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

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СКАЧАТЬ 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, the logarithmic tables

      to be corrected, for by the error of some calculator the vessel often

      splits upon a rock that should have reached a friendly pier,—there is

      the untold fate of La Perouse;—universal science to be kept pace with,

      studying the lives of all great discoverers and navigators, great

      adventurers and merchants, from Hanno and the Phœnicians down to our

      day; in fine, account of stock to be taken from time to time, to know

      how you stand. It is a labor to task the faculties of a man,—such

      problems of profit and loss, of interest, of tare and tret, and gauging

      of all kinds in it, as demand a universal knowledge.

      I have thought that Walden Pond would be a good place for business, not

      solely on account of the railroad and the ice trade; it offers

      advantages which it may not be good policy to divulge; it is a good

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

      must every where build on piles of your own driving. It is said that a

      flood-tide, with a westerly wind, and ice in the Neva, would sweep St.

      Petersburg from the face of the earth.

      As this business was to be entered into without the usual capital, it

      may not be easy to conjecture where those means, that will still be

      indispensable to every such undertaking, were to be obtained. As for

      Clothing, to come at once to the practical part of the question,

      perhaps we are led oftener by the love of novelty, and a regard for the

      opinions of men, in procuring it, than by a true utility. Let him who

      has work to do recollect that the object of clothing is, first, to

      retain the vital heat, and secondly, in this state of society, to cover

      nakedness, and he may judge how much of any necessary or important work

      may be accomplished without adding to his wardrobe. Kings and queens

      who wear a suit but once, though made by some tailor or dressmaker to

      their majesties, cannot know the comfort of wearing a suit that fits.

      They are no better than wooden horses to hang the clean clothes on.

      Every day our garments become more assimilated to ourselves, receiving

      the impress of the wearer’s character, until we hesitate to lay them

      aside, without such delay and medical appliances and some such

      solemnity even as our bodies. No man ever stood the lower in my

      estimation for having a patch in his clothes; yet I am sure that there

      is greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean

      and unpatched clothes, than to have a sound conscience. But even if the

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

      sometimes try my acquaintances by such tests as this;—who could wear a

      patch, or two extra seams only, over the knee? Most behave as if they

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

      do it. It would be easier for them to hobble to town with a broken leg

      than with a broken pantaloon. Often if an accident happens to a

      gentleman’s legs, they can be mended; but if a similar accident happens

      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

      know but few men, a great many coats and breeches. Dress a scarecrow in

      your last shift, you standing shiftless by, who would not soonest

      salute the scarecrow? Passing a cornfield the other day, close by a hat

      and coat on a stake, I recognized the owner of the farm. He was only a

      little more weather-beaten than when I saw him last. I have heard of a

      dog that barked at every stranger who approached his master’s premises

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

      interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if

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

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