Walden.Notes 瓦尔登湖英文版读书笔记

Walden (Henry David Thoreau)

Chapter 1: Economy

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Quote:

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?

Comment:

Thoreau mentioned in the first chapter that he had weaved a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but he studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them. Maybe Thoreau thought not a successful life was pleasant, but a simple, plain and independent life was what he pursed. Many other people had eager for success, while Thoreau just wanted to know what was really essential in life through his self labor.

Quote:

They were pleasant spring days, in which the winter of man ’s discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that had lain torpid began to stretch itself. Comment:

I have quoted this sentence just because I think it is beautiful and that distinguishes a literary giant from those online writers in China today. In terms of this aspect, I think nobody could compare with him in describing natural beauties because he was closest writer to the nature.

Quote:

In short, I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one’s self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely: as the pursuits of the simpler nations are still the sports of the more artificial. It is not necessary that a man should earn his living by the sweat of his brow, unless he sweats easier than I do.

Comment:

Thoreau maintained himself solely by the labor of his hands, and he found that only by working about 6 weeks in a year could he meet all the expenses of living. So, you see, we can do a simple person, need peace and persistence. Although many people live a humble and mediocre life, they are really content and happy.

Quote:

Endeavor to become one of the worthiest of the world…

Comment:

We may first be as simple and well as Nature ourselves. We know that even the prophets and redeemers had rather consoled the fears than confirmed the hopes of man, so we don’t need to be an overseer of the poor but live a worthwhile life, he spent 6 weeks a year working and did what attracted him just like literature in the

rest time. He didn’t waste the time but devoted himself to writing and the research into nature.

Chapter 2 Where I live, and what I lived for

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Quote:

I found myself suddenly neighbor to the birds; not by having imprisoned one , but having caged myself near them.

Comment:

Thoreau lived in Nature, and that was his answer to where he lived. Unlike many people who raise birds in their homes, Thoreau put himself in nature and lived close to the birds. People need freedom and the same with the birds, with all the creatures in the earth. I am jealous of Thoreau’s tour of Walden.

Quote:

One value even of the smallest well is, that when you look into it you see that earth is not continent but insular.

Comment:

Thoreau wanted to tell us that we should go outside of our own world and take a look at the outer world or we should sometimes treat the things around us from another angle

Quote:

Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.

Comment:

Thoreau was a sincere worshipper and he believed in getting up early. He knew that “renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and forever again.” A person who has a dream won’t lie in, which is what our teacher has told us, and I think Thoreau’s dream was to be himself, to discover his conviction and realize it.

Quote:

That man who does not believe that each day contains an earlier, more sacred and auroral hour than he has yet profaned, has despaired of life ,and is pursuing a descending and darkening way..

Comment:

All intelligences awake with the morning and we must believe that we will do better today than we did yesterday. Thoreau again convinced us of the importance of cherishing the present.

Quote:

To be awake is to be alive.

Comment:

Brief as it is ,this sentence really expresses Thoreau’s determination to stay awake.

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Quote:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I couldn’t learn what it had to teach, and not , when I came to die , discover that I had not lived.

Comment:

Thoreau used the word ‘deliberately ’ to show that he did not want to waste any and second in life. He has said he wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. Thoreau spent 4 hours a day strolling and to keep vigorous and another 4 hours reading all kinds of books. He endeavored to be a worthy man.

Quote:

If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about business.

Comment:

Be it life or death, we only crave reality. I thought Thoreau had told us not worry about the death because what mattered was what we had done before our death. When we are alive, we should make the greatest use of every minute.

Chapter 3 Reading

Quote

My residence was more favorable, not only to thought, but to serious reading, than a university.

Comment:

I can ’t believe Thoreau’s saying that his cabin would be better than a university because his cabin was unable to compare with a university in the collection of books. Contrary to people’s thinking, Thoreau wasn’t caged in the cabin and he always went to the towns and connected with his friends so that he had more than ever come within the influence of those books which circulated around the world. The only reason I think is that the peace and solitude made Thoreau buried in his reading.

Quote:

Reading is a noble intellectual exercise.

Comment:

That ’s Thoreau’s attitude towards reading.

Chapter4 Sound

Quote:

I love a broad margin to my life.

Comment:

I guess Thoreau preferred a leisure life to a busy one and then he could arrange the time according to his own will, putting the toil of earning his living behind himself. He loved reading and doing research into Nature.

Quote:

They were not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance. I realized what the Orientals mean by contemplation and the forsaking of works.

Comment:

Sometimes when we forsake the work at hand and lose ourselves in deep thought, we will find we achieve more than we get through the mechanical work. Thoreau was sure to benefit from the contemplation.

Quote ：

A man must find his occasions in himself. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.

Comment:

Quote:

If they could be naturalized without being domesticated, it would soon become the most famous sound in our woods.

Comment:

Thoreau advocated that all the animals should not be domesticated and the nature is their real home. It indicated Thoreau’s conviction of freedom, not only concerning humanity but also all the creatures in the earth.

