is

the very tedium and ennui which presume to have exhausted the

and beautiful living be laid for a foundation: now, a taste for the

thus. Yet he adds, "They are not hardier than other people." But,

fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we

It may be guessed that I reduce almost the whole advantage of

cashiered at last by our own opinion, as well as that of mankind.

experience, a few implements, a knife, an axe, a spade, a

it cannot so be disposed of. A comfortable house for a rude and

circumstances above the savage, others have been degraded below him.

Make-a-stir? How godlike, how immortal, is he? See how he cowers

for long periods in colder countries than this. Samuel Laing says

its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land,

"As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any

shore; -- to be your own telegraph, unweariedly sweeping the

skin, complain of hard times because he could not afford to buy him

something against a sick day, something to be tucked away in an old

paid and settled. However, I have not set my heart on that.

business, not solely on account of the railroad and the ice trade;

of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us! or, what if

to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from

judge of him. The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on

labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh.

Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I

his farm with labor on it is so rare that every neighbor can point

capital, it may not be easy to conjecture where those means, that

It is the luxurious and dissipated who set the fashions which

The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my

horizon, speaking all passing vessels bound coastwise; to keep up a

the red pine and the black ash, the white grape and the yellow

variety and the joys of life are as old as Adam. But mans

museum, an almshouse, a prison, or a splendid mausoleum instead.

train and breathe a malaria all the way.

civilization; where I see in my daily walks human beings living in

though I did not always know whether Jonas or Solomon worked in a

sell and keep the accounts; to read every letter received, and write

King and Queen of the Cannibal Islands. All costume off a man is

ever has a valet -- bare feet are older than shoes, and he can make

house which Minerva made, that she "had not made it movable, by

they were divested of their clothes. Could you, in such a case,

one were to wear any sort of coat which the tailor might cut out for

stripped, and our lives must be stripped, and beautiful housekeeping

left for my proper pursuits, was a question which vexed me even more

defraying of funeral expenses. But perhaps a man is not required to

wind. Formerly, when how to get my living honestly, with freedom

body of the inhabitants may not be as degraded as that of savages.

patch in his clothes; yet I am sure that there is greater anxiety,

art is merely to make this low state comfortable and that higher

know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their

sometimes, as it were, gasping for breath. I have no doubt that

that class by whose labor the works which distinguish this

as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost. One may

to the laborers in our Southern States who produce the staple

ay, in all the worlds of the ages. History, Poetry, Mythology! -- I

voice which invites me away from all that. One generation abandons

a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, none so

what is respected. We know but few men, a great many coats and

them. The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one

informing as this would be.

and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who

for shelter, a housekeeper. We now no longer camp as for a night,

religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with

laws of mans existence; as our skeletons, probably, are not to be

or read every letter sent; to superintend the discharge of imports

exorbitant market; to keep yourself informed of the state of the

of my contributions, and, as is too common with writers, I got only

principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad,

labor to task the faculties of a man -- such problems of profit and

in a cave or a wigwam or wear skins today, it certainly is better to

to pay, tomorrow, and dying today, insolvent; seeking to curry

Consider first how slight a shelter is absolutely necessary. I have

inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand

becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be

wheelbarrow, etc., and for the studious, lamplight, stationery, and

a system of earths like ours. If I had remembered this it would

of life, though there are instances of men having done without it

never paint "No Admittance" on my gate.

make his shoes, or his hat, or his coat, or his carriage, or import

As this business was to be entered into without the usual

of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be mans morning work

I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by

invented, not only houses, but clothes and cooked food; and possibly

struggle to free himself from this condition, but the effect of our

the others while to buy them, or at least make him think that it

nutshell of civility or dilating into an atmosphere of thin and

buy any baskets?" he asked. "No, we do not want any," was the

concerning them, describing their tracks and what calls they

deposited there nobody knows when, for not even fire kills these

lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me. Perhaps

elsewhere. Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our

mummy.

We don garment after garment, as if we grew like exogenous

become more assimilated to ourselves, receiving the impress of the

I will go into business; I will weave baskets; it is a thing which I

race. But I wish to show at what a sacrifice this advantage is at

fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.

to give the young, their own experience has been so partial, and

been said of the merchants, that a very large majority, even

perchance, to fetch fresh fuel to keep the fire a-going; new people

cornfield the other day, close by a hat and coat on a stake, I

manna-wise, would dissolve again in the sun.

inches of palatable grass, with water to drink; unless he seeks the

because she cannot believe that I mean what I say, that I am so

size of the family. The wealthy and principal men in New England,

despair is concealed even under what are called the games and

be at once pilot and captain, and owner and underwriter; to buy and

hoed them. The stars are the apexes of what wonderful triangles!

do, or rather something to be. Perhaps we should never procure a

life, it appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode

may discover the particular figure which this generation requires

slipped from their bodies at those seasons when the sap is up, and

described, what does he want next? Surely not more warmth of the

expression, animal life, is nearly synonymous with the expression,

life for man in this climate may, accurately enough, be distributed

things, and you would have lost your labor. Nevertheless, we will

man. Yet I have no doubt that that peoples rulers are as wise as

new men in the old, and that to retain it would be like keeping new

suggested to me that every man who was hard pushed might get such a

When the soldier is hit by a cannonball, rags are as becoming as

experiment.

day, for if some receive more, others receive less; -- so that he

similar accident happens to the legs of his pantaloons, there is no

When one man has reduced a fact of the imagination to be a fact to

Empire, then some small counting house on the coast, in some Salem

the average of civilized rulers. Their condition only proves what

well-wrought embroidered mats, and were furnished with various

help for it; for he considers, not what is truly respectable, but

combustion in the lungs. In cold weather we eat more, in warm less.

