Economy()
e them, I
lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house
he shore of alden Pond, in Concord,
Massacts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only.
I lived t present I am a sojourner
in civilized life again.
I s obtrude my affairs so mucice of my
readers if very particular inquiries been made by my
townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call
impertinent, t appear to me at all impertinent,
but, considering tances, very natural and pertinent.
Some I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I
afraid; and to learn
ion of my income I devoted to cable purposes; and
some, wained.
I icular
interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to anshese
questions in t books, t person, is
omitted; in t ained; t, in respect to egotism,
is t remember t it is,
after all, al person t is speaking. I s
talk so muc myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as
unately, I am confined to the narrowness
of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every er,
first or last, a simple and sincere account of
merely w as
o ant land; for if he has
lived sincerely, it must ant land to me. Perhaps
ticularly addressed to poor students. As
for t of my readers, t sucions as apply
to trust t none retcting on the
coat, for it may do good service to fits.
I so muche Chinese
and Sandwico
live in Ne your condition, especially your
oution or circumstances in town, w
it is, it be as bad as it is, wher
it cannot be improved as . I ravelled a good deal
in Concord; and everywhe
inants o me to be doing penance in a thousand
remarkable ing exposed to
four fires and looking in the sun; or hanging suspended,
the heavens
over t;until it becomes impossible for to resume
tural position, of t
liquids can pass into tomac;; or dwelling, chained for life,
at t of a tree; or measuring heir bodies, like
caterpillars, t empires; or standing on one leg on
tops of pillars -- even these forms of conscious penance are
onishe scenes which I daily
ness. twelve labors of rifling in comparison
aken; for they were only
t these men slew or
captured any monster or finishey have no friend
Iolaus to burn iron t of t as
soon as one wo spring up.
I see young men, my to is to have
ined farms, tle, and farming tools; for these
are more easily acquired t rid of. Better if they had been
born in ture and suckled by a t have
seen field to labor in. ho
made t ty acres,
only ? hey
begin digging t
to live a mans life, pus
on as al soul
he
road of life, pus a barn seventy-five feet by forty,
its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land,
tillage, moure, and ! tionless, who
struggle ed encumbrances, find it
labor enougo subdue and cultivate a fe of flesh.
But men labor under a mistake. tter part of the man is
soon ploo t. By a seeming fate, commonly
called necessity, t says in an old book,
laying up treasures and thieves
break teal. It is a fools life, as they will find
o t, if not before. It is said t
Deucalion and Pyrred men by tones over their heads
behem:--
Inde genus durum sumus, experiensque laborum,
Et documenta damus qua simus origine nati.
Or, as Raleig in his sonorous way,--
quot;From ted is, enduring pain and care,
Approving t our bodies of a stony nature are.quot;
So muco a blundering oracle, the
stones over t seeing whey fell.
Most men, even in tively free country, through mere
ignorance and mistake, are so occupied itious cares and
superfluously coarse labors of life t its finer fruits cannot be
plucked by toil, are too clumsy
and tremble too muc. Actually, t
leisure for a true integrity day by day; afford to sustain
t relations to men; ed in the
market. ime to be anyt a machine. how can he
remember well h requires -- who has
so often to use he him
gratuitously sometimes, and recruit h our cordials, before we
judge of qualities of our nature, like the bloom on
fruits, can be preserved only by t delicate we
do not treat ourselves nor one anotenderly.
Some of you, o live, are
sometimes, as it t
some of you he dinners
en, or for ts and shoes which are
fast , and o to
spend borroolen time, robbing your creditors of an hour.
It is very evident w mean and sneaking lives many of you live,
for my sigted by experience; als,
trying to get into business and trying to get out of debt, a very
ancient slougins aes alienum, anothers brass,
for some of till living, and dying,
and buried by to pay, promising
to pay, tomorrooday, insolvent; seeking to curry
favor, to get custom, by state-prison
offenses; lying, flattering, voting, contracting yourselves into a
nutsy or dilating into an atmosphin and
vaporous generosity, t you may persuade your neigo let you
make , or , or
you may lay up
somet a sick day, someto be tucked away in an old
c, or in a stocking beering, or, more safely, in
tter le.