Quote:

I heard a fresh and tender bough suddenly fall like a fan to the ground, when there was not a breath of air stirring, broken off by its own weight.

Comment:

This description is so vividly that I seemingly see the scenery with my own eyes. 2013-11-10

Chapter 5 Solitude

Quote:

There can be no very black melancholy to him who lives in the midst of Nature and has his scenes still …while I enjoy the friendship of the seasons I trust that nothing can make life a burden to me.

Comment:

Thoreau believed that the nature was the most fabulous and when we live in the midst of the nature we would live life up. Those tough labors at first faded in the face of the sweet nature, and he loved it.

Quote:

I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another ……………..Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows.

Comment:

Society is commonly too cheap, Thoreau wrote like this in his book. Maybe someone wonders how the students can sit alone in the house all night and most of the day without ennui and “the blues” and how Thoreau lived alone near the Walden Pond for 2 years and 2 months. Actually, a man thinking or working is always alone and the real diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish n the desert. We friends meet at very short interval, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. Thoreau thought the communication of hearts mattered more than the society.

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Chapter6 Visitors

Quote:

I had withdrawn so far within the great ocean of solitude, into which the rivers of society empty, that for the most part, so far as my needs were concerned, only the finest sediment was deposited around me.

Comment:

When Thoreau lived in the woods, he had more visitors than at any other period in his life. His company was winnowed by the mere distance from town, fewer coming for trivial business. And Thoreau thought they might be his true friends.

Quote:

He suggested that there might be men of genius in the lowest grades of life, however permanently humble and illiterate, who take their own view always, or do not pretend to see at all; who are as bottomless even as Walden Pond was thought to be, thought to be, though they may be dark and muddy.

Comment:

His interesting visitor had a deep discussion with Thoreau, and his thinking was primitive and immersed his animal life. He was expert at arithmetic, which he supposed to contain the abstract of the world. He particularly reverenced the writer and the preacher although he himself was almost illiterate. Thoreau believed he lived in the lowest grades of life, he was really a genius.

Chapter7 The Bean-Field

Quote:

Bread may not always nourish us；but it always does us good , it even takes stiffness out of our joints, and makes us supple and buoyant, when we knew not what ailed us, to recognize any generosity in man or Nature, to share any unmixed and heroic joy.

Comment:

Thoreau mentioned many virtues in the context such as truth or justice, sincerity, simplicity, faith, and innocence. If we meet a man that we are sure to see the qualities Thoreau named, we should really be fed and cheered. And we need these virtues in our society just as our body needs the bread. We have to admit that the qualities won’t bring us utility, but we can hardly imagine a society without those.

Quote ：

The true husbandman will cease from anxiety, as the squirrels manifest no concern whether the woods will bear chestnuts this year or not, and finish his labor with every day, relinquishing all claims to the produce of his fields, and sacrificing in his mind not only his first but his last fruits also.

Comment:

A true husbandman enjoys the course of farming more than harvest. And we people should learn to enjoy the scenes in our lives.

Quote:

We should never stand upon ceremony with sincerity. We should never cheat and insult and banish one another by our meanness, if there were present the kernel of worth and friendliness. We should meet thus in haste. Most men I do not meet at all, for they seem not to have time; they are busy about their beans.

Comment:

Though I don ’t know how Thoreau can link sincerity with bean-planting, I really think this sentence is critical.

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Chapter 8 The Ponds

Quote:

Many a forenoon have I stolen away, preferring to spend thus the most valued part of the day; for I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days, and spent them lavishly.

Comment:

It sounds so extravagant for Thoreau to waste the most valued part of the day but actually as Thoreau himself mentioned in the first chapter: he could work for only 6 weeks and that met all his expenses of lives. Thus, he was able to enjoy the natural views and compose his articles. I think that is the reason why he said he was rich.

Quote:

Nevertheless, of all the characters I have known, perhaps Walden wears the best, and best preserves its purity. Many men have been likened to it, but few deserve that honor.

Comment:

In Thoreau’s opinion, the pond is much purer than a person who is even of high

virtue because Walden preserves its purity while people changes with the surroundings do. So, Thoreau said nobody deserved that honor that he could have been likened to the Walden, but I think maybe Thoreau himself deserved it because he had immersed himself in the research into pure nature, which sounds unimaginable to people both at that time and now.

Quote:

It has not acquired one permanently wrinkle after all its ripples.

Comment:

This sentence indicates that the Walden avoided being changed though experiencing so much great challenges. The woodchoppers have cut down the trees along the Walden, and the Irish have built its sites by it, and the railway has infringed on its border, but the Walden preserves its purity. It is itself unchanged! We cannot even imagine how greatly a man will change after his rights are violated or he is put under a circumstance where everybody wants to change.

Chapter 9 Higher Laws

Quote:

I found in myself, and still find, an instinct toward a higher, or, as it is named, spiritual life, as do most of men, and another toward a primitive rank and savage one, and I reverence them both. I love the wild not less than the good.

Comment:

I think Thoreau believes that the humanity is primitively wild, so the wildness and adventure in fishing attracted him. Fishing is only one part of the simple life, but that is also one of the closest acquaintances with Nature. Namely, I guess what Thoreau called higher law is the pursuit of the primitive life.

