wǎ 'ěr dēng hú zài yī bā wǔ sì nián chū shì shí shì jì mò de， tā bù jǐn méi yòu yǐn qǐ dà zhòng de zhù yì， shèn zhì lián yī xiē běn lái yīnggāi qīn jìn tā de rén yě bù lǐ jiě， duì zhī lěng luò shèn huò jī píng。 tā yǒng yuǎn bù huì yǐn qǐ hōng dòng hé xuān 'áo， zài tā chéng wéi yī bù shì jiè míng zhù zhī hòu tā yě réng rán shì jì mò de， tā de dú zhě suī rán bǐ jiào gù dìng， dàn shǐ zhōng bù huì hěn duō， ér zhè xiē dú zhě dà gài yě shì xīn dǐ shēn chù jì mò de rén， ér jiù lián zhè xiē jì mò de rén dà gài yě zhǐ yòu zài jì mò de shí hòu dú tā cái wù chū shēn wèi， jiù xiàng xú chí xiān shēng suǒ shuō， zài fán máng de bái zhòu tā yòu shí huì jiāng xìn jiāng yí， jué dé tā bìng méi yòu shénme hǎo chù， zhí dào huáng hūn， xīn qíng jiàn jiàn jì mò hé tián jìng xià lái， cái jué dé “ yǔ yǔ jīng rén， zì zì shǎn guāng， qìn rén fèi fǔ， dòng wǒ zhōng cháng ”， ér dào yè shēn wàn lái jù jìng zhī shí， jiù gèng wéi zhī shén wǎng liǎo。
　　 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú - zuò zhě jiǎn jiè
　　
　　 hēng lì dài wéi suō luó（ HenryDavidThoreau,1817-1862） zài 19 shì jì měi guó wén huà jù jiàng zhōng， kān chēng yī wèi“ yì rén”。 tā hé 'ài mò shēng
　　 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú wǎ 'ěr dēng hú
　　（ RalphWaldoEmerson)、 fù lè（ MargaretFuller） dōushì“ jiǎn pǔ shēng huó” de zōng shī， tā men tí chàng huí guī běn xīn、 qīn jìn zì rán。 zhè zhǒng sī xiǎng bù jǐn shēn shēn dì yǐng xiǎng liǎo měi guó wén huà， yě wéi zhěng gè shì jiè dài lái liǎo qīng xīn cháng fēng。 zài shòu quán jiā zī zhù dú wán hā fó dà xué hòu， suō luó méi yòu zuì xīn yú rèn hé chuán tǒng yì yì shàng de shì yè， ér shì kāi shǐ liǎo yī gè dà dì màn yóu zhě de piào bó shēng yá。 1845 nián dào 1847 nián jiān， tā dú zì yī rén yōu jū zài wǎ 'ěr dēng hú pàn de zì zhù mù wū zhōng， yú liè、 gēng yún、 chén sī、 xiě zuò， yóu cǐ chǎn shēng liǎo yì yì shēn yuǎn de《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》。
　　 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú - nèi róng tí yào
　　
　　 shuō qǐ《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》， yī dìng yào tí xú chí hé hǎi zǐ。 xú chí xiān shēng ràng guó rén zhī dào zài yáo yuǎn de měi zhōu dà lù yòu zhè me yī piàn hú shuǐ， yòu nà me yī gè xiàng zhuāng zǐ de měi guó rén zhù zài hú biān。 hǎi zǐ yòng jué jué dì qì shì lái biǎo míng： wǒ xiǎng yào miàn cháo dà hǎi、 chūn nuǎn huā kāi， wǒ xiǎng yào hú shuǐ màn guò shēng mìng。
　　
　　 xú chí xiān shēng yǐ hòu， àihào suō luó de yì zhě yòu yòng zì jǐ de wén zì hé gǎn wù chóngxīn yǎn yì liǎo zì jǐ xīn lǐ de wǎ 'ěr dēng hú。 ér dài huān xiān shēng yě bù lì wài， lì shí liǎng nián， tā yòng zì jǐ de yǔ yán xù shù liǎo wǎ 'ěr dēng hú。
　　
　　 zhè gè bǎn běn de yǔ yán liú chàng、 miào màn，《 dú zhě》 céng jīng xuǎn dēng guò qí zhōng de piān zhāng。 yì zhě duì yuán zhù guò cháng de duàn luò chóngxīn fēn duàn， jiāng yǔ yì zhuǎn huà de wén zì huàfēn xiǎo jié， ràng wén zì dú qǐ lái gèng yòu jié zòu gǎn， chóngxīn shè jì de jié tí yōu měi liàn dá。 zhuāng zhēn zhōng duō cǎi yìn shuà， lǜ sè hé hēi sè de zhèng wén pái shì yǎ zhì， zōng sè de mǎn bǎn chā tú hōng tuō qì fēn。 wú lùn cóng kāi běn hái shì fēng miàn， suǒ yòu de yuán sù dū zhí zhì rén xīn。
　　 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú wǎ 'ěr dēng hú
　　
　　　　 ★ měi guó zì rán wén xué de diǎn fàn
　　　　★ yǔ《 shèng jīng》 zhū shū yī tóng bèi měi guó guó huì tú shū guǎn píng wéi“ sù zào dú zhě de 25 běn shū”
　　　　★ dāng dài měi guó dú zhě zuì duō de sǎnwén jīng diǎn
　　　　★ hǎi zǐ xīn zhōng de tiān táng shēng huó
　　
　　　　★ yī běn rèn hé shí hòu dōunéng ràng nǐ de xīn líng píng jìng de shū
　　 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú - biān ji tuī jiàn
　　
　　 hā dīng（ WalterHarding） céng shuō，《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》 nèi róng fēng hòu、 yì yì shēn yuǎn， tā shì jiǎn dān shēng huó de quán wēi zhǐ nán， shì duì dà zì rán de zhēn qíng miáo
　　 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú wǎ 'ěr dēng hú
　　 shù， shì xiàng jīn qián shè huì de tǎo fá xí wén， shì chuán shì jiǔ yuǎn de wén xué míng zhù， shì yī bù shèng shū。 zhèng yīn wèicǐ， tā yě yǐng xiǎng liǎo tuō 'ěr sī tài、 shèng xióng gān dì děng rén， cóng 'ér gǎi xiě liǎo yī xiē mín zú hé guó jiā de mìng yùn。
　　《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》 jié gòu yán jǐn， yǔ yán shēng dòng， zì lǐ xíng jiān bù shí shǎn xiàn chū zhé lǐ de líng guāng， pō yòu gāo shān liú shuǐ de wèi dào。 tā de xǔ duō zhāng jié dū xū yào fǎn fù sòng dú cái néng tǐ wèi， ér qiě gǎn jué cháng dú cháng xīn。 huò xǔ wǒ men wú fǎ xiàng suō luó nà yàng shēn tǐ lì xíng， dàn wǒ men qǐ mǎ kě yǐ tōng guò tā de gān chún、 yōu yáng de wén cí chóngfǎn zì rán， jìn rù chéng míng zhī jìng。
　　 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú - nèi róng jīng yào
　　