I sometimes
say, as to attend to t somew foreign form of
servitude called Negro Slavery, tle
masters t enslave bot is o have a
Sout is o of
all y
in man! Look at teamster on to market by
day or nigy stir duty
to fodder and er is iny to him compared
erests? Does not he drive for Squire
Make-a-stir? al, is he? See how he cowers
and sneaks, being immortal nor
divine, but the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself, a
fame compared
e opinion. a man t it
is es, e.
Self-emancipation even in t Indian provinces of the fancy and
imagination -- o bring t about?
toilet cushions
against t day, not to betray too green an interest in their
fates! As if you could kill time injuring eternity.
t desperation. is called
resignation is confirmed desperation. From te city you
go into te country, and o console yourself he
bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious
despair is concealed even under he games and
amusements of mankind. this comes
after it is a ceristic of to do
desperate things.
, to use teche
c are true necessaries and means of
life, it appears as if men ely che common mode
of living because t to any ot tly
t. But alert and ures
remember t t is never too late to give up
our prejudices. No , can
be trusted proof. everybody echoes or in silence
passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falseo-morrow,
mere smoke of opinion, ed for a cloud t would
sprinkle fertilizing rain on t old people say you
cannot do, you try and find t you can. Old deeds for old people,
and ne know enough once,
perco fetco keep the fire a-going; new people
put a little dry , and are whe globe
o kill old people, as the phrase
is. Age is no better, ructor
as yout profited so muc . One may
almost doubt if t man e
value by living. Practically, tant advice
to give tial, and
te reasons,
as t believe; and it may be t t
hey
, and I
to syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from
my seniors. told me not tell me
anyto t to a great
extent untried by me; but it does not avail me t tried
it. If I o
reflect t tors said not.
One farmer says to me, quot;You cannot live on vegetable food
solely, for it furniso make bones ;; and so he
religiously devotes a part of o supplying em h
terial of bones; alks behind his
oxen, wable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering
ploe of every obstacle. Some things are really
necessaries of life in some circles, t helpless and diseased,
will are
entirely unknown.
to some to have been gone
over by ts and the valleys, and
all to o Evelyn, quot;the wise
Solomon prescribed ordinances for tances of trees; and
tors en you may go into your
neigo gat
trespass, and neig; es has
even left directions our nails; t is, even h
ter nor longer. Undoubtedly
tedium and ennui he
variety and t mans
capacities o judge of w he
can do by any precedents, so little ried. ever have
been to, quot;be not afflicted, my child, for who
so t t left undone?quot;
e migry our lives by a tests; as, for
instance, t t once
a system of eart would
ed some mistakes. t t in which I
ars are t riangles!
distant and different beings in the
universe are contemplating t t! Nature
and itutions. ho
s prospect life offers to anoter
miracle take place to look thers eyes for
an instant? e she world in an hour;
ay, in all tory, Poetry, Mythology! -- I
knoartling and
informing as this would be.
ter part of w my neighbors call good I believe in my
soul to be bad, and if I repent of anyt is very likely to be
my good be demon possessed me t I behaved so well?
You may say t thing you can, old man -- you who have lived
seventy years, not ible
voice . One generation abandons
terprises of anotranded vessels.
I t rust a good deal more than we do.
e may so mucly bestow
elseed to our o our
strengt anxiety and strain of some is a well-nigh
incurable form of disease. e are made to exaggerate tance
of done by us! or, w if
ermined not to live
by fait; all t, at night
ourselves to
uncertainties. So to
live, reverencing our life, and denying ty of change.
t there
can be drare. All co
contemplate; but it is a miracle waking place every
instant. Confucius said, quot;to kno we know w we know, and
t kno kno is true kno;
of tion to be a fact to
anding, I foresee t all men at lengtablisheir
lives on t basis.
Let us consider for a moment of trouble and
anxiety , and is
necessary t roubled, or at least careful. It would be
some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, the
midst of an oution, if only to learn he
gross necessaries of life and aken to obtain
to look over ts, to
see men most commonly boug tores, w
tored, t is, groceries. For the
improvements of ages little influence on tial
laence; as our skeletons, probably, are not to be
distinguisors.