Quote:

We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion as our higher nature slumbers.

Comment:

That is, we never follow our genius until our instinct misleads us to a wrong road and ther e’s still something evil in our genius if we are not willing to listen to the purest advice of our heart.

Quote:

Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man ’s features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

Comment:

Any extreme virtue can greatly change a man, so what will you be like depends on whether to chase nobleness or meanness.

Conclusion

Quote:

It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves.

Comment:

That is, the fact that we are quickly accustomed to a new environment is common. We humanity is adaptable creatures, but we are used to changing the surroundings rather than ourselves, which has both pros and cons. In Thoreau’s opinion, the surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of the men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. Maybe Thoreau wanted to tell us the adaption of humanity was of great advantages because we might feel proud when we got old and recalled our whole lives.

Quote ：

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Comment:

This sentence marks the significance of dreams. He encouraged people to chase their dreams bravely and never should they give up. Dreams and persistence lead to success, which is generally accepted. As for Thoreau himself, his dream was to live a simple life, and he did it.

Quote ：

Any truth is better than make-believe.

Comment:

Thoreau is a man of elevated piety and he believes in nature, simplicity and also the truth. I have to admit that Thoreau is a philosopher more than a writer because even a philosopher may not deserve the reputation of rewriting the fate of a country.

Quote:

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is.

Comment:

Thoreau convinces us of the essentiality of loving our life and guarantees that our passion for life will ultimately benefit us. Never should we find fault with the life and it is no use shunning the thistles and thorns in life. We must learn to face it, combat it and conquer it.

The Walden Impression

When I first read Walden, I was rather confused by the obscure words and expressions which Thoreau used in his articles to describe his primitive life along the Walden. However, I am gradually touched by Thoreau’s unyielding faith in a simple life and his unique perspective on life although the phraseology in this brief book is exactly not simple.

While people were busy earning money in USA at that time, Thoreau chose to live alone in woods along the Walden. Many people guessed that Thoreau had tended to escape from the reality or had been annoyed with the noises and pollution of industrialization, but actually Thoreau lived apart from the city just to observe the society as well as the nature from another angle. Just as he mentioned in his book, ’ I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I couldn ’t learn what it had to teach, and not , when I came to die , discover that I had not lived. ’

So, Thoreau kept reflecting on himself every day during his 2 years and 2 months ’ stay in the cabin along the Walden which he built by himself with only a little handcrafted furniture in it. Actually, I think Thoreau was inspired by the transcendentalist, Emerson, who was both his friend and his mentor. The transcendentalists advocate the idea that the key to have a good command of any system of philosophy lies in critical examination of the progress of experiencing the nature. Thus, here came Thoreau. He disdained those who pursued extravagance such as fashionable clothes and big house. As we learned from the book, Thoreau only spent $28 on his cabin and later he farmed for only 6 weeks, but that met all his expenses of his simple lives. Just as he mentioned in his first chapter ‘In short, I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one ’s self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely: as the pursuits of the simpler nations are still the sports of the more artificial. It is not necessary that a man should earn his living by the sweat of his brow, unless he sweats easier than I do’.

I have ever wondered what Thoreau would do in the next 46 weeks of the year. Would there be something like one man in a boat on the pond every day? No, I was wrong. Thoreau didn’t waste any minute and spent all his rest time reading, writing, and doing research into nature. We can conclude from the book that Thoreau loved the nature very much so that he could observe his surroundings so meticulously. Many vivid description in his book can tell us his affection for every single tree and every single bird such as this sentence ’ I heard a fresh and tender bough suddenly fall like a fan to the ground , when there was not a breath of air stirring, broken off by its own weight.’

Some other people thought it too lonely for Thoreau to live alone away from his family and his friends. However, those people didn ’t understand what the solitude which was called by Thoreau really meant. In another words, Thoreau just changed his lifestyle temporarily rather than choose to be isolated by the society. Thoreau has mentioned in the chapter called Visitors that he had more visitors while he lived

in the woods than at any period of his life. To some extent, it was impossible for Thoreau to feel lonely because he found himself companied by all kinds of animals and the nature, which was enough to drive off all his anxieties and upset.

In the last two chapters, Thoreau showed us the purity of Walden, which is incomparable to those polluted water we can see today. That reminds us of the urgency of protecting the environment with the progress of industrialization and arouses the public attention of realize the harmony between nature and humanity. Above all, a simple life is exactly the solution to this problem, which is the spirit conveyed

th by the whole book. Furthermore, Americans in the 19 century were so eager to pursue

a material life while ignored the spiritual life, which Thoreau called higher laws. Thoreau attempted to find the true meaning of life and he did it. He loved his life there and valued every minute, enjoying the simplicity and peace of his life. I have to admit that it’s a shame for me not to understand Thoreau thoroughly, but that won ’t hinder me from catching the core idea of the book; just simplicity! What he emphasizes once again in this book is to minimize the necessities of our lives and do it yourselves.

By Law3,Deidara