merely what he has heard of other mens lives; some such account as

day or night; does any divinity stir within him? His highest duty

today. The manufacturers have learned that this taste is merely

I must shift for myself, I turned my face more exclusively than ever

clothing is, first, to retain the vital heat, and secondly, in this

robust but that he must seek to narrow his world and wall in a space

neighborhood to be avoided is our own scurvy selves. I know one or

that "the Laplander in his skin dress, and in a skin bag which he

beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where there is no house

"Behold all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called

paper, Rumford fire-place, back plastering, Venetian blinds, copper

caterpillar its wormy coat, by an internal industry and expansion;

from Hanno and the Phoenicians down to our day; in fine, account of

sties, and all winter with an open door, for the sake of light,

bank where they are mortgaged. The man who has actually paid for

pertinently that a great part of their failures are not genuine

questions in this book. In most books, the I, or first person, is

respectable citizen thus gravely teach, by precept and example, the

gross necessaries of life and what methods have been taken to obtain

You may say the wisest thing you can, old man -- you who have lived

first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not

have been wishing to sell their houses in the outskirts and move

after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not

him, or, gradually leaving off palm-leaf hat or cap of woodchuck

my labor for my pains. However, in this case my pains were their

townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call

blessing, brought forth bread to feed them," and the first years

fast wearing or are already worn out, and have come to this page to

many times they had camped. Man was not made so large limbed and

a day or two at most, and taken down and put up in a few hours; and

than it does now, for unfortunately I am become somewhat callous, I

does not measu九_九_藏_書re my character, but only the breadth of my shoulders,

his understanding, I foresee that all men at length establish their

not to waste time in building, and not to want food the next season;

as if they believed that their prospects for life would be ruined if

instant. Confucius said, "To know that we know what we know, and

not "provide them houses," says he, "till the earth, by the Lords

exchange his wigwam for a palace on these terms?

up the fire within us -- and Fuel serves only to prepare that Food

family tomb. The best works of art are the expression of mans

Iolaus to burn with a hot iron the root of the hydras head, but as

for my sight has been whetted by experience; always on the limits,

savage race before it was degraded by contact with the civilized

the brick bank; no matter where, no matter how much or how little.

problems of life with freedom and a prospect of success. Man has

elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the

breaks down. But this puts an infinitely worse face on the matter,

any portion of our most primitive ancestor which still survived in

with an external heat greater than our own internal, may not cookery

how happens it that he who is said to enjoy these things is so

of the enterprises which I have cherished.

number; I do not speak to those who are well employed, in whatever

so well off -- that the lawyer had only to weave arguments, and, by

to inherit it, being well acquainted with it, as he says. On

bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious

one or two of them, and know what they are lined with.

properly be said to begin? Darwin, the naturalist, says of the

make a smoky fire against the earth, at the highest side." They did

we had been taken sick? How vigilant we are! determined not to live

I have, indeed, never got audited, still less accepted, still less

only the wise improve their advantages -- it must be shown that it

baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling

obtained than suitable caves, or whole logs, or bark in sufficient

We may imagine a time when, in the infancy of the human race,

and, whenever you got up, go abroad without any landlord or

rudest periods; but let our houses first be lined with beauty, where

soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be

usual evidences of civilization exist, the condition of a very large

which in others are luxuries merely, and in others still are

that "they burrow themselves in the earth for their first shelter

understand it, that was a valid objection urged by Momus against the

by faith if we can avoid it; all the day long on the alert, at night

fates! As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

or cortex; but our shirts are our liber, or true bark, which cannot

access to a few books, rank next to necessaries, and can all be

of what we should call voluntary poverty. Of a life of luxury the

imagination -- what Wilberforce is there to bring that about?

suent.

are somewhat acquainted with its actual history; it would certainly

civilized man secures an abode which is a palace compared with the

with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only

has produced better dwellings without making them more costly; and

for the rest of my readers, they will accept such portions as apply

The farmer is endeavoring to solve the problem of a livelihood

such as fitted him. He was at first bare and out of doors; but

estimating the pecuniary value of every mans labor at one dollar a

At the present day, and in this country, as I find by my own

in civilized life again.

it offers advantages which it may not be good policy to divulge; it

Think, also, of the ladies of the land weaving toilet cushions

behooves him to exercise a little Yankee shrewdness, lest after all

arrival; or waiting at evening on the hill-tops for the sky to fall,

trespass, and what share belongs to that neighbor." Hippocrates has

own internal heat; but with an excess of these, or of Fuel, that is,

not decently buried themselves. The mason who finishes the cornice

go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the

made into great flakes, with pressure of weighty timber, when they

advance in the condition of man -- and I think that it is, though

enervates and destroys nations? Are we sure that there is none of

holding this superfluous property as a fund in store against the

own reward.

the Indian gazettes a wigwam was the symbol of a days march, and a

who fail, or the three who succeed? Answer me these questions, and

masquerade. Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but

of the political parties, depend upon it, it would have appeared in

we are taking west with us, invented for the ladies of the harem and

cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people,

and sneaks, how vaguely all the day he fears, not being immortal nor

are our night-clothes, robbing the nests and breasts of birds to

or to increase the warmth of our bodies by addition from without --

necessary that we be troubled, or at least careful. It would be

But how do the poor minority fare? Perhaps it will be found

crop was so light that "they were forced to cut their bread very

circulation, whose editor has never yet seen fit to print the bulk

lives on that basis.

absorbed in thought, emphasizing to myself each word separately that

road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty,

from the ground, and are not treated like the humbler esculents,

other than a travelling dress, when she went to meet the

a la mode.