　　 wǎ 'ěr dēng de fēng jǐng shì bēi wēi de， suī rán hěn měi， què bìng bù shì hóng wěi de， bù cháng qù yóu wán de rén， bù zhù zài tā 'àn biān de rén wèi bì néng bèi tā xī yǐn zhù。 dàn shì zhè yī gè hú yǐ shēn suì hé qīng chè zhù chēng， zhí dé jǐyǔ tū chū de miáo xiě。
　　
　　 zhè shì yī gè míng liàng de shēn lǜ sè de hú， bàn yīng lǐ cháng， yuán zhōu yuē yī yīng lǐ yòu sì fēn zhī sān， miàn jī yuē 61 yīng mǔ bàn； tā shì sōng shù hé xiàng shù lín zhōng yāng de suì yuè yōu jiǔ de lǎo hú， chú liǎo yǔ hé zhēng fā zhī wài， hái méi yòu bié de lái lóng qù mài kě xún。 sì zhōu de shān fēng tū rán dì cóng shuǐ shàng shēng qǐ， dào 40 zhì 80 yīng chǐ de gāo dù， dàn zài dōng nán miàn gāo dào 100 yīng chǐ， ér dōng biān gèng gāo dào 150 yīng chǐ， qí jù lí hú 'àn， bù guò sì fēn zhī yī yīng lǐ jí sān fēn zhī yī yīng lǐ。 shān shàng quán bù dōushì sēn lín。
　　
　　 suǒ yòu wǒ men kāng kē dé dì fāng de shuǐ bō， zhì shǎo yòu liǎng zhǒng yán sè， yī zhǒng shì zhàn zài yuǎn chù wàng jiàn de， lìng yī zhǒng， gèng jiē jìn běn lái de yán sè， shì zhàn zài jìn chù kàn jiàn de。 dì yī zhǒng gèng duō dì kào de shì guāng， gēn jù tiān sè biàn huà。 zài tiān qì hǎo de xià jì lǐ， cóng shāo yuǎn de dì fāng wàng qù， tā chéng xiàn liǎo wèi lán yán sè， tè bié zài shuǐ bō dàng yàng de shí hòu， dàn cóng hěn yuǎn de dì fāng wàng qù， què shì yī piàn shēn lán。 zài fēng bào de tiān qì xià， yòu shí tā chéng xiàn chū shēn shí bǎn sè。 hǎi shuǐ de yán sè zé bù rán， jù shuō tā zhè tiān shì lán sè de， lìng yī tiān què yòu shì lǜ sè liǎo， jìn guǎn tiān qì lián xiē wēi de kě gǎn zhī de biàn huà yě méi yòu。
　　
　　 wǒ men zhè lǐ de shuǐ xì zhōng， wǒ kàn dào dāng bái xuě fù gài zhè yī piàn fēng jǐng shí， shuǐ hé bīng jīhū dōushì cǎo lǜ sè de。 yòu rén rèn wéi， lán sè“ nǎi shì chún jié de shuǐ de yán sè， wú lùn nà shì liú dòng de shuǐ， huò níng jié de shuǐ”。 kě shì， zhí jiē cóng yī tiáo chuán shàng fǔ kàn jìn chù hú shuǐ， tā yòu yòu zhe fēi cháng zhī bù tóng de sè cǎi。 shèn zhì cóng tóng yī gè guān chá diǎn， kàn wǎ 'ěr dēng shì zhè huì 'ér lán， nà hū 'ér lǜ。 zhì shēn yú tiān dì zhī jiān， tā fēn dān liǎo zhè liǎng zhě de sè sù。 cóng shān dǐng shàng kàn， tā fǎn yìng tiān kōng de yán sè， kě shì zǒu jìn liǎo kàn， zài nǐ néng kàn dào jìn 'àn de xì shā de dì fāng， shuǐ sè xiān shì huáng chéng chéng de， rán hòu shì dàn lǜ sè de liǎo， rán hòu zhú jiàn dì jiā shēn qǐ lái， zhí dào shuǐ bō yī lǜ dì chéng xiàn liǎo quán hú yī zhì de shēn lǜ sè。 zài yòu xiē shí hòu de guāng xiàn xià， cóng yī gè shān dǐng wàng qù， kào jìn hú 'àn de shuǐ sè yě shì bì lǜ dé yì cháng shēng dòng de。 yòu rén shuō， zhè shì lǜ yuán de fǎn yìng； kě shì zài tiě lù guǐ dào zhè 'ér de huáng shā dì dài de chèn tuō xià， yě tóng yàng shì bì lǜ de， ér qiě， zài chūn tiān， shù yè hái méi yòu zhǎngdà， zhè yě xǔ shì tài kōng zhōng de wèi lán， tiáohé liǎo huáng shā yǐ hòu xíng chéng de yī gè dān chún de xiào guǒ。 zhè shì tā de hóng sè cǎi juàn de sè sù。
　　
　　 yě shì zài zhè yī gè dì fāng， chūn tiān yī lái， bīng kuài gěi shuǐ dǐ fǎn shè shàng lái de tài yáng de rè liàng， yě gěi tǔ dì zhōng chuán bō de tài yáng de rè liàng róng jiě liǎo， zhè lǐ shǒu xiān róng jiě chéng yī tiáo xiá zhǎi de yùn hé de yàng zǐ， ér zhōng jiān hái shì dòng bīng。 zài qíng lǎng de qì hòu zhōng， xiàng wǒ men qí yú de shuǐ bō， jī tuān dì liú dòng shí， bō píng miàn shì zài jiǔ shí dù de zhí jiǎo dù lǐ fǎn yìng liǎo tiān kōng de， huò zhě yīn wéi tài guāng liàng liǎo， cóng jiào yuǎn chù wàng qù， tā bǐ tiān kōng gèng lán xiē； ér zài zhè zhǒng shí hòu， fàn zhōu hú shàng， sì chù tiào wàng dàoyǐng， wǒ fā xiàn liǎo yī zhǒng wú kě bǐ nǐ、 bù néng miáo shù de dàn lán sè， xiàng jìn shuǐ de huò biàn sè de sī chóu， hái xiàng qīng fēng bǎo jiàn， bǐ zhī tiān kōng hái gèng jiē jìn tiān lán sè， tā hé nà bō guāng de lìng yī miàn yuán lái de shēn lǜ sè lún fān dì shǎn xiàn， nà shēn lǜ sè yǔ zhī xiāng bǐ biàn sì hū hěn húnzhuó liǎo。 zhè shì yī gè bō lí shìde dài lǜ sè de lán sè， zhào wǒ suǒ néng jì yì de， tā fǎng fó shì dōng tiān lǐ， rì luò yǐ qián， xī fāng wū yún zhōng lù chū de yī jiǎo qíng tiān。
　　
　　 kě shì nǐ jǔ qǐ yī bō lí bēi shuǐ， fàng zài kōng zhōng kàn， tā què háo wú yán sè， rú tóng zhuāng liǎo tóng yàng shù liàng de yī bēi kōng qì yī yàng。 zhòng suǒ zhōu zhī， yī dà kuài hòu bō lí bǎn biàn chéng xiàn liǎo wēi lǜ de yán sè， jù zhì zào bō lí de rén shuō， nà shì“ tǐ jī” de guān xì， tóng yàng de bō lí， shǎo liǎo jiù bù huì yòu yán sè liǎo。 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú yīnggāi yòu duō shǎo de shuǐ liàng cái néng fàn chū zhè yàng de lǜ sè ní， wǒ cóng láidōu wú fǎ zhèng míng。 yī gè zhí jiē cháo xià wàng zhe wǒ men de shuǐ sè de rén suǒ jiàn dào de shì hēi de， huò shēn zōng sè de， yī gè dào hé shuǐ zhōng yóu yǒng de rén， hé shuǐ xiàng suǒ yòu de hú yī yàng， huì gěi tā rǎn shàng yī zhǒng huáng yán sè； dàn shì zhè gè hú shuǐ què shì zhè yàng dì chún jié， yóu yǒng zhě huì bái dé xiàng dà lǐ shí yī yàng， ér gèng qí guài de shì， zài zhè shuǐ zhōng sì zhī gěi fàng dà liǎo， bìng qiě gěi niǔ qū liǎo， xíng tài fēi cháng kuā zhāng， zhí dé ràng mǐ kāi lǎng jī luó lái zuò yī fān yán jiū。