By tever, of all t
man obtains by ions, , or from
long use ant to few, if any,
empt to
do it. to many creatures t one
necessary of life, Food. to t is a few
incable grass, er to drink; unless he
Ser of t or tains se
creation requires more ter. the necessaries of
life for man in te may, accurately enougributed
under ter, Clothing, and Fuel; for
not till ertain true
problems of life of success. Man has
invented, not only clothes and cooked food; and possibly
from tal discovery of the
consequent use of it, at first a luxury, arose t necessity
to sit by it. e observe cats and dogs acquiring the same second
nature. By proper Ser and Clotimately retain our
oernal ; but is,
ernal greater ternal, may not cookery
properly be said to begin? Daruralist, says of the
inants of tierra del Fuego, t wy, who were
ting close to a fire, oo warm,
to his
great surprise, quot;to be streaming ion at undergoing
sucing.quot; So, old, the New hollander goes naked
y, w
impossible to combine the
intellectualness of to Liebig, mans
body is a stove, and food ternal
combustion in t more, in warm less.
t is t of a sloion, and disease and
deatake place of fuel, or
from some defect in t, t. Of course the
vital is not to be confounded so much for
analogy. It appears, t, t the
expression, animal life, is nearly synonymous he expression,
animal ; for whe Fuel which keeps
up to prepare t Food
or to increase tion from --
Ser and Cloto retain t thus
generated and absorbed.
ty, to keep o
keep tal in us. pains ake, not only
er, but h our beds, which
are our nigs and breasts of birds to
prepare ter er, as ts bed of
grass and leaves at ts burro to
complain t to cold, no less physical
tly a great part of our ails. the
summer, in some climates, makes possible to man a sort of Elysian
life. Fuel, except to cook he sun
is s are sufficiently cooked by its
rays; while Food generally is more various, and more easily
obtained, and Cloter are wholly or half unnecessary.
At t day, and in try, as I find by my own
experience, a fes, a knife, an axe, a spade, a
udious, lampligationery, and
access to a fe to necessaries, and can all be
obtained at a trifling cost. Yet some, not o ther
side of to barbarous and une
to trade for ten or ty years, in order t they may
live -- t is, keep comfortably
last. t simply kept comfortably warm,
but unnaturally ; as I implied before, they are cooked, of course
a la mode.
Most of ts of
life, are not only not indispensable, but positive o the
elevation of mankind. it to luxuries and comforts, the
he poor.
t philosophers, Chinese, hindoo, Persian, and Greek, were
a class tward riches, none so
ric muc t is remarkable t
he more
modern reformers and benefactors of their race. None can be an
impartial or age ground
of y. Of a life of luxury the
fruit is luxury, erature,
or art. t not
p it is admirable to profess because it was once
admirable to live. to be a p merely to le
ts, nor even to found a sc so to love o
live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence,
magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of
life, not only tically, but practically. t
scier-like success, not
kingly, not manly. t to live merely by conformity,
practically as the
progenitors of a noble race of men. But we ever?
makes families run out? is ture of the luxury which
enervates and destroys nations? Are there is none of
it in our ohe philosopher is in advance of his age even
in thed,
warmed, like emporaries. how can a man be a philosopher and
not maintain al by better mether men?
he several modes which I have
described, ? Surely not more he
same kind, as more and richer food, larger and more splendid houses,
finer and more abundant clot, and
ter fires, and tained things which
are necessary to life, ternative to obtain
ties; and t is, to adventure on life now, his
vacation from oil appears,
is suited to t its radicle do
may nos s uph confidence. hy has man
rooted t he
same proportion into ts are
valued for t t last in t, far
from t treated like ts,
ed only till they
ed t, and often cut do top for this
purpose, so t most knoheir flowering season.
I do not mean to prescribe rules to strong and valiant natures,
wher in heaven or hell, and
percly and spend more lavishe
ric, ever impoveris knowing hey
live -- if, indeed, to
t and inspiration in precisely the
present condition of t he fondness and
ento some extent, I reckon myself in this
number; I do not speak to tever
circumstances, and t;
-- but mainly to tented, and idly
complaining of t or of times, whey
mig energetically
and inconsolably of any, because their
duty. I also seemingly most
terribly impoverised dross, but
kno o use it, or get rid of it, and their
oters.
If I stempt to tell o spend my life
in years past, it hose of my readers who
are someed s actual ory; it ainly
astonis it. I some
of terprises which I have cherished.
In any any , I have been
anxious to improve time, and notc on my stick too;
to stand on ting of ternities, t and future,
; to toe t line. You will
pardon some obscurities, for ts in my trade than
in most mens, and yet not voluntarily kept, but inseparable from
its very nature. I ell all t I kno it, and
never paint quot;No Admittancequot; on my gate.
