Economy
Speaking to New Englanders about themselves: can things be improved?
The Situation: men are slaves -- and their own drivers
No way of thinking or doing should be trusted without proof
It is never too later to give up our prejudices
Prejudices cover all things and blot out the sun -- there is one for every situation
We may be more trusting of the universe
Life should not be difficult; if it is, it is our fault
What are Life's Necessities?
Food, Shelter, Clothing, Fuel
Luxuries and "comforts" of life hindrances to its elevation
consider the voluntary poverty of ancient philosophers
philosophy should have a practical application
Once the Necessities are met, what is to be done with surplus wealth?
Knowledge -- to adventure upon life
To elevate oneself spiritually, morally: in the quality of one's consciousness
Reiteration of Audience
the discontented mass of men
those who are materially poor
those who have accumulated wealth or goods and do not know how to use or get rid of them
the Business of the Author
to understand each moment as a bridge between the two eternities of past and future
to Anticipate Nature herself
to listen to and run with the wind
to write in his journal
to carry out the office of inspector of snow-storms and rain-storms
to survey and maintain all otherwise unkept paths and trails
to tend the wild stock of the village
Commerce
General Principle: to make it worth someone else's while to buy the fruits of your industry
Thoreau's Principle: to avoid this necessity
Unrecognized by the village in this endeavor, he purposed to take his business more exclusively to the woods
With What Capital Did He Begin?
Clothing
selected on the basis of utility
the attitudes towards "fashionable" clothing betray the weak-mindedness and cowardice of the majority
should not one's outside reflect one's inside? (in contradistinction to the normal practise whereby the outside reflects some arbitrary convention)
If there is not a new individual, how can the external appearance be appropriately new? How can the new clothes be made to fit? The moulting season should be a crisis in our lives
Shelter
consider the dwellings of "savages"
every family in the "savage" state owns a shelter as good as the best
compare the advantages of "civilisation"
how many own a shelter outright?
What is the cost of a shelter?
The cost of a thing is the amount of life that must be exchanged for it
Half a working life is commonly required before a person owns his shelter outright; see example of farms above
What is the difference in worth between the life of the savage and that of the civilised man?
Towards what better ends might the energies commonly spent in civilisation towards the acquisition of shelter be directed?
Description of the Building of the Author's Shelter
Proposal: one might build more deliberately than he, proving the necessity of a door, window, cellar, and garret -- all of which he included in his hut without questioning them
One might, for example, try a cave
Compare the fitness of a person's building his own dwelling -- following the comments on the outside appearance manifesting the inner nature, above -- with its comparative rarity
reason given for this rarity: efficiency
Where, though, will the division of labor end?
What real purpose does it serve?
Will I have another to think for me as well?
Architecture
Beauty must come from the life which makes use of the dwelling
Any other criterion would be hollow
Comparison of the Cost of Thoreau's hut with the annual dormitory rent at Cambridge College
Perhaps the students should construct their own dwellings
The University could be a place to neither play at nor study life, but live it in greater intensity and with the best companions
"Modern Improvements" such as colleges
Illusory -- improved means to unimproved ends
A telegraph has been stretched from Maine to Texas -- unfortunately the natives of each place have nothing important to communicate to one another
Description of the income and outgoes of Thoreau's smallholding
Lesson of the Smallholding
If one lives simply and raises no more than one eats (and does not exchange it for an insufficient quantity of more luxurious and expensive things) one need not work very hard, nor cultivate very much ground; one has great independence and need keep no schedule. It is difficult to imagine a disaster, there being so little to lose.
Domesticated Animals
No nation of philosophers would use animals
the scope of the work increases (the annual six weeks of haying is no boy's play)
To break a horse or a bull one risks becoming merely a horse- or herds-man
Do they contribute to the building of great public works?
They contribute mainly to the building of great barns
The "benefit" to society is very unevenly distributed
The Bhagavad-Gita is a better monument than all the ruined buildings of the East
Public Works are the luxury of princes -- neither common people, nor philosophers
Many are concerned to know who built the monuments -- I want to know who was above such trifling
Diet: One may use as simple a diet as the animals and still retain health and strength
Furniture
There is plenty to be had for the taking-away
So many possessions as most value are a trap
Customs of some "savages"
"Busk" of the Mucclasso Indians
Periodical provision of new clothes, pots, pans, and utensils; burning of all the old. A fast, extinguishing of all old fire. General Amnesty.