　　
　　 shuǐ shì zhè yàng de tòu míng， 25 zhì 30 yīng chǐ xià miàn de shuǐ dǐ dōukě yǐ hěn qīng chǔ dì kàn dào。 chì jiǎo tà shuǐ shí， nǐ kàn dào zài shuǐ miàn xià xǔ duō yīng chǐ de dì fāng yòu chéng qún de lú yú hé yín yú， dà yuē zhǐ yī yīng cùn cháng， lián qián zhě de héng xíng de huā wén yě néng kàn dé qīng qīng chǔ chǔ， nǐ huì jué dé zhè zhǒng yú yě shì bù yuàn yì zhān rǎn hóng chén， cái dào zhè lǐ lái shēng cún de。
　　
　　 yòu yī cì， zài dōng tiān lǐ， hǎo jǐ nián qián liǎo， wèile diào suō yú， wǒ zài bīng shàng wā liǎo jǐ gè dòng， shàng 'àn zhī hòu， wǒ bǎ yī bǐng fǔ tóu rēng zài bīng shàng， kě shì hǎo xiàng yòu shénme 'è guǐ gù yì yào kāi wán xiào shìde， fǔ tóu zài bīng shàng huá guò liǎo sì wǔ gān yuǎn， gāng hǎo cóng yī gè kū lóng zhōng huá liǎo xià qù， nà lǐ de shuǐ shēn 25 yīng chǐ， wèile hàoqí， wǒ tǎng zài bīng shàng， cóng nà kū lóng lǐ wàng， wǒ kàn dào liǎo nà bǐng fǔ tóu， tā piān zài yī biān tóu xiàng xià zhí lì zhe， nà fǔ bǐng bǐ zhí xiàng shàng， shùn zhe hú shuǐ de mài dòng yáo yáo bǎi bǎi， yào bù shì wǒ hòu lái yòu bǎ tā diào liǎo qǐ lái， tā kě néng jiù huì zhè yàng zhí lì xià qù， zhí dào mù bǐng làn diào wéi zhǐ。 jiù zài tā de shàng miàn， yòng wǒ dài lái de záo bīng de záo zǐ， wǒ yòu záo liǎo yī gè dòng， yòu yòng wǒ de dāo， gē xià liǎo wǒ kàn dào de fù jìn zuì cháng de yī tiáo chì yáng shù zhī， wǒ zuò liǎo yī gè huó jié de shéng juàn， fàng zài shù zhī de yī tóu， xiǎo xīn dì fàng xià qù， yòng tā tào zhù liǎo fǔ bǐng tū chū de dì fāng， rán hòu yòng chì yáng zhī bàng biān de shéng zǐ yī lā， zhè yàng jiù bǎ nà bǐng fǔ tóu diào liǎo qǐ lái。
　　
　　 hú 'àn shì yóu yī cháng liù xiàng pū lù shí nà yàng de guāng huá de yuán yuán de bái shí zǔ chéng de； chú yī liǎng chù xiǎo xiǎo de shā tān zhī wài， tā dǒu lì zhe， zòng shēn yī yuè biàn kě yǐ tiào dào yī gè rén shēn de shuǐ zhōng； yào bù shì shuǐ bō míng jìng dé chū qí， nǐ jué bù kě néng kàn dào zhè gè hú de dǐ bù， chú fēi shì tā yòu zài duì 'àn shēng qǐ。 yòu rén rèn wéi tā shēn dé méi yòu dǐ。 tā méi yòu yī chù shì ní nìng de， ǒu 'ěr guān chá de guò kè huò xǔ hái huì shuō， tā lǐ miàn lián shuǐ cǎo yě méi yòu yī gēn； zhì yú kě yǐ jiàn dào de shuǐ cǎo， chú liǎo zuì jìn gěi shàng zhǎng liǎo de shuǐ yānmò de、 bìng bù shǔ yú zhè gè hú de cǎo dì yǐ wài， biàn shì xì xīn dì chá kàn yě què shí shì kàn bù dào chāng pú hé lú wěi de， shèn zhì méi yòu shuǐ lián huā， wú lùn shì huáng sè de huò shì bái sè de， zuì duō zhǐ yòu yī xiē xīn xíng yè zǐ hé hé liǎo cǎo， yě xǔ hái yòu yī liǎng zhāng yǎn zǐ cài； rán 'ér， yóu yǒng zhě yě kàn bù dào tā men； biàn shì zhè xiē shuǐ cǎo， yě xiàng tā men shēngzhǎng zài lǐ miàn de shuǐ yī yàng de míng liàng 'ér wú gòu。 àn shí shēn zhǎn rù shuǐ， zhǐ yī 'èr gān yuǎn， shuǐ dǐ yǐ shì chún cuì de xì shā， chú liǎo zuì shēn de bù fēn， nà lǐ zǒng bù miǎn yòu yī diǎn chén jī wù， yě xǔ shì fǔ xiǔ liǎo de yè zǐ， duō shǎo gè qiū tiān lái， luò yè bèi guā dào hú shàng， lìng wài hái yòu yī xiē guāng liàng de lǜ sè shuǐ tái， shèn zhì zài shēn dōng shí lìng bá qǐ tiě máo lái de shí hòu， tā men yě huì gēn zhe bèi bá shàng lái de。
　　 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú - zhuān jiā diǎn píng
　　
　　“ 1845 nián 3 yuè wěi， wǒ jiè lái yī bǐng fǔ tóu， zǒu dào wǎ 'ěr dēng hú biān de sēn lín lǐ， dào dá wǒ yù bèi zào fáng zǐ de dì fāng， kāi shǐ kǎn fá yī xiē jiàn shǐ shìde， gāo sǒng rù yún 'ér hái nián yòu de bái sōng， lái zuò wǒ de jiàn zhù cái liào， nà shì yú kuài de chūn rì， rén men gǎn dào nán guò de dōng tiān zhèng gēn dòng tǔ yī yàng dì xiāo róng， ér zhé jū de shēng mìng kāi shǐ shū shēn liǎo。”
　　
　　 zhè shì suō luó zài《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》 yī shū zhōng jì shù de tā de shān jū suì yuè de kāi shǐ。 zhè yī nián， 7 yuè 4 rì， qià hǎo nà yī tiān shì dú lì rì， měi guó de guó qìng， tā zhù jìn liǎo lí bō shì dùn bù yuǎn de wú rén jū zhù de wǎ 'ěr dēng hú biān de shān lín zhōng， cóng cǐ dú lì shēng huó liǎo liǎng nián duō。 tā zài zhè gè sēn lín zhōng， qīn shǒu gài qǐ liǎo yī dòng xiǎo mù wū， bìng xiàng shì rén xuān gào liǎo tā gè rén shēng huó yǔ jīng shén shēng huó de“ dú lì”。 tā de xiǎo mù wū lǐ zhǐ yòu yī zhāng chuáng hé yī tào bèi rù， yòu jǐ jiàn jiǎn dān de chuī jù hé jǐ jiàn huàn xǐ de yī fú。 tā yào jìn xíng yī cì huí guī zì rán de shí yàn。
　　
　　 suō luó zài xiǎo hú biān zì jǐ kāi huāng zhòngdì， měi tiān dǎ liè hé fá mù。 tā guò zhe nà zhǒng jìn sì yuán shǐ de、 jí qí jiǎn pǔ de shēng huó， yǐ biàn rèn zhēn dì guān chá hé tǐ huì rén shēng de zhēn dì。 zài zhè mù wū lǐ， zài zhè hú bīn de shān lín lǐ， tā guān chá zhe， qīng tīng zhe， gǎn shòu zhe， chén sī zhe， bìng qiě mèng xiǎng zhe。 měi tiān， tādōu yào bǎ zì jǐ huí guī zì rán yǐ hòu de guān chá hé tǐ yàn， yǐ jí tā de sī kǎo、 gǎn chù xiě zài rì jì zhōng。 tā fēn xī yán jiū liǎo tā cóng zì rán jiè dé lái de yīn xùn、 yuè lì hé jīng yàn， bìng cóng zhōng tàn suǒ rén shēng， chǎn shù rén shēng， zhèn fèn rén shēng。