I long ago lost a urtle dove, and am
still on trail. Many are travellers I have spoken
concerning tracks and hey
anso. I one or two whe
tramp of the dove disappear behind a cloud,
and to recover t them
themselves.
to anticipate, not t, if
possible, Nature er,
before yet any neigirring about his business, have I been
about mine! No doubt, many of my tourning
from terprise, farmers starting for Boston in t,
or is true, I never assisted
terially in , doubt not, it
importance only to be present at it.
So many autumn, ay, and er days, spent outside town,
trying to o express!
I , and lost my oo
t. If it her
of tical parties, depend upon it, it would have appeared in
tte intelligence. At otimes ching
from tory of some cliff or tree, to telegraph any new
arrival; or ing at evening on tops for to fall,
t I migc muc,
manna-he sun.
For a long time I er to a journal, of no very wide
circulation, to print the bulk
of my contributions, and, as is too common ers, I got only
my labor for my pains. heir
own reward.
For many years I ed inspector of snoorms and
rain-storms, and did my duty fait of
pat routes, keeping
t all seasons, where
testified to tility.
I er tock of town, which give a
faitrouble by leaping fences; and I
o ted nooks and corners of the farm;
t always know wher Jonas or Solomon worked in a
particular field to-day; t was none of my business. I have
ered ttle-tree,
te grape and the yellow
violet, w hered else in dry seasons.
In s, I on time (I may say it
boasting), faitill it became more and
more evident t my to after all admit me into the
list of toe
allos, hfully,
I audited, still less accepted, still less
paid and settled. set my on t.
Not long since, a strolling Indian to sell baskets at the
;Do you wiso
buy any baskets?quot; ;No, any,quot; he
reply. quot;!quot; exclaimed t out te, quot;do
you mean to starve us?quot; rious we neighbors
so to s, and, by
some magic, anding followed -- o himself:
I o business; I s; it is a thing which I
can do. t ws he would have
done , and t e mans to buy them. he
discovered t it h
to buy t least make it
o make somet h his while
to buy. I too of a delicate texture, but
I made it o buy t not the
less, in my case, did I t o hem, and
instead of studying o make it o buy my
baskets, I studied rato avoid ty of selling
t one
kind. e any one kind at the
others?
Finding t my felloizens likely to offer me any
room in t
I must s for myself, I turned my face more exclusively than ever
to tter knoermined to go into
business at once, and not to acquire tal, using
suc. My purpose in going to
alden Pond to live co live dearly t to
transact some private business obstacles; to be
of a little common sense,
a little enterprise and business talent, appeared not so sad as
foolish.
I o acquire strict business s; they
are indispensable to every man. If your trade is ial
Empire, ting , in some Salem
ure enoug sucicles as
try affords, purely native products, much ice and pine
timber and a little granite, alive bottoms. these will
be good ventures. to oversee all tails yourself in person; to
be at once pilot and captain, and oer; to buy and
sell and keep ts; to read every letter received, and e
or read every letter sent; to superintend ts
nigo be upon many parts of t almost at the same
time -- often t freight will be discharged upon a Jersey
so be your oelegraphe
o keep up a
steady despatcies, for tant and
exorbitant market; to keep yourself informed of tate of the
markets, prospects of e the
tendencies of trade and civilization -- taking advantage of the
results of all exploring expeditions, using new passages and all
improvements in navigation; -- cs to be studied, tion of
reefs and neained, and ever, and
ever, tables to be corrected, for by the error of
some calculator ten splits upon a rock t should have
reacold fate of La Prouse;
-- universal science to be kept pace udying the lives of all
great discoverers and navigators, great adventurers and mercs,
from o our day; in fine, account of
stock to be taken from time to time, to kno is a
labor to task ties of a man -- suc and
loss, of interest, of tare and tret, and gauging of all kinds in it,
as demand a universal knowledge.
I t alden Pond would be a good place for
business, not solely on account of trade;
it offers advantages be good policy to divulge; it
is a good port and a good foundation. No Neva marso be filled;
t everyw
is said t a flood-tide, erly he
Neva, . Petersburg from th.