Rich items
If there are any for whom acquisition of stuff is no interruption, or some who love labor for its own sake, or wouldn't know what to do with leisure, let 'em go
Summary
To maintain oneself is not a hardship but a pastime if life is lived simply and wisely
All should find their own way to maintain themselves
Find the ideal and continue to aim for it whether reaching it or not
Philanthropy
Some urged Thoreau to support some poor persons
he offered to support them in his lifestyle & was refused
Do not do good, _be_ good
simple material sharing and provision is not goodness
who will support or encourage the most sublime souls?
why is philanthropy always a gift of the basest and simplest to the basest and simplest?
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil for one who is hacking at the root"
half-measures are a waste
Philanthropy too often is a negative reaction, not a positive action
our goodness and courage must be shared, not our repair work
all health and success does me good, however far off it might seem
all disease and failure does me evil
What I lived For
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts."
What was the Purpose of Going to the Woods?
To live deliberately; identifying clearly the essential facts of life
To avoid the prospect of dying without a clue as to the nature of life
To reduce living to its essence
if it is mean, to experience that fully, and let everyone know the news
if it is sublime, to experience that sublimity,and not simply depend upon second-hand reports
The majority of the population seems to be in a strange uncertainty about life, and to have come to their conclusions too hastily
The Commonly Regarded Virtues are made necessary by the Commonly Existing Wretchedness
Life is frittered away by detail
The Cure: rigid economy, simplicity of lifestyle, elevation of purpose
We are concerned that we should have exports, and communications, and transportation, but whether we should live like baboons or men is uncertain
Why such hurry in common lifestyle?
We say a stitch in time saves nine, and then take a thousand before it is even time
How much of our work is really of any consequence?
How many of us wouldn't drop it to walk down the block to see a house burn down?
What's the last really vital news we got from a newspaper?
One robbery, one killing, one locust-storm is enough
If you are acquainted with the principle, what use is there for a million applications?
To a philosopher all _news_, so-called, is gossip
Much more important than news are the essentials of life, which can never be old, because they are eternal
When we are unhurried, and detached from the shams that fill the minds of most people, we percieve that only great and worthy thngs are permanent; petty fears and pleasures are but a shadow
Truth is thought of as remote
But it is eternal and ever-present
"Time" obscures the eternal, but "time" is merely a tool
"The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let us spend our lives in conceiving then ... Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feen downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance -- that alluvion which covers the globe ... till we come to a hard bottom ... and then begin."
Reading
If everyone were sufficiently deliberate in their lifestyle choices, perhaps evryone would become essentially a student
the hut on Walden Pond was more favorable to thought and serious reading than a university
The chief repayment for the disadvantages of the situation on Walden Pond was that, in living more essentially, the author was closer in spirit to the classics (which contain what is essential) and found them consequently more accessible
"To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written."
Writing transcends time: through it, the wisest of all history can speak to each other and to us
The faculty of reading is absolutely underused
It unfortunately takes some measure of genius to appreciate genius -- the great works are known only to a minority of their readers, let alone of all mankind
We should aspire to some measure of genius: the reason for the underuse of the faculty of reading is sloth and lack of ambition
most people read material of such low quality that having read once they should quit, as they are not going to acquire anything new
common reading material is ennervating & contributes to the vicious circle of stupidity
The best books are unread even by those reputedly educated. Why is this, when great reading is so readily available? Why doesn't everyone desire the best company? If Plato were your neighbor, wouldn't you seek out his company? Why then do you leave his books in the library?
There is no difference between a person who can't read and a person who doesn't read
Consider what could be done for education if everyone cared about it -- now consider what is done. Why does education stop with children?
It is time that vilalges were universities
why should there be only one Paris and one Oxford?
New England can hire all the wise men in the world to come and teach her
Instead of noblemen, let us have noble villages