Why We Love Henry David Thoreau, in 5 Quotes五句引言揭秘為何人人愛梭羅

戴夫·魯斯 譯/陳旭 審訂/徐懷靜

Henry David Thoreau is one of America’s most beloved and misunderstood writers. He’s famous for retreating to a rustic cabin at Walden Pond in the Massachusetts woods for two years to ruminate on nature and philosophy， but Thoreau wasn’t a hermit or a cranky misanthrope. He was， in a word， a “questioner，” says Jeffrey S. Cramer， curator of collections at the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods， and author or editor of nearly a dozen books about Thoreau and his Transcendentalist friend Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“Thoreau is constantly asking questions in his own writings， both to himself and to his reader， that make you evaluate your life and how you’re living it，” says Cramer.

Born in 1817 in Concord， Massachusetts， Thoreau never married and worked as a teacher， lecturer， handyman， pencil-maker （his father’s business） and a writer. His best-known works， “Walden” （1854） and “Civil Disobedience” （originally titled “Resistance to Civil Government” in 1849） weren’t bestsellers in his lifetime， but have since become classics of American prose and guidebooks for truth-seekers of all ages.

The few surviving photographs of Thoreau show a dour-looking man with tousled hair and a neck beard， but Cramer says that Thoreau was far from a sourpuss. He had a tremendous sense of humor， was beloved by children for telling wild stories and even played pranks on his buddy Emerson.

If you’re still on the fence about? Thoreau， read the following five quotes that exemplify the straight-talking depth of one of America’s most influential thinkers and writers.

1. “If I am not I， who will be？”

Thoreau was unapologetically true to himself and encouraged others to be. He was very much his own man， uninterested in conforming to the expectations of 19th-century society. Thoreau didn’t care for organized religion or government， and thought that slaving away at a job six days a week just to buy more material possessions was a waste.

Cramer is so moved by this quote that he thinks it should be carved in stone over every schoolhouse in America and recited daily in classrooms.

“Can you imagine how differently every student would feel about who they are？” asks Cramer. “We need to be proud of who we are， whatever that looks like， and live the life that only we are destined to live.”

2. “What does education often do！ It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free meandering brook.”

Thoreau’s first job was as a teacher. He was fired after only a few weeks at the Concord Center School because he refused to use corporal punishment， so Thoreau and his brother John opened their own school. There they experimented with radical ideas for the time， like open dialogue between students and teachers， and experiential learning.

“If you want to learn what a huckleberry is， you don’t sit in a classroom and read a botany book—or have the teacher recite from a botany book that the students then memorize， as they did in those days，” says Cramer. “In Thoreau’s school， you went out to the field， you found huckleberries， you picked huckleberries and you tasted huckleberries.”

Even today， Cramer worries that students have too much of their lives “prescribed” for them by parents and teachers who preach that good grades， the “right” college and a well-paid career is the only recipe for happiness.

“That’s when education becomes this ‘straight-cut ditch’ that Thoreau was talking about，” says Cramer. “It takes a ‘free meandering student’ and puts them on this very narrow path.”

3. “Surely joy is the condition of life.”

“Joy” and “laughter” are not words that come to mind when you think of Henry David Thoreau. But according to Cramer， Thoreau loved to sing， dance and play the flute， and his public lectures literally left people rolling in the aisles.

And although Thoreau wasn’t a churchgoer， he was “religious” in the sense that he saw the divine in everything， especially the natural world. In an essay titled “Walking，” Thoreau laments， “How little appreciation of the beauty of the landscape there is among us！” For Thoreau， watching the leaves change colors in the fall， or gazing at a distant mountain range， inspired a childlike sense of joy that he yearned to share with his readers.

4. “If a man does not keep pace with his companions， perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.”

Thoreau did some of his best thinking when he was off alone in a secluded place like the cabin at Walden Pond. But even during that two-year stint in the woods， he didn’t cut himself off completely from society.

“People have this idea that he went off to the woods and never saw a soul， and that is not the case，” says Cramer. “When he lived at Walden Pond， he was going to town almost daily to visit with friends， to go to the post office， to do various things. And people would visit him at Walden Pond.”

The sociable Thoreau recognized the importance of being your own best companion first， so that when you are alone， says Cramer， “you still have yourself.”

5. “Did ever a man try heroism， magnanimity， truth， sincerity， and find that there was no advantage in them？”

Thoreau was a profoundly principled person who believed in practicing what he preached. He thought that slavery was a despicable practice， for example， so he took his own small stand. During his stay at Walden Pond， he refused to pay a poll tax because it went to a government that supported slavery. He spent a night in jail for his protest and it formed the seed of “Civil Disobedience.”

But Thoreau’s abolitionism didn’t end with a poll tax protest. Cramer says that the Thoreau family home in Concord was a stop on the Underground Railroad1， and that after nursing runaway enslaved people to health， Thoreau would accompany them on the train north to Canada.

“When he felt that it was safe and there were no slave catchers around， Thoreau would jump off the train and walk back to Concord，” says Cramer. “Even if he didn’t join the Abolitionist Party and attend meetings， Thoreau was doing his part in ways that many of his abolitionist neighbors wouldn’t dare to do.”