As to be entered into the usual
capital, it may not be easy to conjecture w
ill be indispensable to every sucaking, o be
obtained. As for Cloto come at once to tical part of
tion, perener by ty and
a regard for t, true
utility. Let o do recollect t t of
clot, to retain tal , and secondly, in this
state of society, to cover nakedness, and he may judge how much of
any necessary or important work may be accomplis adding
to but once, though
made by some tailor or dressmaker to ties, cannot know
t of t fits. tter than
wooden o s
become more assimilated to ourselves, receiving the
il e to lay t such
delay and medical appliances and some sucy even as our
bodies. No man ever stood timation for having a
patc I am sure t ter anxiety,
commonly, to least clean and unpatched
cloto even if t is
not mended, per vice betrayed is improvidence. I
sometimes try my acquaintances by sucests as this -- ho could
cra seams only, over t behave
as if t ts for life would be ruined if
t. It o o town
aloon. Often if an
accident o a gentlemans legs, t if a
similar accident o taloons, there is no
; for ruly respectable, but
ed. e kno fe many coats and
breec s, you standing
sless by, salute the scarecrow? Passing a
cornfield t and coat on a stake, I
recognized ttle more
en t. I
barked at every stranger h
clot ed by a naked t is an
interesting question ain tive rank if
ted of thes. Could you, in such a case,
tell surely of any company of civilized men he
most respected class? urous
travels round t to , so near home as
Asiatic Russia, s s ty of wearing
otravelling dress, o meet the
auties, for s;ry, where ...
people are judged of by t; Even in our democratic New
England toal possession of s
manifestation in dress and equipage alone, obtain for the possessor
almost universal respect. But t, numerous as
to to
troduced sewing, a kind of work which you
may call endless; a least, is never done.
A man o do need to
get a ne to do it in; for has lain
dusty in t for an indeterminate period. Old shoes will
serve a -- if a hero
ever -- bare feet are older than shoes, and he can make
to soires and legislative balls must
s, coats to cen as them.
But if my jacket and trousers, my and s to worship
God in, t? hes
-- , actually , resolved into its primitive
elements, so t it a deed of cy to besto on some
poor boy, by o be bestoill, or
sh less? I say, beware of all
enterprises t require ne rather a new wearer of
clot a new man, hes be made
to fit? If you erprise before you, try it in your old
clot, not someto do someto
do, or rato be. Perhaps we should never procure a
ne, y til we have so
conducted, so enterprised or sailed in some we feel like
ne to retain it would be like keeping new
tles. Our moulting season, like t of the fowls,
must be a crisis in our lives. tires to solitary ponds
to spend it. ts its sloughe
caterpillar its , by an internal industry and expansion;
for clot our outmost cuticle and mortal coil. Otherwise
we sably
cas last by our o of mankind.
e don garment after garment, as if we grew like exogenous
plants by addition . Our outside and often thin and fanciful
clotakes not of our
life, and may be stripped off fatal injury;
our ts, constantly egument,
or cortex; but our ss are our liber, or true bark, w
be removed girdling and so destroying the man. I believe
t all races at some seasons to the
s. It is desirable t a man be clad so simply t he can lay
s
so compactly and preparedly t, if an enemy take town, he can,
like t te empty-
anxiety. is, for most purposes, as good as
tained at prices really
to suit customers; for five
dollars, aloons for two
dollars, cows for a dollar and a
for a quarter of a dollar, and a er cap for sixty-two and a half
cents, or a better be made at a nominal cost, where is he so
poor t, clad in suc, of
be found o do him reverence?
of a particular form, my tailoress
tells me gravely, quot;t make t; not emphasizing
t;t; at all, as if sed an auty as impersonal as
tes, and I find it difficult to get made , simply
because s believe t I mean I am so
rasence, I am for a moment
absorbed in t, empo myself eacely t
I may come at t, t I may find out by w degree
of consanguinity ted to me, and y they
may s me so nearly; and, finally, I am
inclined to ans any more
emp;t; -- quot;It is true, t make them so
recently, but t; Of his measuring of me if she
does not measure my cer, but only th of my shoulders,
as it o bang t on? e he Graces,
nor t Fass h
full auty. t Paris puts on a travellers cap,
and all times despair of
getting anyte simple and done in the
o be passed through a powerful press
first, to squeeze tions out of t they would
not soon get upon there would be some one
in t in ched from an egg
deposited t even fire kills these
t your labor. Nevertheless, we will
not forget t some Egyptian w was o us by a
mummy.
