WALDEN AND ON THE DUTY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. Henry David Thoreau

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СКАЧАТЬ or purifying

      destruction of them, there was an _auction_, or increasing of them. The

      neighbors eagerly collected to view them, bought them all, and

      carefully transported them to their garrets and dust holes, to lie

      there till their estates are settled, when they will start again. When

      a man dies he kicks the dust.

      The customs of some savage nations might, perchance, be profitably

      imitated by us, for they at least go through the semblance of casting

      their slough annually; they have the idea of the thing, whether they

      have the reality or not. Would it not be well if we were to celebrate

      such a “busk,” or “feast of first fruits,” as Bartram describes to have

      been the custom of the Mucclasse Indians? “When a town celebrates the

      busk,” says he, “having previously provided themselves with new

      clothes, new pots, pans, and other household utensils and furniture,

      they collect all their worn out clothes and other despicable things,

      sweep and cleanse their houses, squares, and the whole town of their

      filth, which with all the remaining grain and other old provisions they

      cast together into one common heap, and consume it with fire. After

      having taken medicine, and fasted for three days, all the fire in the

      town is extinguished. During this fast they abstain from the

      gratification of every appetite and passion whatever. A general amnesty

      is proclaimed; all malefactors may return to their town.—”

      “On the fourth morning, the high priest, by rubbing dry wood together,

      produces new fire in the public square, from whence every habitation in

      the town is supplied with the new and pure flame.”

      They then feast on the new corn and fruits, and dance and sing for

      three days, “and the four following days they receive visits and

      rejoice with their friends from neighboring towns who have in like

      manner purified and prepared themselves.”

      The Mexicans also practised a similar purification at the end of every

      fifty-two years, in the belief that it was time for the world to come

      to an end.

      I have scarcely heard of a truer sacrament, that is, as the dictionary

      defines it, “outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual

      grace,” than this, and I have no doubt that they were originally

      inspired directly from Heaven to do thus, though they have no biblical

      record of the revelation.

      For more than five years I maintained myself thus solely by the labor

      of my hands, and I found, that by working about six weeks in a year, I

      could meet all the expenses of living. The whole of my winters, as well

      as most of my summers, I had free and clear for study. I have

      thoroughly tried school-keeping, and found that my expenses were in

      proportion, or rather out of proportion, to my income, for I was

      obliged to dress and train, not to say think and believe, accordingly,

      and I lost my time into the bargain. As I did not teach for the good of

      my fellow-men, but simply for a livelihood, this was a failure. I have

      tried trade; but I found that it would take ten years to get under way

      in that, and that then I should probably be on my way to the devil. I

      was actually afraid that I might by that time be doing what is called a

      good business. When formerly I was looking about to see what I could do

      for a living, some sad experience in conforming to the wishes of

      friends being fresh in my mind to tax my ingenuity, I thought often and

      seriously of picking huckleberries; that surely I could do, and its

      small profits might suffice,—for my greatest skill has been to want but

      little,—so little capital it required, so little distraction from my

      wonted moods, I foolishly thought. While my acquaintances went

      unhesitatingly into trade or the professions, I contemplated this

      occupation as most like theirs; ranging the hills all summer to pick

      the berries which came in my way, and thereafter carelessly dispose of

      them; so, to keep the flocks of Admetus. I also dreamed that I might

      gather the wild herbs, or carry evergreens to such villagers as loved

      to be reminded of the woods, even to the city, by hay-cart loads. But I

      have since learned that trade curses everything it handles; and though

      you trade in messages from heaven, the whole curse of trade attaches to

      the business.

      As I preferred some things to others, and especially valued my freedom,

      as I could fare hard and yet succeed well, I did not wish to spend my

      time in earning rich carpets or other fine furniture, or delicate

      cookery, or a house in the Grecian or the Gothic style just yet. If

      there are any to whom it is no interruption to acquire these things,

      and who know how to use them when acquired, I relinquish to them the

      pursuit. Some are “industrious,” and appear to love labor for its own

      sake, or perhaps because it keeps them out of worse mischief; to such I

      have СКАЧАТЬ