The animal heat is the result of a slow combustion, and disease and

clothes on, but was easily quieted by a naked thief. It is an

So many autumn, ay, and winter days, spent outside the town,

seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who

him to be a Sardanapalus, and if he resigned himself to their tender

instance, that the same sun which ripens my beans illumines at once

people are judged of by their clothes." Even in our democratic New

honest though earthy foundation. I cannot but perceive that this

the ends of the fingers, neither shorter nor longer. Undoubtedly

talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as

England towns the accidental possession of wealth, and its

by a string. Such a lodge was in the first instance constructed in

he find himself in a workhouse, a labyrinth without a clue, a

great extent absorbed, in order to preserve and perfect that of the

that the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the childrens teeth

quantities, or even well-tempered clay or flat stones. I speak

warmth, then the warmth of the affections.

shiftless by, who would not soonest salute the scarecrow? Passing a

The cart before the horse is neither beautiful nor useful. Before

coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits.

contemplated his journey again. He dwelt, as it were, in a tent in

same proportion into the heavens above? -- for the nobler plants are

than social, we refer directly a great part of our ails. The

and no housekeeper.

poor that, clad in such a suit, of his own earning, there will not

nor do doves cherish their innocence in dovecots.

four fires and looking in the face of the sun; or hanging suspended,

begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got

attention being wholly occupied with the jump; for I remember that

the modern house with all its improvements. While civilization has

and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not

dollars, cowhide boots for a dollar and a half a pair, a summer hat

great discoverers and navigators, great adventurers and merchants,

limbs and faculties is checked. It certainly is fair to look at

to fit? If you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old

it is to live in the open air, and our lives are domestic in more

Every child begins the world again, to some extent, and loves to

phrase may have originally signified the satisfactions of the house

wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the

anxiety. While one thick garment is, for most purposes, as good as

results of all exploring expeditions, using new passages and all

be removed without girdling and so destroying the man. I believe

Netherland, writing in Dutch, in 1650, for the information of those

over by their predecessors, both the heights and the valleys, and

which you have actually eaten, or for the coats and shoes which are

well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the

clothes. All men want, not something to do with, but something to

born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have

fit of the colic and his trappings will have to serve that mood too.

into the village, but have not been able to accomplish it, and only

of Henry VIII, or Queen Elizabeth, as much as if it was that of the

secure all the advantage without suffering any of the disadvantage.

market. He has no time to be anything but a machine. How can he

see what it was that men most commonly bought at the stores, what

which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord,

economy managed and sustained, I wonder that the floor does not give

called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book,

wisest have ever lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor.

pardon some obscurities, for there are more secrets in my trade than

is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.

Though we are not so degenerate but that we might possibly live

celestial bodies, if the poet did not speak so much from under a

The whole ground of human life seems to some to have been gone

I would rather sit in the open air, for no dust gathers on the

prepare this shelter within a shelter, as the mole has its bed of

interest with which, when young, he looked at shelving rocks, or any

complaining of the hardness of their lot or of the times, when they

reached a friendly pier -- there is the untold fate of La Prouse;

long use has become, so important to human life that few, if any,

the Gazette with the earliest intelligence. At other times watching

wood all round the wall, and line the wood with the bark of trees or

his hands on himself in the dark, and that he live in all respects

under some hillside, and, casting the soil aloft upon timber, they

richest, without ever impoverishing themselves, not knowing how they

horse, having an instinct for it. Who does not remember the

travels round the world, from east to west, had got so near home as

in the company with a maggot in his head, hatched from an egg

last. The luxuriously rich are not simply kept comfortably warm,

valued for the fruit they bear at last in the air and light, far

grass, unless where man has broken ground.

Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere

ancient slough, called by the Latins aes alienum, anothers brass,

with our Food, and Clothing, and Shelter, but with our beds, which

the summer, it was formerly almost solely a covering at night. In

simple as the Arabs or the Indians? When I think of the

boards and shingles, lime and bricks, are cheaper and more easily

been thy failures hitherto, "be not afflicted, my child, for who

proportion as we are morally and intellectually his superiors! At

but have settled down on earth and forgotten heaven. We have

neighbors land to gather the acorns which fall on it without

like the old philosopher, walk out the gate empty-handed without

fruit is luxury, whether in agriculture, or commerce, or literature,

Whe九-九-藏-書n we consider what, to use the words of the catechism, is the

from some defect in the draught, the fire goes out. Of course the

but the poorer for it, and it be the house that has got him. As I

hardly more incredible and astonishing than the scenes which I daily

you mean to starve us?" Having seen his industrious white neighbors

air have their nests, and the foxes their holes, and the savages

it. If I have any experience which I think valuable, I am sure to

state to be forgotten. There is actually no place in this village

In short, I went on thus for a long time (I may say it without

Solomon prescribed ordinances for the very distances of trees; and

means to build farmhouses at first according to their wishes, dig a

approach to a cave? It was the natural yearning of that portion,

vital heat is not to be confounded with fire; but so much for

first settlers of this town, with whom he was contemporary, tells us

well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness

secondly, in order not to discourage poor laboring people whom they

they stored, that is, what are the grossest groceries. For the

Comparatively, tattooing is not the hideous custom which it is

become no better than a modern drawing-room, with its divans, and

consecrate the costume of any people. Let Harlequin be taken with a

impossible to combine the hardiness of these savages with the

kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the

So much for a blind obedience to a blundering oracle, throwing the

pecuniary failures, but merely failures to fulfil their engagements,

of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer,

but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent.

be found wise men to do him reverence?

of consanguinity They are related to me, and what authority they

exports of this country, and are themselves a staple production of

shelter is a very small fraction of the whole. The rest pay an

bodies. No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a

commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched

themselves to trade for ten or twenty years, in order that they may

can do. Thinking that when he had made the baskets he would have

some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the

If I should attempt to tell how I have desired to spend my life

do without it. To many creatures there is in this sense but one

little, while the civilized man hires his commonly because he cannot

against the last day, not to betray too green an interest in their

it. There is not a nail to hang a picture on, nor a shelf to

importance only to be present at it.

almshouse and "silent poor." The myriads who built the pyramids to

from heaven, bearers of divine gifts to man, I do not see in my mind

Et documenta damus qua simus origine nati.

shall assign to thee what thou hast left undone?"

row of them cut or painted on the bark of a tree signified that so

that all races at some seasons wear something equivalent to the

-- universal science to be kept pace with, studying the lives of all

our lives, our houses and streets, furnish no proper pedestal for

frozen to death in such a box as this. I am far from jesting.

ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and

I have looked after the wild stock of the town, which give a

be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence

transact some private business with the fewest obstacles; to be

shrinking from cold and misery, and the development of all their

ottomans, and sun-shades, and a hundred other oriental things, which

perchance build more magnificently and spend more lavishly than the

though this was pleasant enough in serene and warm weather, by

despicable alternative. You could sit up as late as you pleased,

people an institution, in which the life of the individual is to a

shellfish, and not overlaid with it. But, alas! I have been inside

-- that our furniture should be more complex than the Arabs, in

to suit customers; while a thick coat can be bought for five

in the outward form of his life. He is not fed, sheltered, clothed,

stock to be taken from time to time, to know how you stand. It is a

families for two, three, and four years, it being understood that

their wigwams, in modern civilized society not more than one half

senses than we think. From the hearth the field is a great

gratuitously sometimes, and recruit him with our cordials, before we

in years past, it would probably surprise those of my readers who

astonish those who know nothing about it. I will only hint at some

We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow

I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle dove, and am

which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is

witness. The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison

spiritual bread far thinner than our forefathers did their wheaten.

time -- often the richest freight will be discharged upon a Jersey

I will therefore ask those of my readers who feel no particular

have had an eye to the unfrequented nooks and corners of the farm;

because it is inconvenient; that is, it is the moral character that

the year, except for a parasol, is unnecessary. In our climate, in

readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my

the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the

boasting), faithfully minding my business, till it became more and

applying to the assessors, I am surprised to learn that they cannot

annually, as if all the joints of the agricultural machine were

the bargain, running in the face of it. If it had concerned either

he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has

any retinue at their heels, any carload of fashionable furniture.

with it both theoretically and practically. With a little more wit

Approving that our bodies of a stony nature are."

without any visible, often imaginable, wood-pile, and the forms of

more to use this proverb in Israel.

a more experienced and wiser savage. But to make haste to my own

state of society, to cover nakedness, and he may judge how much of

called. It is not barbarous merely because the printing is

even left directions how we should cut our nails; that is, even with

On the whole, I think that it cannot be maintained that dressing

life, and may be stripped off here and there without fatal injury;

between the civilized man and the savage; and, no doubt, they have

allowance. My accounts, which I can swear to have kept faithfully,

when they get to the end of it, if not before. It is said that

and industry of mankind offer. In such a neighborhood as this,

housewife would sweep out the greater part into the dust hole, and

We might try our lives by a thousand simple tests; as, for

torrid sun, would perhaps have nipped his race in the bud if he had

thoughts with winter or the rainy season chiefly, and two thirds of

another. On the one side is the palace, on the other are the

part they have been toiling twenty, thirty, or forty years, that

less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and

that of certain wandering Arabs, who are said to have cleared

For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snow-storms and

has in this or any country risen to the dignity of an art. At

be urged, for our houses are such unwieldy property that we are

mantelpiece, and let him through into the cellar, to some solid and

for some of their coins were made of brass; still living, and dying,

soon as one head is crushed, two spring up.

the South. But to confine myself to those who are said to be in

mercies he would soon be completely emasculated. I think that in

clothes, than to have a sound conscience. But even if the rent is

stay outdoors, even in wet and cold. It plays house, as well as

do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.

other lie on the shelf, though it frequently happens that after the

to fodder and water his horses! What is his destiny to him compared

necessity of the young mans providing a certain number of

Granted that the majority are able at last either to own or hire

not soon get upon their legs again; and then there would be some one

vacation from humbler toil having commenced. The soil, it appears,

hotter fires, and the like. When he has obtained those things which

generated and absorbed.

divine, but the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself, a

pitiful or grotesque. It is only the serious eye peering from and

When I ask for a garment of a particular form, my tailoress

This is the reason he is poor; and for a similar reason we are all

help of men. They would have to be passed through a powerful press

laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves

practically as their fathers did, and are in no sense the

now are, and make our civilization a blessing. The civilized man is

purple.

I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.

fame won by his own deeds. Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared

shall we say richer, who could do with less? I say, beware of all

as it were a peg to bang the coat on? We worship not the Graces,

that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge."

serve a hero longer than they have served his valet -- if a hero

almost doubt if the wisest man has learned anything of absolute

solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with"; and so he

ages imply this advantage, at least, that they left him still but a

accident happens to a gentlemans legs, they can be mended; but if a

everywhere border our railroads, that last improvement in

remember well his ignorance -- which his growth requires -- who has

encumbrances sometimes outweigh the value of the farm, so that the

for clothes are but our outmost cuticle and mortal coil. Otherwise

Or what if I were to allow -- would it not be a singular allowance?

when he was hungry is become a farmer; and he who stood under a tree

death will set them free.

poor boy, by him perchance to be bestowed on some poorer still, or

have perfected their root, and often cut down at top for this

them do. Only they who go to soires and legislative balls must

may have in an affair which affects me so nearly; and, finally, I am

was so, or to make something else which it would be worth his while

get a new suit to do it in; for him the old will do, that has lain

a little enterprise and business talent, appeared not so sad as

analogy. It appears, therefore, from the above list, that the

manifestation in dress and equipage alone, obtain for the possessor

struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it

thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to

clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made

wigwam. It is a mistake to suppose that, in a country where the

will be earned. If we suppose him to pay a rent instead, this is

were. I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet

any necessary or important work may be accomplished without adding

our thicker garments, constantly worn, are our cellular integument,

trying to hear what was in the wind, to hear and carry it express!

when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they

clothes. Man wanted a home, a place of warmth, or comfort, first of

future, so far as the individual is concerned, mainly to the

And when the farmer has got his house, he may not be the richer

enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of

and boughs, of linen woven and stretched, of grass ahttps://read.99csw.comnd straw, of

made by some tailor or dressmaker to their majesties, cannot know

consequent use of it, at first a luxury, arose the present necessity

As for a Shelter, I will not deny that this is now a necessary

we shall be found sailing under false colors, and be inevitably

the herd so diligently follow. The traveller who stops at the best

convenience which there is in a house, the domestic comforts, which

not made haste to clothe himself with the shelter of a house. Adam

pay the rent of a larger and more luxurious box who would not have

list of town officers, nor make my place a sinecure with a moderate

adopted Christianity merely as an improved method of agri-culture.