　　
　　 qí zhōng dà bù fēn de shí jiān， tā dú zì zài lín zhōng， hěn shǎo yòu kè rén lái bài fǎng， jù lí rèn hé lín jū dōuyòu yī yīng lǐ zhī yáo。 jiù zhè yàng， suō luó zài wǎ 'ěr dēng hú pàn dú zì shēng huó liǎo 920 tiān。 ér hòu， tā zǒu chū sēn lín， chóngxīn huí dào chéng shì。 bù jiǔ， chū bǎn liǎo gēn jù tā zài xiǎo mù wū lǐ xiě xià de nà xiē bǐ jì zhěng lǐ de sǎnwén jí， tí wéi《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》。 jiēguǒ， měi guó chū xiàn yī wèi zì rán zhù yì sī xiǎng jiā， shì jiè shàng yě duō liǎo yī běn hǎo shū。
　　
　　 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú lí wēi 'ěr sī lì zhèn jǐn 30 fēn zhōng de lù chéng， cóng bō shì dùn chū fā， yě zhǐ bù guò gè bǎ xiǎo shí， dì tú shàng bìng méi yòu wǎ 'ěr dēng hú， zhǐ yòu wǎ 'ěr dēng chí táng， wǎ 'ěr dēng hú shì gè dì míng， bìng fēi shì yī gè hú， ér shì shí shàng de chí táng， yīnggāi shì wǎ 'ěr dēng hú liǎo。
　　
　　 zhè lǐ de shēng huó shì jì mò de， rán 'ér suō luó què shuō，“ jì mò yòu zhù yú jiàn kāng”。 suō luó hái céng yòng shī yī yàng de yǔ yán shuō：“ wǒ bìng bù bǐ yī duǒ máo ruǐ huā huò mù chǎng shàng de yī duǒ pú gōng yīng jì mò， wǒ bù bǐ yī zhāng dòu yè， yī zhī cù jiàng cǎo， huò yī zhǐ mǎ fēng gèng jì mò。 wǒ bù bǐ mì 'ěr xī， huò yī zhǐ fēng xìn jī， huò běi jí xīng， huò nán fēng gèng jì mò， wǒ bù bǐ sì yuè de yǔ huò zhēngyuè de róng xuě， huò xīn wū zhōng de dì yī zhǐ zhī zhū gèng jì mò。”
　　
　　 xiàn dài shēng huó zhōng de wén míng rén， zuì nán yǐ rěn shòu de jiù shì jì mò， zuì dà de wèn tí yě shì jì mò。 zài xiàn dài wén míng de bī pò zhī xià， zài gāng jīn shuǐ ní de chéng shì sēn lín lǐ， rén men lí chún pǔ tián jìng de dà zì rán yǐ jīng yuè lái yuè yuǎn， yī xiē gǔ pǔ de lìng rén shén wǎng de yuán shǐ shēng huó yǐ jīng tuì huà dé wú yǐng wú zōng， qǔ 'ér dài zhī shì cáo zá、 jiāo zhuó、 fú zào hé bù 'ān。 rén men shēng huó zài zuì rè nào de shí dài， què xiǎn dé bǐ suǒ yòu de yī qiēdōu yào nán yǐ rěn shòu jì mò。 jí shǐ xiàn dài kē jì kě yǐ ràng rén men zài dì yī shí jiān liǎo jiě dì qiú měi yī gè jiǎo luò fā shēng de shì qíng， què wú fǎ ràng rén liǎo jiě miàn duì miàn de liǎng gè rén de xīn sī。 xiàn dài shēng huó de zào dòng huì wú kǒng bù rù， yī diǎn diǎn xìn xī jiù kě yǐ bǎ rén men nòng dé jī fēi gǒu tiào， yī diǎn diǎn qíng xù jiù bǎ rén men de xīn yǎo dé qiān chuāng bǎi kǒng。 xiàn dài shēng huó chuàng zào chū lái xiàn dài huà de tóng shí， chuàng zào chū lái de zhǒng zhǒng jì mò gèng shì wú kě dǐ dǎng de。 rén men de xīn líng yuè lái yuè gū dú， què cóng wèi xiǎng guò dà zì rán de jì mò shì yī zhì wén míng bìng de zuì hǎo fāng fǎ。
　　
　　 suō luó fā xiàn liǎo wǎ 'ěr dēng hú， tā zài nà lǐ shēng huó、 yuè dú、 qīng tīng、 zhǒng dòu、 shēng huǒ、 zuò fàn、 gū dú。 zhǎo dào liǎo zì jǐ sī xiǎng de qī xī dì， jì mò bù shì bǎo shǒu， bù shì tuì yǐn， bù shì fáng kōng dòng， bù shì yǔ shì gé jué， jì mò shì fàng sōng， shì qīng sōng， shì tuō lí fù zá 'ér lián jià rén jì guān xì de chén sī， shì xīn yǔ xīn mò qì 'ér qiè yì de duì huà， shì zǒu chū dì píng xiàn zhī wài de yuǎn yóu。 tā yǐ xuǎn zé níng jìng de fāng shì xuǎn zé wǎ 'ěr dēng hú， xuǎn zé nà yuǎn lí xuān 'áo de tián jìng， xuǎn zé zài chūn tiān lǐ nà fèn nán dé de hǎo xīn qíng， zài hú biān， zài lín zhōng， zài wǎ 'ěr dēng chéng míng de yuè guāng xià， cóng róng bù pò dì shēng huó， líng tīng shēng huó de jiào huì hé zhēn shàn， ràng zì jǐ“ bù zhì yú zài lín zhōng shí cái fā xiàn zì jǐ bù céng shēng huó guò”。 suō luó jī jí chàng dǎo yī zhǒng shēng huó guān niàn， yī zhǒng yǔ xiàn dài wù zhì shēng huó rì yì fēng fù duì lì de jiǎn pǔ de shēng huó fāng shì。
　　
　　 yú shì rén men fā xiàn liǎo suō luó， fā xiàn liǎo wèi jiè xīn líng de liáng yào， lái fǔ píng xīn líng de zào dòng。
　　
　　 jiù xiàng suō luó de jì mò yī yàng，《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》 shì 'ān jìng de， jí jìng jí jìng de shū， bìng bù shì rè rè nào nào de shū。 tā shì yī běn jì mò de shū， yī běn gū dú de shū。 tā zhǐ shì yī běn yī gè rén de shū。 rú guǒ yuè dú zhě de xīn méi yòu 'ān jìng xià lái， kǒng pà jiù hěn nán jìn rù dào zhè běn shū lǐ qù。
　　
　　 suō luó yán jiū zhuān jiā hā dīng shuō：《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》 zhì shǎo yòu wǔ zhǒng dú fǎ： zuò wéi yī bù zì rán de shū jí、 zuò wéi yī bù zì lì gēngshēng jiǎn dān shēng huó de zhǐ nán、 zuò wéi pī píng xiàn dài shēng huó de yī bù fěng cì zuò pǐn、 zuò wéi yī bù wén xué míng zhù yǐ jí zuò wéi yī běn shén shèng de shū。
　　
　　 gèng duō de rén yuàn yì bǎ《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》 zuò wéi yī bù zì lì gēngshēng、 jiǎn dān shēng huó de zhǐ nán lái dú。 yīn wéi suō luó jīng guò shí jiàn fā xiàn， tā néng yǐ 28 yuán lái jiàn lì yī gè jiā， yòng 0.27 yuán lái wéi chí yī zhōu de shēng huó。 tā yǐ yī nián zhōng 6 gè xīng qī de shí jiān， qù zuàn qǔ zú gòu yī nián de shēng huó fèi yòng， shèng yú de 46 gè xīng qī， qù zuò tā xǐ huān zuò de shì。 yīn wéi rú cǐ《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》 zài dāng shí biàn jù yòu liǎo jù dà de yòu huò lì， nà jǐ nián lǐ， suō luó de fǎng xiào zhě nán yǐ jì shù， tā men yǐn tuì lín zhōng， zài wǎ 'ěr dēng hú pàn jiàn zào máo shè， zhè chéng wéi měi guó fēng xíng yī shí de shí shàng。
