Economy

      WALDEN

      and

      ON THE DUTY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

      by Henry David Thoreau

      When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived

      alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had

      built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts,

      and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two

      years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life

      again.

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

      very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning

      my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not

      appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances,

      very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did

      not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been

      curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable

      purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I

      maintained. I will therefore ask those of my readers who feel no

      particular interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of

      these questions in this book. In most books, the _I_, or first person,

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

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

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

      much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.

      Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my

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

      last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what

      he has heard of other men’s lives; some such account as he would send

      to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it

      must have been in a distant land to me. Perhaps these pages are more

      particularly addressed to poor students. As for the rest of my readers,

      they will accept such portions as apply to them. I trust that none will

      stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to

      him whom it fits.

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

      Sandwich Islanders as you who read these pages, who are said to live in

      New England; something about your condition, especially your outward

      condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what it is,

      whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether it cannot

      be improved as well as not. I have travelled a good deal in Concord;

      and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have

      appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. What

      I have heard of Brahmins sitting exposed to four fires and looking in

      the face of the sun; or hanging suspended, with their heads downward,

      over flames; or looking at the heavens over their shoulders “until it

      becomes impossible for them to resume their natural position, while

      from the twist of the neck nothing but liquids can pass into the

      stomach;” or dwelling, chained for life, at the foot of a tree; or

      measuring with their bodies, like caterpillars, the breadth of vast

      empires;