On t it cannot be maintained t dressing
ry risen to ty of an art. At
present men make s to . Like shipwrecked
sailors, t on a
little distance, wime, laug eachers
masquerade. Every generation laug t
follo beume
of of the
King and Queen of tume off a man is
pitiful or grotesque. It is only the serious eye peering from and
t er and
consecrate tume of any people. Let aken h a
fit of trappings mood too.
by a cannonball, rags are as becoming as
purple.
taste of men and terns
keeps ing t they
may discover ticular figure wion requires
today. turers taste is merely
terns whreads more
or less of a particular color, the
ot frequently after the
lapse of a season tter becomes t fashionable.
Comparatively, tattooing is not tom w is
called. It is not barbarous merely because ting is
skin-deep and unalterable.
I cannot believe t our factory system is t mode by
ion of tives is
becoming every day more like t of t cannot be
, since, as far as I he
principal object is, not t mankind may be well and ly clad,
but, unquestionably, t corporations may be enriche long
run men only . they should
fail immediately, tter aim at something high.
As for a Ser, I deny t this is now a necessary
of life, tances of men it
for long periods in colder countries this. Samuel Laing says
t quot;the Laplander in his skin dress, and in a skin bag which he
puts over after night on
tinguishe life of
one exposed to it in any ; hem asleep
t ;t ; But,
probably, man did not live long on t discovering the
convenience s, which
pisfactions of the house
more t be extremely partial and
occasional in tes wed in our
ts er or thirds of
t for a parasol, is unnecessary. In our climate, in
t solely a covering at night. In
ttes a he symbol of a days march, and a
ro or painted on tree signified t so
many times t made so large limbed and
robust but t seek to narrow his world and wall in a space
sucted first bare and out of doors; but
t enougher, by
dayliger, to say nothe
torrid sun, would perhe bud if he had
not made e to cloter of a house. Adam
and Eve, according to ther
cloted a , first of
ions.
e may imagine a time whe human race,
some enterprising mortal crept into a er.
Every co some extent, and loves to
stay outdoors, even in and cold. It plays house, as well as
inct for it. remember the
interest shelving rocks, or any
approaco a cave? It ural yearning of t portion,
any portion of our most primitive ancestor will survived in
us. From to roofs of palm leaves, of bark
and bougretcraw, of
boards and sones and tiles. At last, w
it is to live in tic in more
senses t
distance. It would be well, pero spend more of
our days and nig any obstruction bethe
celestial bodies, if t did not speak so much from under a
roof, or t d sing in caves,
nor do doves cs.
o construct a dwelling-
beo exercise a little Yankee s after all
a clue, a
museum, an almsead.
Consider first a ser is absolutely necessary. I have
seen Penobscot Indians, in toents of tton
clot deep around them, and I
t t to deeper to keep out the
my living ly, h freedom
left for my proper pursuits, ion which vexed me even more
t does nounately I am become somew callous, I
used to see a large box by t long by three
nig
suggested to me t every man such a
one for a dollar, and, , to
admit t least, get into it night, and
he lid, and so have freedom in his love, and in his soul
be free. t appear t, nor by any means a
despicable alternative. You could sit up as late as you pleased,
and, any landlord or
. Many a man is o deato
pay t of a larger and more luxurious box w have
frozen to deating.
Economy is a subject reated y, but
it cannot so be disposed of. A comfortable house for a rude and
lived mostly out of doors, was once made here
almost entirely of sucerials as Nature furniso their
endent of t to the
Massacts Colony, ing in 1674, says, quot;t of their
ly, tigrees,
slipped from t the sap is up, and
made into great flakes, y timber, whey
are green.... t are covered s whey make
of a kind of bulrusly tig
not so good as ty or a hundred
feet long and ty feet broad.... I en lodged in their
Englis; he
adds t ted and lined h
well-wrougs, and were furnish various
utensils. to regulate t
of t suspended over the roof and moved
by a string. Suc instance constructed in
a day or t most, and taken do up in a few hours; and
every family os apartment in one.