　　
　　 dàn shì suō luó de hú pàn dú jū bìng bù néng shì wèishénme yǐn shì shēng yá。 tā shì yòu mùdì dì tàn suǒ rén shēng， pī pàn rén shēng， zhèn fèn rén shēng， chǎn shù rén shēng de gèng gāo guī lǜ。 bìng bù shì xiāo jí de， tā shì jī jí de。 bìng bù shì táo bì rén shēng， tā shì zǒu xiàng rén shēng， bìng qiě jiù zài zhè zhōng jiān， tā yě céng yòng tā zì jǐ de dú tè fāng shì， tóu shēn yú dāng shí de zhèng zhì dǒu zhēng。 tā jī jí zhī chí gān dì de fēi bào lì bù hé zuò yùn dòng， tā yě duì fèi nú yùn dòng jí qí rè xīn。 tā de níng jìng bù shì yī tán sǐ shuǐ， bù shì dú shàn qí shēn。
　　
　　 zài tā shēng qián， tā bìng méi yòu shénme míng shēng， tā yī shēng zhǐ chū bǎn liǎo liǎng běn shū。 1849 nián zì fèi chū bǎn liǎo《 kāng kē dé hé hé méi lǐ mài kè hé shàng de yī xīng qī》， yìn xíng 1000 cè， zhǐ shòu chū 100 duō cè， sòng diào 75 cè， cún xià 7000 duō cè， zài shū diàn cāng kù lǐ fàng dào 1853 nián， quán bù tuì gěi zuò zhě liǎo。 suō luó céng huī xié dì shuō， tā jiā lǐ dà yuē cáng shū 900 cè， zì jǐ zhù de shū 700 duō cè。
　　
　　 tā de dì 'èr běn shū jiù shì《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》。 yě méi yòu shòu dào rén men de zhù yì， chū bǎn 2000 cè yòng liǎo 5 nián duō de shí jiān cái mài wán。 shèn zhì hái zāo dào zhān mǔ sī · luò 'è 'ěr yǐ jí luó bó tè · lù yì sī · sī dì wén shēng de jī fěng hé pī píng。 zhǐ yòu qiáo zhì · ài lüè tè yú 1856 nián yuán yuè， zài《 xī mǐn sì zhōu bào》 shàng gěi tā yǐ“ shēn chén 'ér mǐn gǎn de shū qíng” hé“ chāo fán rù shèng” de hǎo píng。
　　
　　 suí zhe shí guāng de liú shì， zhè běn shū de yǐng xiǎng shì yuè lái yuè dà， yǐ jīng chéng wéi měi guó wén xué zhōng de yī běn dú tè de、 zhuó yuè de míng zhù。 dào mù qián wéi zhǐ， cǐ shū yǐ jīng chū xiàn liǎo jiāng jìn 200 duō gè bǎn běn， bìng bèi yì chéng xǔ duō guó jiā de wén zì。 yòu de píng lùn jiā rèn wéi《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》 kě yǐ zuò wéi yī zhǒng 19 shì jì de《 lǔ bīn xùn piāo liú jì》 lái yuè dú。 tóng shí shì suō luó shǐ zì rán sǎnwén dú lì mén hù， fù yú liǎo tā xīn de gài niàn，《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》 kān chēng xiàn dài měi guó sǎnwén zuì zǎo de bǎng yàng。 yǔ qí tóng shí dài de zuò jiā huò sāng、 méi 'ěr wéi 'ěr yǐ jí 'ài mò shēng děng rén de zuò pǐn xiāng bǐ， jù yòu jié rán bù tóng zhī chù， fù yú 20 shì jì sǎnwén de fēng gé。 zhè yī tè diǎn jù tǐ tǐ xiàn yú tā de jù zǐ píng pū zhí xù、 jiǎn jié hé fù yòu guān diǎn， wán quán bù xiàng wéi duō lì yà zhōng qī sǎnwén nà yàng sǎnmàn、 yòng cí jīng xì、 jiáo qíng hé jù tǐ， yě méi yòu méng lóng hé chōu xiàng de qì xī。 tōng guò yuè dú cǐ shū， wǒ men huì jīng qí dì fā xiàn zhè běn xiě yú 19 shì jì de zuò pǐn yǔ hǎi míng wēi、 hēng lì · zhān mǔ sī děng rén de zuò pǐn fēng gé shí fēn jiē jìn， zhǐ bù guò suō luó de fēng gé gèng xiǎn dé fēng fù 'ér yǐ。
　　
　　《 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú》 zhōng yòu xǔ duō piān fú shì xíng xiàng miáo huì， yōu měi xì zhì， xiàng hú shuǐ de chún jié tòu míng， xiàng shān lín de mào mì cuì lǜ； yòu yī xiē piān fú shuō lǐ tòu chè， shí fēn jīng bì， yòu qǐ fā xìng。 wén zì yōu měi， zì zì shǎn guāng， qìn rén xīn pí。 suō luó duì yú chūn tiān， duì yú lí míng， zuò liǎo jí qí dòng rén de miáo xiě。 dú zhe zhè yàng de wén zì， zì rán huì tǐ huì dào， yī gǔ xiàng shàng de jīng shén bù duàn dì jiāng yuè dú zhě tí shēng、 tí gāo。 zhè shì 100 duō nián yǐ qián de shū， zhì jīn hái wèi shī qù tā de yì yì。
　　
　　 suō luó shuō， wǎ 'ěr dēng hú shì shén de yī dī。 zhè lǐ de hú shuǐ qīng chè jiàn dǐ， kě yǐ kàn dào hú shuǐ zhōng de cǎo、 liú dòng de yú hé zài shuǐ liú zhōng bù dòng de shí zǐ， hú shuǐ chōng mǎn liǎo guāng míng hé dàoyǐng， chéng wéi yī gè xià jiè tiān kōng。 zhè lǐ díquè shì dà zì rán de jīng líng， shì shàng dì de shén lái zhī bǐ。 suō luó zhǎo dào liǎo wǎ 'ěr dēng hú， nà me shì shí hòu zhǎo yī zhǎo wǒ men zì jǐ de jīng shén jiā yuán liǎo。
　　 wǎ 'ěr dēng hú - miào yǔ jiā jù
　　
　　 wǒ bìng bù bǐ yī duǒ máo ruǐ huā huò mù chǎng shàng de yī duǒ pú gōng yīng jì mò， wǒ bù bǐ yī zhāng dòu yè， yī zhī cù jiàng cǎo， huò yī zhǐ mǎ fēng gèng jì mò。 wǒ bù bǐ mì 'ěr xī， huò yī zhǐ fēng xìn jī， huò běi jí xīng， huò nán fēng gèng jì mò， wǒ bù bǐ sì yuè de yǔ huò zhēngyuè de róng xuě， huò xīn wū zhōng de dì yī zhǐ zhī zhū gèng jì mò。

　　Walden (first published as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) is an American book written by noted Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, and manual for self reliance.
　　
　　Published in 1854, it details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts.
　　