now helps to keep them poor as long as they live. I do not mean to

extent untried by me; but it does not avail me that they have tried

is. Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor

the public heel had testified to their utility.

barked at every stranger who approached his masters premises with

an instant? We should live in all the ages of the world in an hour;

Or, as Raleigh rhymes it in his sonorous way,--

present our houses are cluttered and defiled with it, and a good

ever, the logarithmic tables to be corrected, for by the error of

It is very evident what mean and sneaking lives many of you live,

some calculator the vessel often splits upon a rock that should have

grass and leaves at the end of its burrow! The poor man is wont to

things, and not sometimes to be content with less? Shall the

that I speak within bounds when I say that, though the birds of the

house of a well-known lawyer in my neighborhood. "Do you wish to

strength. The incessant anxiety and strain of some is a well-nigh

as demand a universal knowledge.

midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the

is the condition of the operatives of every denomination in England,

its somersets, but the savage stands on the unelastic plank of

impropriety is, Who bolsters you? Are you one of the ninety-seven

not so good as the former.... Some I have seen, sixty or a hundred

rich in inward. We know not much about them. It is remarkable that

the effeminate natives of the Celestial Empire, which Jonathan

square pit in the ground, cellar fashion, six or seven feet deep, as

philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once

receive the bust of a hero or a saint. When I consider how our

to buy. I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but

safety and convenience, and it threatens without attaining these to

-- his old coat, actually worn out, resolved into its primitive

I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost

still on their trail. Many are the travellers I have spoken

This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there

are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they

emphasis of the "they" -- "It is true, they did not make them so

can do by any precedents, so little has been tried. Whatever have

great surprise, "to be streaming with perspiration at undergoing

prudence at least, as if their principle were to satisfy the more

terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but

to him. I doubt if there are three such men in Concord. What has

complain that this is a cold world; and to cold, no less physical

masters that enslave both North and South. It is hard to have a

faithful herdsman a good deal of trouble by leaping fences; and I

chief end of man, and what are the true necessaries and means of

had not discovered that it was necessary for him to make it worth

What distant and different beings in the various mansions of the

about mine! No doubt, many of my townsmen have met me returning

which means a bad neighborhood might be avoided"; and it may still

I refer to the degraded poor, not now to the degraded rich. To know

the superfluities; and that is, to adventure on life now, his

body is a stove, and food the fuel which keeps up the internal

Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and

magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of

wine in old bottles. Our moulting season, like that of the fowls,

of the wind by a mat suspended over the hole in the roof and moved

violet, which might have withered else in dry seasons.

in saving their souls, but are perchance bankrupt in a worse sense

breeches. Dress a scarecrow in your last shift, you standing

are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain

leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain

superfluous glow-shoes, and umbrellas, and empty guest chambers for

reflect that this my Mentors said nothing about.

run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should

Ireland, which is marked as one of the white or enlightened spots on

whether from savageness, or poverty, or philosophy, ever attempt to

I well-nigh sunk all my capital in it, and lost my own breath into

they may become the real owners of their farms, which commonly they

break through and steal. It is a fools life, as they will find

Shelter of the forest or the mountains shadow. None of the brute

from the accidental discovery of the warmth of fire, and the

-- but mainly to the mass of men who are discontented, and idly

dwelling-houses in this fashion for two reasons: firstly, in order

under the several heads of Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel; for

and all the monkeys in America do the same. I sometimes despair of

so-called rich and refined life is a thing jumped at, and I do not

But if my jacket and trousers, my hat and shoes, are fit to worship

not maintain his vital heat by better methods than other men?

I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have

the enterprises of another like stranded vessels.

markets, prospects of war and peace everywhere, and anticipate the

think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have. As if

summer, in some climates, makes possible to man a sort of Elysian

so that they can live dry and warm in these houses with their entire

a regard for the opinions of men, in procuring it, than by a true

boards and shingles, of stones and tiles. At last, we know not what

universe are contemplating the same one at the same moment! Nature

superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be

sailors, they put on what they can find on the beach, and at a

occasional in those climates where the house is associated in our

wide, in which the laborers locked up their tools at night; and it

made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres,

impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent,

weather-beaten than when I saw him last. I have heard of a dog that

live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change.

be free. This did not appear the worst, nor by any means a

all things to have been cared for. According to Evelyn, "the wise

least as well off as the other classes, I find that for the most

passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow,

The ancient philosophers, Chinese, Hindoo, Persian, and Greek, were

trying to get into business and trying to get out of debt, a very

luxuries. As Chapman sings,

after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do

Massachusetts Colony, writing in 1674, says, "The best of their

The very simplicity and nakedness of mans life in the primitive

the comfort of wearing a suit that fits. They are no better than

annual tax for this outside garment of all, become indispensable

who will mind their own affairs whether in heaven or hell, and

improvements in navigation; -- charts to be studied, the position of

in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the

poor in respect to a thousand savage comforts, though surrounded by

the railroad car we are inclined to spend more on luxury than on

in man! Look at the teamster on the highway, wending to market by

remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too late to give up

creation requires more than Food and Shelter. The necessaries of

some magic, wealth and standing followed -- he had said to himself:

particular field to-day; that was none of my business. I have

modern reformers and benefactors of their race. None can be an

Asiatic Russia, she says that she felt the necessity of wearing

Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of

they should do it. It would be easier for them to hobble to town

these naked savages, who were farther off, were observed, to his

are indispensable to every man. If your trade is with the Celestial

highways, then of forest paths and all across-lot routes, keeping

the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out

Inde genus durum sumus, experiensque laborum,

behind them:--

houses are covered very neatly, tight and warm, with barks of trees,

captured any monster or finished any labor. They have no friend

sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields. What old people say you

oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering

live -- that is, keep comfortably warm -- and die in New England at

part of his life in obtaining gross necessaries and comforts merely,

insist here on the disadvantage of hiring compared with owning, but

amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes

recently, but they do now." Of what use this measuring of me if she

"those in New Netherland, and especially in New England, who have no

such a roasting." So, we are told, the New Hollander goes naked

us. From the cave we have advanced to roofs of palm leaves, of bark

timber and a little granite, always in native bottoms. These will

new suit, however ragged or dirty the old, until we have so

thin for a long season." The secretary of the Province of New

average house in this neighborhood costs perhaps eight hundred

What makes families run out? What is the nature of the luxury which

which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line. You will

tells me gravely, "They do not make them so now," not emphasizing

-- for earthly greatness

chest, or in a stocking behind the plastering, or, more safely, in

room in the court house, or any curacy or living anywhere else, but

animal heat; for while Food may be regarded as the Fuel which keeps

to his wardrobe. Kings and queens who wear a suit but once, though

his groceries for him; making yourselves sick, that you may lay up

to spend it. Thus also the snake casts its slough, and the

dwellings, I am deterred, for, so to speak, the country is not yet

distance. It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of

not mended, perhaps the worst vice betrayed is improvidence. I

these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students. As

dollars, which will last as many years, thick pantaloons for two

utensils. The Indians had advanced so far as to regulate the effect

For a long time I was reporter to a journal, of no very wide

than they who fail honestly. Bankruptcy and repudiation are the

shirt. It is desirable that a man be clad so simply that he can lay

anything to the purpose. Here is life, an experiment to a great

improvements of centuries, spacious apartments, clean paint and

cloth, while the snow was nearly a foot deep around them, and I

summer and winter, which would buy a village of Indian wigwams, but

put a little dry wood under a pot, and are whirled round the globe

can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to

house-lord dogging you for rent. Many a man is harassed to death to

liquid九*九*藏*書s can pass into the stomach"; or dwelling, chained for life,

"The false society of men --

improvements of ages have had but little influence on the essential

remarkable ways. What I have heard of Bramins sitting exposed to

delay and medical appliances and some such solemnity even as our

generation are accomplished. Such too, to a greater or less extent,

intellectualness of the civilized man? According to Liebig, mans

and we may regard one third of that toil as the cost of their houses

The grand necessity, then, for our bodies, is to keep warm, to

Shelter and Clothing also serve only to retain the heat thus

the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die."

or woodchoppers going to their work. It is true, I never assisted

thought that they would be glad to have it deeper to keep out the

instead of studying how to make it worth mens while to buy my

are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been

are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy

to the woods, where I was better known. I determined to go into

plow along in spite of every obstacle. Some things are really

side of the globe, to barbarous and unhealthy regions, and devote

spend borrowed or stolen time, robbing your creditors of an hour.

hindered from accomplishing which for want of a little common sense,

distinguished from those of our ancestors.

favor, to get custom, by how many modes, only not state-prison

which, though they may be biennials, are cultivated only till they

we know so much of them as we do. The same is true of the more

them; or even to look over the old day-books of the merchants, to

omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism,

the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his

springboards from which much of our civilization vaults and turns

capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he

pump, spring lock, a commodious cellar, and many other things. But

which is the great workhouse of the world. Or I could refer you to

we unwillingly say our prayers and commit ourselves to

Neva, would sweep St. Petersburg from the face of the earth.

night and day; to be upon many parts of the coast almost at the same

houses are built and paid for, or not paid for, and their internal

One farmer says to me, "You cannot live on vegetable food

best, and sufficient for its coarser and simpler wants; but I think

wooden horses to hang the clean clothes on. Every day our garments

moderate circumstances.

entirely unknown.

dollars, and to lay up this sum will take from ten to fifteen years

way under the visitor while he is admiring the gewgaws upon the

Not long since, a strolling Indian went to sell baskets at the

Economy is a subject which admits of being treated with levity, but

the Fates, and I find it difficult to get made what I want, simply

so often to use his knowledge? We should feed and clothe him

duty. I also have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most

done his part, and then it would be the white mans to buy them. He

to live a mans life, pushing all these things before them, and get

hands. Gookin, who was superintendent of the Indians subject to the

been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who

we might use these materials so as to become richer than the richest

adapted to human culture, and we are still forced to cut our

in the beginning of the colonies, commenced their first

desperate things.

of the laborers life, even if he is not encumbered with a family --

luxurious than we have, which yet all would admit that man could not

Old Johnson, in his "Wonder-Working Providence," speaking of the

servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle

used to see a large box by the railroad, six feet long by three

own golden or silver fetters.

not till we have secured these are we prepared to entertain the true

three thin ones, and cheap clothing can be obtained at prices really

warmed, like his contemporaries. How can a man be a philosopher and

the question, perhaps we are led oftener by the love of novelty and

nor the Parcae, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with

life. Fuel, except to cook his Food, is then unnecessary; the sun

that just in proportion as some have been placed in outward

we can adorn our houses with beautiful objects the walls must be

well clothed and sitting close to a fire, were far from too warm,

is a good port and a good foundation. No Neva marshes to be filled;

and suggests, beside, that probably not even the other three succeed

will still be indispensable to every such undertaking, were to be

purpose, so that most would not know them in their flowering season.

and inconsolably of any, because they are, as they say, doing their

their lives have been such miserable failures, for private reasons,

I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese

To anticipate, not the sunrise and the dawn merely, but, if

independence, and then, as he turned away, got his own leg into it.

resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you

Self-emancipation even in the West Indian provinces of the fancy and

sometimes try my acquaintances by such tests as this -- Who could

pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet

loss, of interest, of tare and tret, and gauging of all kinds in it,

A man who has at length found something to do will not need to

and buried by this others brass; always promising to pay, promising

at once name a dozen in the town who own their farms free and clear.

getting anything quite simple and honest done in this world by the

All heavenly comforts rarefies to air."

plains, or climbing the mountain-tops. But lo! men have become the

with the shipping interests? Does not he drive for Squire

it cannot be improved as well as not. I have travelled a good deal

four years, when the country became adapted to agriculture, they

understandingly on this subject, for I have made myself acquainted

over their shoulders "until it becomes impossible for them to resume

wigwams, and found them as warm as the best English houses." He

(these are the country rates) entitles him to the benefit of the

to them. I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the

inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these

afford to own it; nor can he, in the long run, any better afford to

authorities, for she "was now in a civilized country, where ...

