I think that we may safely
trust a good deal more than we
do. We may waive just so
much care of ourselves as we
honestly bestow elsewhere.
Nature is as well adapted to our
weakness as to our
strength. The incessant anxiety and strain
of some is a well-nigh
incurable form of disease. We ai-e
made to exaggerate the
importance of what work we do ; and
yet how much is not done
by us! or, what if we had been
taken sick? How vigilant
we are! determined not to live by
faith if we can avoid it; all the
daylong on the alert, at night
we unwillingly say our
prayers and commit ourselves to un-
certainties. So thoroughly
and sincerely are we compelled to
live, reverencing our
life, and denying the possibility of
change. This is the only
way, we say; but there are as many
ways as there can be drawn
radii from one centre. All change
is a miracle to
contemplate ; but it is a miracle which is taking
place every instant. Confucius
said, "To know that we know
what we know, and that we do not know what we do not
know, that is true knowledge." When one man has reduced a
fact of the imagination to
be a fact to his understanding, I
foresee that all men will
at length establish their lives on that
basis.
Let us consider for a
moment what most of the trouble and
anxiety which I have
referred to is about, and how much it is
necessary that we be
troubled, or at least careful. It would be
some advantage to live a
primitive and frontier life, though
in the midst of an outward
civilization, if only to learn what
are the gross necessaries
of life and what methods have been
taken to obtain them; or
even to look over the old day-books
WALDEN 11
of the merchants, to see
what it was that men most commonly
bought at the stores, what
they stored, that is, what are the
grossest groceries. For
the improvements of ages Have had but
little influence on the
essential laws of man's existence: as
our skeletons, probably,
are not to be distinguished from
those of our ancestors ¡
ምንም አስተያየቶች የሉም:
አስተያየት ይለጥፉ