　　Thoreau did not intend to live as a hermit, for he received visitors and returned their visits. Rather, he hoped to isolate himself from society to gain a more objective understanding of it. Simple living and self-sufficiency were Thoreau's other goals, and the whole project was inspired by transcendentalist philosophy, a central theme of the American Romantic Period. As Thoreau made clear in his book, his cabin was not in wilderness but at the edge of town, not far from his family home.
　　
　　Synopsis
　　
　　Economy: In this first and longest chapter, Thoreau outlines his project: a two-year and two-month stay at a cozy, "tightly shingled and plastered," English-style 10' x 15' cottage in the woods near Walden Pond. He does this, he says, to illustrate the spiritual benefits of a simplified lifestyle. He easily supplies the four necessities of life (food, shelter, clothing, and fuel) with the help of family and friends, particularly his mother, his best friend, and Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Waldo Emerson. The latter provided Thoreau with a work exchange — he could build a small house and plant a garden if he cleared some land on the woodlot and did other chores while there. Thoreau meticulously records his expenditures and earnings, demonstrating his understanding of "economy," as he builds his house and buys and grows food. For a home and freedom, he spent a mere $28.12 1/2, in 1845. At the end of this chapter, Thoreau inserts a poem, "The Pretensions of Poverty," by seventeenth-century English poet Thomas Carew. The poem criticizes those who think that their poverty gives them unearned moral and intellectual superiority.
　　
　　Where I Lived, and What I Lived For: After playing with the idea of buying a farm, Thoreau describes his house's location. Then he explains that he took up his abode at Walden Woods so as to "live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Although he criticizes the dedication of his neighbors to working, he himself is quite busy at Walden — building and maintaining his house, raising thousands of bean plants and other vegetables, making bread, clearing land, chopping wood, making repairs for the Emersons, going into town, and writing every day. His time at Walden was his most productive as a writer.
　　
　　Reading: Thoreau discusses the benefits of classical literature (preferably in the original Greek or Latin), and bemoans the lack of sophistication in Concord, evident in the popularity of unsophisticated literature. He also loved to read books by world travelers. He yearns for a utopian time when each New England village supports "wise men" to educate and thereby ennoble the population.
　　
　　Sounds: Thoreau opens this chapter by warning against relying too much on literature as a means of transcendence. Instead, one should experience life for oneself. Thus, after describing his house's beautiful natural surroundings and his casual housekeeping habits, Thoreau goes on to criticize the train whistle that interrupts his reverie. To him, the railroad symbolizes the destruction of the pastoral way of life. Following is a description of the sounds audible from his cabin: the church bells ringing, carriages rattling and rumbling, cows lowing, whip-poor-wills singing, owls hooting, frogs croaking, and cockerels crowing.
　　
　　Solitude: Thoreau rhapsodizes about the beneficial effects of living solitary and close to nature. He claims to love being alone, saying "I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude."
　　
　　Visitors: Thoreau writes about the visitors to his house. Among the 25 or 30 visitors is a young French-Canadian woodchopper, Alec Therien, whom Thoreau idealizes as approaching the ideal man, and a runaway slave, whom Thoreau helps on his journey to freedom in Canada.
　　
　　The Bean-Field: Thoreau relates his efforts to cultivate two and a half acres of beans. He plants in June and spends his summer mornings weeding the field with a hoe. He sells most of the crop, and his small profit of $8.71 covers his needs that were not provided by friends and family.
　　
　　The Village: Thoreau visits the small town of Concord every day or two to hear the news, which he finds "as refreshing in its way as the rustle of the leaves." Nevertheless, he fondly but rather contemptuously compares Concord to a gopher colony. In late summer, he is arrested for refusing to pay federal taxes, but is released the next day. He explains that he refuses to pay taxes to a government that supports slavery.
　　
　　The Ponds: In autumn, Thoreau rambles about the countryside and writes down his observations about the geography of Walden Pond and its neighbors: Flint's Pond (or Sandy Pond), White Pond, and Goose Pond. Although Flint's is the largest, Thoreau's favorites are Walden and White ponds, which he says are lovelier than diamonds.
