WALDEN AND ON THE DUTY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. Henry David Thoreau
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work. It is true, I never assisted the sun materially in his
rising, but, doubt not, it was of the last importance only to be
present at it.
So many autumn, ay, and winter days, spent outside the town, trying to
hear what was in the wind, to hear and carry it express! I well-nigh
sunk all my capital in it, and lost my own breath into the bargain,
running in the face of it. If it had concerned either of the political
parties, depend upon it, it would have appeared in the Gazette with the
earliest intelligence. At other times watching from the observatory of
some cliff or tree, to telegraph any new arrival; or waiting at evening
on the hill-tops for the sky to fall, that I might catch something,
though I never caught much, and that, manna-wise, would dissolve again
in the sun.
For a long time I was reporter to a journal, of no very wide
circulation, whose editor has never yet seen fit to print the bulk of
my contributions, and, as is too common with writers, I got only my
labor for my pains. However, in this case my pains were their own
reward.
For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snow storms and rain
storms, and did my duty faithfully; surveyor, if not of highways, then
of forest paths and all across-lot routes, keeping them open, and
ravines bridged and passable at all seasons, where the public heel had
testified to their utility.
I have looked after the wild stock of the town, which give a faithful
herdsman a good deal of trouble by leaping fences; and I have had an
eye to the unfrequented nooks and corners of the farm; though I did not
always know whether Jonas or Solomon worked in a particular field
to-day; that was none of my business. I have watered the red
huckleberry, the sand 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 dry seasons.
In short, I went on thus for a long time, I may say it without
boasting, faithfully minding my business, till it became more and more
evident that my townsmen would not after all admit me into the list of
town officers, nor make my place a sinecure with a moderate allowance.
My accounts, which I can swear to have kept faithfully, I have, indeed,
never got audited, still less accepted, still less paid and settled.
However, I have not set my heart on that.
Not long since, a strolling Indian went to sell baskets at the house of
a well-known lawyer in my neighborhood. “Do you wish to buy any
baskets?” he asked. “No, we do not want any,” was the reply. “What!”
exclaimed the Indian as he went out the gate, “do you mean to starve
us?” Having seen his industrious white neighbors so well off,—that the
lawyer had only to weave arguments, and by some magic, wealth and
standing followed, he had said to himself; I will go into business; I
will weave baskets; it is a 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 white man’s to buy them. He had not discovered that it was
necessary for him to make it worth the other’s while to buy them, or at
least make him think that it was so, or to make something else which it
would be worth his while to buy. I too had woven a kind of basket of a
delicate texture, but I had not made it worth any one’s while to buy
them. Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to
weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men’s while to
buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling
them. The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one
kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the
others?
Finding that my fellow-citizens were not likely to offer me any room in
the court house, or any curacy or living any where else, but I must
shift for myself, I turned my face more exclusively than ever to the
woods, where I was better known. I determined to go into business at
once, and not wait to acquire the usual capital, using such slender
means as I had already got. My purpose in going to Walden Pond was not
to live cheaply nor to live dearly there, but to transact 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.
I have always endeavored to acquire strict business habits; they are
indispensable to every man. If your trade is with the Celestial Empire,
then some small counting house on the coast, in some Salem harbor, will
be fixture enough. You will export such articles as the country
affords, purely native products, much ice and pine timber and a little
granite, always in native bottoms. These will be good ventures. To
oversee 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 day; to be upon
many parts of the coast almost at the same time;—often the richest
freight will be discharged upon a Jersey shore;—to be your own
telegraph, unweariedly sweeping the horizon, speaking all passing
vessels bound coastwise; to keep up a steady despatch of commodities,
for the supply of such a distant and exorbitant market; to keep
yourself informed of the state of the markets, prospects of war and
peace every where, and anticipate the tendencies of trade and
civilization,—taking advantage of the results of all exploring
expeditions, using new passages and all improvements in
navigation;—charts to be studied, the position of reefs and new lights
and buoys to be ascertained, and ever, and ever,