of living because they preferred it to any other. Yet they honestly

obtained at a trifling cost. Yet some, not wise, go to the other

rooted himself thus firmly in the earth, but that he may rise in the

it in our own lives? The philosopher is in advance of his age even

commonly a poor civilized man, while the savage, who has them not,

What mean ye by saying that the poor ye have always with you, or

daylight, the rainy season and the winter, to say nothing of the

inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, that while his own party, who were

inclined to answer her with equal mystery, and without any more

to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future,

watered the red huckleberry, the sand cherry and the nettle-tree,

is rich as a savage? If it is asserted that civilization is a real

I had not made it worth any ones while to buy them. Yet not the

obtained. As for Clothing, to come at once to the practical part of

tools of their tools. The man who independently plucked the fruits

harbor, will be fixture enough. You will export such articles as

mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would

utility. Let him who has work to do recollect that the object of

that I might catch something, though I never caught much, and that,

vaporous generosity, that you may persuade your neighbor to let you

our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can

accept the advantages, though so dearly bought, which the invention

so compactly and preparedly that, if an enemy take the town, he can,

afford to pay for. Shall we always study to obtain more of these

was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn

seen Penobscot Indians, in this town, living in tents of thin cotton

I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my

death take place when this is too rapid; or for want of fuel, or

one for a dollar, and, having bored a few auger holes in it, to

the country affords, purely native products, much ice and pine

have prevented some mistakes. This was not the light in which I

not forget that some Egyptian wheat was handed down to us by a

same kind, as more and richer food, larger and more splendid houses,

roof of spars clear up, and cover the spars with bark or green sods,

I have always endeavored to acquire strict business habits; they

wearers character, until we hesitate to lay them aside without such

built themselves handsome houses, spending on them several

but unnaturally hot; as I implied before, they are cooked, of course

one exposed to it in any woollen clothing." He had seen them asleep

puts over his head and shoulders, will sleep night after night on

it is evident that the savage owns his shelter because it costs so

In the savage state every family owns a shelter as good as the

empty guests, before he dies? Why should not our furniture be as

farm itself becomes one great encumbrance, and still a man is found

present condition of things, and cherish it with the fondness and

Let us consider for a moment what most of the trouble and

should be ashamed to know the names of. I would rather sit on a

their natural position, while from the twist of the neck nothing but

might improve them. There are some who complain most energetically

thousands."

finer and more abundant clothing, more numerous, incessant, and

and new deeds for new. Old people did not know enough once,

a crown! It is possible to invent a house still more convenient and

cellar with plank, and wainscot it overhead for a ceiling, raise a

by a formula more complicated than the problem itself. To get his

elements, so that it was not a deed of charity to bestow it on some

then perhaps I may look at your bawbles and find them ornamental.

enthusiasm of lovers -- and, to some extent, I reckon myself in this

"From thence our kind hard-hearted is, enduring pain and care,

Some of you, we all know, are poor, find it hard to live, are

with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it

of the palace returns at night perchance to a hut not so good as a

value by living. Practically, the old have no very important advice

more than of the family; though these must be extremely partial and

cushion. I would rather ride on earth in an ox cart, with a free

with the speed of birds, in a way to kill old people, as the phrase

our days and nights without any obstruction between us and the

as they must believe; and it may be that they have some faith left

themselves.

brought over in numbers from Fatherland. In the course of three or

skin-deep and unalterable.

this I should not need to look farther than to the shanties which

before yet any neighbor was stirring about his business, have I been

lapse of a season the latter becomes the most fashionable.

the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is

scholars and thinkers is commonly a courtier-like success, not

was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when

tendencies of trade and civilization -- taking advantage of the

them. Beside, clothes introduced sewing, a kind of wor九-九-藏-書k which you

seventy years, not without honor of a kind -- I hear an irresistible

foolish.

steady despatch of commodities, for the supply of such a distant and

my seniors. They have told me nothing, and probably cannot tell me

to sit by it. We observe cats and dogs acquiring the same second

civilization especially prevails, the number of those who own a

reefs and new lights and buoys to be ascertained, and ever, and

long and as broad as they think proper, case the earth inside with

savages. An annual rent of from twenty-five to a hundred dollars

for a work of fine art, if any had come down to us, to stand, for

Finding that my fellow-citizens were not likely to offer me any

have inherited with encumbrances, or else bought with hired money --

impartial or wise observer of human life but from the vantage ground

designs on us for our benefit, in making the life of a civilized

Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only.

two families, at least, in this town, who, for nearly a generation,

rain-storms, and did my duty faithfully; surveyor, if not of

The childish and savage taste of men and women for new patterns

the North American Indian, or the South Sea Islander, or any other

question which I am tempted to put to the proprietor of such great

business at once, and not wait to acquire the usual capital, using

tramp of the horse, and even seen the dove disappear behind a cloud,

I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner

houses, so called, soon discovers this, for the publicans presume

twenty-five feet on level ground. Without factitious support, man

-- but commonly they have not paid for them yet. It is true, the

rays; while Food generally is more various, and more easily

the snow ... in a degree of cold which would extinguish the life of

with a broken leg than with a broken pantaloon. Often if an

is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is,

Deucalion and Pyrrha created men by throwing stones over their heads

the tops of pillars -- even these forms of conscious penance are

shall say what prospect life offers to another? Could a greater

full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a travellers cap,

must be a crisis in our lives. The loon retires to solitary ponds

but, unquestionably, that corporations may be enriched. In the long

squalidness may consist with civilization. I hardly need refer now

necessary of life, Food. To the bison of the prairie it is a few

caterpillars, the breadth of vast empires; or standing on one leg on

are no worthier than the savages, if he is employed the greater

farmers. With regard to the merchants, however, one of them says

God in, they will do; will they not? Who ever saw his old clothes

famine. Yet the Middlesex Cattle Show goes off here with eclat

this world, and was either threading the valleys, or crossing the

its very nature. I would gladly tell all that I know about it, and

man obtains by his own exertions, has been from the first, or from

at the foot of a tree; or measuring with their bodies, like

sojourner in nature. When he was refreshed with food and sleep, he

the Roman praetors have decided how often you may go into your

more evident that my townsmen would not after all admit me into the

and they seemed as anxious to recover them as if they had lost them

reply. "What!" exclaimed the Indian as he went out the gate, "do

progenitors of a noble race of men. But why do men degenerate ever?

plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy

keeps how many shaking and squinting through kaleidoscopes that they

obtained, and Clothing and Shelter are wholly or half unnecessary.

not leave her mornings work undone. Morning work! By the blushes

keep the vital heat in us. What pains we accordingly take, not only

they come in contact with our lives, like the tenement of the

I have thought that Walden Pond would be a good place for

hardy race, that lived mostly out of doors, was once made here

circumstances, and they know whether they are well employed or not;

In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been

Walden Pond was not to live cheaply nor to live dearly there, but to

whimsical. Of two patterns which differ only by a few threads more

life, not only theoretically, but practically. The success of great

little distance, whether of space or time, laugh at each others

it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether

is suited to the seed, for it has sent its radicle downward, and it

something else to prevent the caving in of the earth; floor this

live in New England; something about your condition, especially your

be good ventures. To oversee all the details yourself in person; to

necessaries of life in some circles, the most helpless and diseased,

for a quarter of a dollar, and a winter cap for sixty-two and a half

admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle

live -- if, indeed, there are any such, as has been dreamed; nor to

on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met

partitions are run through those cellars which are adapted to the

conducted, so enterprised or sailed in some way, that we feel like

and Eve, according to the fable, wore the bower before other

some of you who read this book are unable to pay for all the dinners

life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the

are green.... The meaner sort are covered with mats which they make

outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what

of a kind of bulrush, and are also indifferently tight and warm, but

those who find their encouragement and inspiration in precisely the

follows religiously the new. We are amused at beholding the costume

feet long and thirty feet broad.... I have often lodged in their

is said that a flood-tide, with a westerly wind, and ice in the

By the words, necessary of life, I mean whatever, of all that

say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of

with impunity, while the European shivers in his clothes. Is it

probably, man did not live long on the earth without discovering the

now? When I think of acquiring for myself one of our luxurious

but a doubtful choice of evils. Would the savage have been wise to

present men make shift to wear what they can get. Like shipwrecked

circulation, than go to heaven in the fancy car of an excursion

anxiety which I have referred to is about, and how much it is

lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house

shoestrings he speculates in herds of cattle. With consummate skill

incurable form of disease. We are made to exaggerate the importance

who wished to take up land there, states more particularly that

think there is no choice left. But alert and healthy natures

must have spent more than half his life commonly before his wigwam

almost universal respect. But they yield such respect, numerous as

every family owned one, or its apartment in one.

the families own a shelter. In the large towns and cities, where

live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence,

others?

nature. By proper Shelter and Clothing we legitimately retain our

in this world? I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I

tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot! The portionless, who

interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if

in most mens, and yet not voluntarily kept, but inseparable from

I do not mean to prescribe rules to strong and valiant natures,

Economy()

he has set his trap with a hair spring to catch comfort and

possible, Nature herself! How many mornings, summer and winter,

the sincere life passed within it which restrain laughter and

contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every

they are, are so far heathen, and need to have a missionary sent to

soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly

such slender means as I had already got. My purpose in going to

with their heads downward, over flames; or looking at the heavens

But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is

pressing wants first. But are the more pressing wants satisfied

or less of a particular color, the one will be sold readily, the

offenses; lying, flattering, voting, contracting yourselves into a

interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of these

cents, or a better be made at home at a nominal cost, where is he so

However, if one designs to construct a dwelling-house, it

them open, and ravines bridged and passable at all seasons, where

ninety-seven in a hundred, are sure to fail, is equally true of the

anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too;

and Sandwich Islanders as you who read these pages, who are said to

uncertainties. So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to

is his fire, and many of the fruits are sufficiently cooked by its

though you must everywhere build on piles of your own driving. It

In this course which our ancestors took there was a show of

the sun materially in his rising, but, doubt not, it was of the last

hook down the lid, and so have freedom in his love, and in his soul

may call endless; a womans dress, at least, is never done.

roof, or the saint dwell there so long. Birds do not sing in caves,

dusty in the garret for an indeterminate period. Old shoes will

tell surely of any company of civilized men which belonged to the

get on in the enjoyment of the fine arts which adorn it, my

may now send its shoot upward also with confidence. Why has man

first, to squeeze their old notions out of them, so that they would

often imprisoned rather than housed in them; and the bad

plants by addition without. Our outside and often thin and fanciful

required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. An

wear a patch, or two extra seams only, over the knee? Most behave

When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I

benefactors of the race, whom we have apotheosized as messengers

answered to. I have met one or two who had heard the hound, and the

is sure to come to earth again beyond that distance. The first

have new coats, coats to change as often as the man changes in them.

twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or

from the observatory of some cliff or tree, to telegraph any new

the "They" at all, as if she quoted an authority as impersonal as

present obtained, and to suggest that we may possibly so live as to

kingly, not manly. They make shift to live merely by conformity,

from this enterprise, farmers starting for Boston in the twilight,

I may come at the meaning of it, that I may find out by what degree

stones over their heads behind them, and not seeing where they fell.

most respected class? When Madam Pfeiffer, in her adventurous

to create noblemen and kings. And if the civilized mans pursuits

the window in disgust. How, then, could I have a furnished house?

When I consider my neighbors, the farmers of Concord, who are at

why should he have a better dwelling than the former?

admit the air at least, get into it when it rained and at night, and

which belies that experience, and they are only less young than they

what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and

hire. But, answers one, by merely paying this tax, the poor

know of no reading of anothers experience so startling and

We have built for this world a family mansion, and for the next a

all when you are the slave-driver of yourself. Talk of a divinity

are set on edge?

both old and young are permanently contracted by the long habit of