　　
　　Baker Farm: While on an afternoon ramble in the woods, Thoreau gets caught in a rainstorm and takes shelter in the dirty, dismal hut of John Field, a penniless but hard-working Irish farmhand, and his wife and children. Thoreau urges Field to live a simple but independent and fulfilling life in the woods, thereby freeing himself of employers and creditors. But the Irishman won't give up his dreams of luxury, which is the American dream.
　　
　　Higher Laws: Thoreau discusses whether hunting wild animals and eating meat is good. He concludes that the primitive, animal side of humans drives them to kill and eat animals, and that a person who transcends this propensity is superior to those who don't. (Thoreau eats fish and occasionally salt pork and woodchuck.) In addition to vegetarianism, he lauds chastity, work, and teetotalism. He also recognizes that Indians need to hunt and kill moose for survival in "The Maine Woods," and ate moose on a trip to Maine while he was living at Walden.
　　
　　Brute Neighbors: Thoreau briefly discusses the many wild animals that are his neighbors at Walden. A description of the nesting habits of partridges is followed by a fascinating account of a massive battle between red and black ants. Three of the combatants he takes into his cabin and examines under a microscope as the black ant kills the two smaller red ones. Later, Thoreau takes his boat and tries to follow a teasing loon about the pond. He also collects animal specimens and ships them to Harvard College for study.
　　
　　House-Warming: After picking November berries in the woods, Thoreau adds a chimney, and finely plasters the walls of his sturdy house to stave off the cold of the oncoming winter. He also lays in a good supply of firewood, and expresses affection for wood and fire.
　　
　　Former Inhabitants; and Winter Visitors: Thoreau relates the stories of people who formerly lived in the vicinity of Walden Pond. Then he talks about a few of the visitors he receives during the winter: a farmer, a woodchopper, and his best friend, the poet Ellery Channing.
　　
　　Winter Animals: Thoreau amuses himself by watching wildlife during the winter. He relates his observations of owls, hares, red squirrels, mice, and various birds as they hunt, sing, and eat the scraps and corn he put out for them. He also describes a fox hunt that passes by.
　　
　　The Pond in Winter: Thoreau describes Walden Pond as it appears during the winter. He claims to have sounded its depths and located an underground outlet. Then he recounts how 100 laborers came to cut great blocks of ice from the pond, the ice to be shipped to the Carolinas.
　　
　　Spring: As spring arrives, Walden and the other ponds melt with stentorian thundering and rumbling. Thoreau enjoys watching the thaw, and grows ecstatic as he witnesses the green rebirth of nature. He watches the geese winging their way north, and a hawk playing by itself in the sky. As nature is reborn, the narrator implies, so is he. He departs Walden on September 6, 1847.
　　
　　Conclusion: This final chapter is more passionate and urgent than its predecessors. In it, he criticizes conformity: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." By doing so, men may find happiness and self-fulfillment.
　　
　　 "I do not say that John or Jonathan will realize all this; but such is the character of that morrow which mere lapse of time can never make to dawn. The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star."
　　
　　Themes
　　
　　Walden emphasizes the importance of solitude, contemplation, and closeness to nature in transcending the "desperate" existence that, he argues, is the lot of most people. The book is not a traditional autobiography, but combines autobiography with a social critique of contemporary Western culture's consumerist and materialist attitudes and its distance from and destruction of nature. That the book is not simply a criticism of society, but also an attempt to engage creatively with the better aspects of contemporary culture, is suggested both by Thoreau's proximity to Concord society and by his admiration for classical literature. There are signs of ambiguity, or an attempt to see an alternative side of something common.
　　
　　Thoreau regarded his sojourn at Walden as an experiment with a threefold purpose. First, he was escaping the dehumanizing effects of the Industrial Revolution by returning to a simpler, agrarian lifestyle. Second, he was simplifying his life and reducing his expenditures, increasing the amount of leisure time in which he could work on his writings (most of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers was written at Walden). Much of the book is devoted to stirring up awareness of how one's life is lived, materially and otherwise, and how one might choose to live it more deliberately. Third, he was putting into practice the Transcendentalist belief that one can best "transcend" normality and experience the Ideal, or the Divine, through nature.