In tate every family ohe
best, and sufficient for its coarser and simpler s; but I think
t I speak , the
air s, and the savages
ty not more than one half
ter. In toies, where
civilization especially prevails, those who own a
ser is a very small fraction of t pay an
annual tax for tside garment of all, become indispensable
summer and er, w
no mean to
insist age of
it is evident t ter because it costs so
little, w
afford to o; nor can ter afford to
, ansax, the poor
civilized man secures an abode whe
savages. An annual rent of from ty-five to a hundred dollars
(try rates) entitles o t of the
improvements of centuries, spacious apartments, clean paint and
paper, Rumford fire-place, back plastering, Venetian blinds, copper
pump, spring lock, a commodious cellar, and many ot
t o enjoy things is so
commonly a poor civilized man, w,
is ric is asserted t civilization is a real
advance in tion of man -- and I t it is, though
only tages -- it must be s it
ter d making tly; and
t of a t of w I will call life which is
required to be exc, immediately or in the long run. An
average s per hundred
dollars, and to lay up take from ten to fifteen years
of t encumbered h a family --
estimating t one dollar a
day, for if some receive more, ot he
must more than half his life commonly before his wigwam
instead, this is
but a doubtful co
excerms?
It may be guessed t I reduce almost tage of
y as a fund in store against the
future, so far as to the
defraying of funeral expenses. But per required to
bury s to an important distinction
bet, they have
designs on us for our benefit, in making the life of a civilized
people an institution, in wo a
great extent absorbed, in order to preserve and perfect t of the
race. But I age is at
present obtained, and to suggest t o
secure all tage suffering any of tage.
mean ye by saying t th you, or
t ten sour grapes, and teeth
are set on edge?
quot;As I live, sait have occasion any
more to use this proverb in Israel.
quot;Beher, so also
t sinnet s;
least as for t
part toiling ty, ty, or forty years, t
they
ed h hired money --
and toil as t of their houses
-- but commonly t paid for t. It is true, the
encumbrances sometimes outhe
farm itself becomes one great encumbrance, and still a man is found
to in it, being ed , as he says. On
applying to to learn t t
at once name a dozen in town wheir farms free and clear.
If you ory of teads, inquire at the
bank ually paid for
is so rare t every neig
to if t has
been said of ts, t a very large majority, even
ninety-seven in a o fail, is equally true of the
farmers. ito ts, hem says
pertinently t a great part of t genuine
pecuniary failures, but merely failures to fulfil ts,
because it is inconvenient; t is, it is ter t
breaks do ts an infinitely ter,
and suggests, beside, t probably not even three succeed
in saving t are perc in a worse sense
tly. Bankruptcy and repudiation are the
springboards from s and turns
its somersets, but tands on tic plank of
famine. Yet ttle S
annually, as if all ts of tural machine were
suent.
to solve the problem of a livelihood
by a formula more complicated tself. to get his
srings es in tle. ite skill
rap o catc and
independence, and turned a o it.
the reason he is poor; and for a similar reason we are all
poor in respect to a ts, though surrounded by
luxuries. As Chapman sings,
quot;ty of men --
-- for eartness
All s rarefies to air.quot;
And he richer
but t, and it be t him. As I
understand it, t ion urged by Momus against the
s; made it movable, by
;; and it may still
be urged, for our y t we are
often imprisoned rathe bad
neigo be avoided is our own scurvy selves. I know one or
t least, in town, wion,
o sell tskirts and move
into t been able to accomplis, and only
deat them free.
Granted t ty are able at last eito own or hire
ts improvements. ion has
been improving our equally improved the men who
are to in t ed palaces, but it so easy
to create noblemen and kings. And if ts
are no er
part of aining gross necessaries and comforts merely,
he former?
But y fare? Per will be found
t just in proportion as some ward
circumstances above thers have been degraded below him.
terbalanced by the indigence of
anothe
alms;silent poor.quot; t to
be tombs of t may be were
not decently buried the cornice
of turns at nigo a not so good as a
is a mistake to suppose t, in a country whe
usual evidences of civilization exist, tion of a very large
body of tants may not be as degraded as t of savages.
I refer to t noo to know
t need to look farto ties which
every improvement in
civilization; where I see in my daily walks human beings living in
sties, and all er ,
any visible, often imaginable, he forms of
botly contracted by t of
s of all their
limbs and faculties is c certainly is fair to look at
t class by winguishis
generation are accomplisoo, to a greater or less extent,
is tion of tives of every denomination in England,
w worko
Ireland, we or enligs on
trast tion of t of
ther
savage race before it act he civilized
man. Yet I t t peoples rulers are as wise as
tion only proves w
squalidness may consist ion. I hardly need refer now
to tates waple
exports of try, and are taple production of
t to confine myself to to be in
moderate circumstances.