亨利·戴維·梭羅是最受喜愛和最不為人理解的美國作家之一。在馬薩諸塞州林間的瓦爾登湖畔，他搭建了一間小木屋，于此隱居兩年，思考自然和哲學。他因此聞名于世。但梭羅并不是一個隱士或古怪的厭世者。用杰弗里·S. 克拉默的話簡單來說，梭羅是一個“發問者”。克拉默是瓦爾登森林梭羅研究所的收藏品負責人，同時，他撰寫和編輯了十幾本關于梭羅和他的摯友——超驗主義者拉爾夫·沃爾多·愛默生的書籍。

克拉默說：“梭羅在作品中向他自己和讀者不斷發問，啟發大家叩問自己的生活，審視自己的生活方式。”

梭羅于1817年出生在馬薩諸塞州康科德，終生未婚。他曾做過教師、演說家、雜工、鉛筆制造商（他父親的生意）和作家。在梭羅的有生之年，他最著名的作品《瓦爾登湖》（1854年）和《論公民的不服從義務》（寫于1849年，原名為《反民主政府》）并不暢銷，但后來成為美國的經典散文，也成為所有年齡層真理尋求者的指南。

從梭羅留存不多的照片中可以看出，他長相陰郁，頭發蓬亂，留著絡腮胡，但克拉默說梭羅絕不是一個令人生厭的人。他非常幽默，常給孩子們講怪誕故事，深受孩子們喜愛，他甚至還對摯友愛默生惡作劇。

作為美國最有影響力的思想家和作家之一，梭羅直言不諱、思想深刻。若你對他的態度仍猶豫不決，以下5句引言將向你說明。

1. “如若我不是我，誰是我？”

梭羅堅決忠于自己，并鼓勵他人如此。他完全不受他人左右，無意按19世紀的社會要求行事，也不在乎宗教組織或政府。他認為，僅為購買更多的物質產品而每周辛苦勞作6天徒勞無益。

此話深深觸動了克拉默。他認為美國所有學校都應該把這句話鐫刻石上，讓學生在教室里每天背誦。

“你能想象每個學生對自我的看法會發生多大變化嗎？”克拉默問道。“無論我們看上去怎樣，我們都應該為自己是誰而驕傲，而且應該過自己命中注定的生活。”

2. “教育通常做什么？把自由蜿蜒的小溪變成直水渠。”

梭羅的第一份工作是教師。由于拒絕體罰學生，他在康科德中心學校僅工作幾周便被解雇了。后來梭羅和他的兄長約翰開辦了自己的學校。他們當時嘗試了一些大膽激進的做法，比如讓師生進行開放式討論，又如采用體驗式學習法。

克拉默說：“如果你想知道什么是美洲越橘，你不能枯坐教室啃植物學課本，也不能死記老師的照本宣科。這是當時學校的做法。在梭羅的學校，你可以走出教室，走到田地里去尋找、去采摘、去品嘗。”

即使在今天，克拉默仍擔心學生的生活過多受到父母和老師“指令”的干涉。父母和老師告誡他們，好成績、“好”大學和高薪職業是幸福的唯一秘訣。

克拉默表示：“于是，教育就變成了梭羅所說的‘直水渠’，將‘小溪般自由蜿蜒的學生’局限在這條窄之又窄的小路上。”

3. “毫無疑問，快樂是生活的前提。”

當你想到亨利·戴維·梭羅，腦海中并不會浮現“喜悅”和“笑聲”這樣的詞。但克拉默說，梭羅喜歡唱歌、跳舞、吹長笛，而且他的公開演講確實曾讓人捧腹大笑。

雖然梭羅不去教堂，但他身上確有些許“宗教氣息”，因為他在一切事物中，尤其是在自然界的一切事物中，都看到了神圣之處。梭羅在一篇題為《行走》的文章中哀嘆道：“我們對美景的欣賞實在太少！”對梭羅來說，看著樹葉在秋天變黃，或凝視遠處的山脈，都能帶給他孩子般的喜悅，他渴望與讀者分享這份喜悅。

4. “如果一個人的步伐與他的同伴不一致，那他可能是聽到了不一樣的鼓點。”

在類似瓦爾登湖畔僻靜小屋的地方獨處，梭羅迸發出了最美的思想火花。而即便在林中隱居的那兩年，他也并非完全與世隔絕。

“人們覺得他隱居山林，不再和人打交道了，事實并非如此。”克拉默說，“住在瓦爾登湖畔的小屋時，他幾乎每天都要去鎮上拜訪朋友，去郵局寄信，去做各種事情。也有人會去瓦爾登湖看望他。”

好交際的梭羅認識到，重要的是要先成為自己最好的朋友;這樣，當你獨處時，“你將還有自我。”克拉默說。

5.“是否有人踐行英雄主義、寬宏大量、追求真理、真誠待人，卻發現這些品質一無是處？”

梭羅非常有原則，他信奉“有諸己而后求諸人”。比如，他認為奴隸制是一種卑劣的行徑，便堅持這一立場。在瓦爾登湖畔獨居時，他拒絕繳納人頭稅，因為人頭稅歸于支持奴隸制的政府。他因此而蹲監一夜，這促使他撰寫了《論公民的不服從義務》。

但梭羅的廢奴主張并不僅限于對人頭稅的抗議。克拉默說，梭羅在康科德的老家是地下鐵路組織的一個站點，他照顧受傷的逃亡黑奴，等他們身體恢復后，就陪他們乘坐火車，向北前往加拿大。

“到了他覺得沒有逃奴捕手的安全地帶，梭羅便跳下火車，走回康科德。”克拉默說，“即便沒有加入廢奴黨，也沒有參加廢奴會議，梭羅仍在以自己的方式盡一份力。而許多廢奴主義者都沒有膽量做這些事。”

[譯者單位：中國石油大學（北京）克拉瑪依校區]