Most men appear never to a house is, and
are actually they
t t heir neighbors have. As if
one o of coat for
or cap of woodchuck
skin, complain of imes because afford to buy him
a cro is possible to invent a ill more convenient and
luxurious t all t man could not
afford to pay for. Sudy to obtain more of these
t sometimes to be content he
respectable citizen teac and example, the
necessity of tain number of
superfluous glo chambers for
empty guests, before our furniture be as
simple as the
benefactors of theosized as messengers
from s to man, I do not see in my mind
any retinue at ture.
Or o allo not be a singular allowance?
-- t our furniture she Arabs, in
proportion as ellectually
present our tered and defiled , and a good
ter part into t hole, and
not leave he blushes
of Aurora and t should be mans morning work
in tone on my desk, but I
errified to find t to be dusted daily, when
ture of my mind ed still, and t
t. hen, could I have a furnished house?
I in t gathe
grass, unless where man has broken ground.
It is ted he fashions which
tly folloraveller t
he publicans presume
o be a Sardanapalus, and if o tender
mercies ely emasculated. I t in
to spend more on luxury than on
safety and convenience, and it tens attaining to
become no better ts divans, and
ottomans, and sun-sal things, which
aking ed for the harem and
te natives of tial Empire, whan
so kno on a
pumpkin and all to myself t
cus, h a free
circulation, to he fancy car of an excursion
train and breathe way.
ty and nakedness of mans life in tive
ages imply tage, at least, t t ill but a
sojourner in nature. h food and sleep, he
contemplated , as it ent in
the
plains, or climbing tain-tops. But lo! men he
tools of tools. tly plucked ts
ree
for ser, a ,
but tled doten heaven. e have
adopted Cianity merely as an improved meture.
e for t a
family tomb. t are the expression of mans
struggle to free ion, but t of our
art is merely to make tate comfortable and t higher
state to be forgotten. tually no place in this village
for a , if any o us, to stand, for
our lives, our reets, furnisal for
it. t a nail to ure on, nor a so
receive t of a . hen I consider how our
and paid for, or not paid for, and ternal
economy managed and sustained, I t give
or whe
mantelpiece, and let o to some solid and
tion. I cannot but perceive t this
so-called ric, and I do not
get on in t of ts w, my
attention being w
test genuine leap, due to human muscles alone, on record, is
t of certain wandering Arabs, wo have cleared
ty-five feet on level ground. it factitious support, man
is sure to come to eart distance. t
question ed to put to tor of suc
impropriety is, ers you? Are you one of ty-seven
wions, and
t your baal.
t before tiful nor useful. Before
s t be
stripped, and our lives must be stripped, and beautiful housekeeping
and beautiful living be laid for a foundation: noaste for the
beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where is no house
and no housekeeper.
Old Jo;onder-orking Providence,quot; speaking of the
first settlers of toemporary, tells us
t quot;t ser
under some ing t upon timber, they
make a smoky fire against t t side.quot; they did
not quot;provide t; says ;till the Lords
blessing, brougo feed t; and t years
crop ;to cut their bread very
t; tary of the Province of New
Neting in Dutcion of those
ake up land tates more particularly t
quot;therland, and especially in New England, who have no
means to build farm first according to their wishes, dig a
square pit in t deep, as
long and as broad as th
rees or
someto prevent this
cellar it overhead for a ceiling, raise a
roof of spars clear up, and cover th bark or green sods,
so t tire
families for t being understood t
partitions are run ted to the
size of thy and principal men in New England,
in t
dly, in order
not to e time in building, and not to food t season;
secondly, in order not to discourage poor laboring people whey
broughree or
four years, ed to agriculture, they
built them several
t;
In tors took there was a show of
prudence at least, as if to satisfy the more
pressing s first. But are ts satisfied
now? hink of acquiring for myself one of our luxurious
derred, for, so to speak, try is not yet
adapted to ure, and ill forced to cut our
spiritual bread far ten.
Not t all arcectural ornament is to be neglected even in the
rudest periods; but let our be lined y, where
tact enement of the
s overlaid . But, alas! I have been inside
one or t th.
t so degenerate but t possibly live
in a cave or a oday, it certainly is better to
accept tages, t, wion
and industry of mankind offer. In suchis,
boards and shingles, lime and bricks, are cheaper and more easily
obtained table caves, or w
quantities, or even empered clay or flat stones. I speak
understandingly on t, for I ed
botically and practically. ittle more
o become ric
noion a blessing. the civilized man is
a more experienced and to make e to my own
experiment.