　　wǒ zhēn xīn jiē shòu zhè yī míng yán héng héng“ zuì shǎo guǎn shì de zhèng fǔ shì zuì hǎo de zhèng fǔ”； bìng xī wàng tā néng gèng xùn sù gèng chè dǐ dì dé dào zhí xíng。 zhí xíng zhī hòu， wǒ yě xiāng xìn， tā zuì zhōng huì biàn chéng：“ yī shì bù guǎn de zhèng fǔ cái shì zuì hǎo de zhèng fǔ”。 zhǐ yào rén men duì cǐ yòu suǒ qī dài， tā men jiù huì dé dào nà yàng de zhèng fǔ。 chōng qí liàng zhèng fǔ zhǐ bù guò shì yī zhǒng quán yí zhī jì。 dàn shì dà duō shù zhèng fǔ wǎng wǎng bù dé jì， ér suǒ yòu de zhèng fǔ yòu shí dū huì bù dé jì。 rén men duì cháng bèi jūn tí chū de yì jiàn hěn duō， yě hěn yòu fèn liàng， zhí dé guǎng fàn xuān chuán。 dàn tā zuì zhōng yě kě néng huì yòng lái fǎn duì cháng bèi zhèng fǔ。 cháng bèi jūn zhǐ shì zhèng fǔ de yī gè shǒu bì。 zhèng fǔ běn shēn shì yóu rén mín xuǎn zé yòng lái zhí xíng tā men yì zhì de yī zhǒng mó shì。 dàn shì zài rén mín néng gòu tōng guò tā cǎi qǔ xíng dòng zhī qián， tā tóng yàng yòu kě néng bèi yǐn rù qí tú， làn yòng zhí quán。 qǐng kàn dāng qián de mò xī gē zhàn zhēng， zhè shì xiāng duì shǎo shù rén bǎ cháng bèi zhèng fǔ dāng gōng jù shǐ yòng de lì zǐ。 yīn wéi zài yī kāi shǐ rén mín bìng bù tóng yì cǎi qǔ zhè zhǒng shǒu duàn。
　　
　　（ suō luó de zhù zhāng yòu diǎn xiàng shì zì yóu zhù yì， bìng qiě zài jiēguǒ shàng qīng xiàng yú wú zhèng fǔ zhù yì。 dú zhě 'àn）
　　
　　 mù qián de měi guó zhèng fǔ héng héng tā shí jì shàng shì gè chuán tǒng xíng shì。 suī shuō rén xuǎn shì xīn de， tā què nǔ lì shǐ zì jǐ wán zhěng dì chuán sòng dào xià yī dài， ér měi yī kè yòu dōuzài shī qù tā de wán zhěng xìng。 chú cǐ zhī wài tā yòu néng shì shénme ní？ tā de zhāoqì hé lì liàng dǐ bù shàng yī gè huó rén； yīn wéi yī gè rén yě néng 'àn tā de yì zhì shǐ zhī qū cóng。 duì rén mín zì jǐ lái shuō， tā shì yī zhǒng mù qiāng。 rú guǒ tā men yī běn zhèng jīng dì bǎ tā dàngzhēn jiā huǒ yòng lái hù xiāng gōng jī， tā kěn dìng huì bēng liè。 dàn tā de bì yào xìng bù huì yīn cǐ 'ér jiǎn shǎo， yīn wèirénmín bì xū yào yòu zhè yàng huò nà yàng de fù zá jī qì， bìng qīn 'ěr líng tīng tā fā chū yùn zhuǎn zào yīn， yǐ cǐ lái mǎn zú tā men yòu guān zhèng fǔ de gài niàn。 yīn cǐ zhèng fǔ biàn néng xiǎn shì chū rén men huì duō me róng yì dì zhì shēn yú qiáng zhì zhī xià， shèn zhì shì zì wǒ de qiáng zhì， mùdì shì wèile cóng zhōng huò yì。 wǒ mendōu bì xū chéng rèn zhè shì zhuāng miào shì； dàn zhèng fǔ chú liǎo jí shàn yú piān lí zì jǐ zhí néng zhī wài， tā kě cóng lái méi yòu cù jìn guò rèn hé shì yè。 tā méi yòu shǐ guó jiā bǎo chí zì yóu。 tā méi yòu 'ān dìng xī bù。 tā méi yòu tí gōng jiào yù。 suǒ yòu yǐ qǔ dé de chéng jiù dōushì kào měi guó rén mín gù yòu de xìng gé 'ér huò dé de； ér qiě， yào bù shì zhèng fǔ jīng cháng cóng zhōng zǔ náo， zhè chéng jiù huò xǔ huì gèng dà xiē。 rú guǒ rén men néng tōng guò zhèng fǔ zhè yī quán yí zhī jì shí xiàn hù bù yuē shù， tā men jiāng huì fēi cháng gāo xīng。 zhèng rú gāng cái suǒ shuō， bèi tǒng zhì zhě zuì bù shòu yuē shù shí， zhèng shì tǒng zhì jī gòu zuì dé jì zhī shí。 mào yì yǔ shāng yè， ruò méi yòu yǔ yìn dì 'ān rén mó cā suǒ zào chéng de cì jī， gēn běn bù kě néng yuè guò lì fǎ zhě men bù duàn shè zhì de zhàng 'ài 'ér dé yǐ fā zhǎn。 rú guǒ wǒ men jǐn gēn jù zhèng fǔ xíng dòng de hòu guǒ， ér bù gù jí qí dòng jī， wǒ men zhēn yìng dāng jiāng zhè pī rén dāng zuò nà xiē zài tiě guǐ shàng fàng zhì zhàng 'ài wù de táo qì guǐ yī yàng jiā yǐ chéng fá。
　　
　　 shuō shí zài de， zuò wéi yī gè gōng mín， ér bù xiàng nà xiē zì chēng wéi wú zhèng fǔ de rén， wǒ bìng bù yào qiú lì jí fèi chú zhèng fǔ， ér shì xī wàng lì jí néng yòu yī gè hǎo yī diǎn de zhèng fǔ。 ràng měi yī gè réndōu shuō shuō shénme yàng de zhèng fǔ néng yíng dé tā de zūn jìng， zhè jiāng shì jiàn lì nà zhǒng zhèng fǔ de dì yī bù。
　　
　　（ suō luó zì jǐ bìng bù rèn wéi zì jǐ shì yī gè wú zhèng fǔ zhù yì zhě）
　　
　　 dāng quán lì yī dàn luò rù rén mín shǒu zhōng， dà bù fēn rén bèi yǔn xǔ cháng jiǔ dì zhì lǐ guó jiā de lǐ yóu bì jìng bù jǐn jǐn shì yīn wéi tā men dài biǎo zhe zhēn lǐ， yě bù yīn wéi zhè kàn lái duì shǎo shù rén zuì gōng zhèng， ér shì yīn wéi tā men zài lì liàng shàng zuì qiáng dà。 rán 'ér， jí shǐ shì yī gè zài suǒ yòu qíng kuàng xià dū yóu duō shù rén tǒng zhì de zhèng fǔ yě bù kě néng jī yú zhèng yì， nǎ pà shì rén men tōng cháng lǐ jiě de zhèng yì。 jiǎ shè zài zhèng fǔ lǐ bù kào duō shù rén， ér yòng liáng zhī lái pàn duàn shì fēi， duō shù rén zhǐ jué dìng zhèng fǔ gāi guǎn huò bù gāi guǎn de wèn tí， zhè yàng de zhèng fǔ nán dào bù kě néng shí xiàn má？ nán dào yī gè gōng mín yǒng yuǎn yīngdāng zài tè dìng shí kè， huò zài zuì dī chéng dù shàng pò shǐ tā de liáng xīn fú cóng lì fǎ zhě má？ rú guǒ zhè yàng， rén men yào liáng xīn yòu yòu hé yòng？ wǒ xiǎng， wǒ men shǒu xiān yīnggāi shì rén， qí cì cái shì chén mín。 jǐn jǐn wèile gōng zhèng 'ér péi yǎng zūn jìng fǎ lǜ de xí guàn shì bù kě qǔ de。 wǒ yòu quán chéng dān de wéi yī yì wù jiù shì zài rèn hé shí hòu zuò wǒ rèn wéi shì zhèng què de shì。 gōng sī méi yòu liáng xīn， dàn shì yóu yòu liáng xīn de rén men zǔ chéng de gōng sī shì yòu liáng xīn de gōng sī， zhè yàng de shuō fǎ wán quán zhèng què。 fǎ lǜ sī háo méi yòu shǐ rén biàn dé gèng gōng zhèng xiē； xiāng fǎn， yóu yú zūn zhòng fǎ lǜ， shèn zhì shì hǎo xīn rén yě zài rì yì biàn chéng fēi zhèng yì de zhí xíng zhě。 nǐ kě yǐ kàn dào yī gè yóu shì bīng、 shàng xiào、 shàng wèi、 xià shì、 yī děng bīng hé jūn huǒ bān yùn gōng zǔ chéng de duì wǔ， yǐ lìng rén xiàn mù de duì liè fān shān yuè lǐng， bēn fù zhàn zhēng； dàn shì yóu yú tā men wéi bèi liǎo zì jǐ de yì zhì、 cháng qíng hé liáng xīn， tā men de xíng jūn biàn dé yì cháng kùn nán， rén réndōu gǎn dào xīn jīng ròu tiào； zhè jiù shì guòfèn zūn zhòng fǎ lǜ de yī gè pǔ tōng 'ér zì rán de jiēguǒ。 tā men suǒ juǎnrù de shì yīcháng kěwù de jiāo yì， duì cǐ tā men shēn xìn bù yí； tā mendōu xī wàng hé píng。 xiàn zài tā men chéng liǎo shénme？ shì rén má？ hái shì xiē xiǎo xíng huó dòng bǎo lěi huò dàn yào kù， zài wéi mǒu xiē bù zé shǒu duàn de zhǎng quán zhě xiào láo？ qǐng cān guān hǎi jūn jī dì， mù dǔ yī gè shuǐ bīng， nà jiù shì měi guó zhèng fǔ suǒ néng zào jiù de rén， huò zhě shuō zhè jiù shì tā néng yòng wū shù bǎ yī gè rén gǎi biàn chéng de múyàng： tā zhǐ shì rén lèi de yī gè yǐng zǐ hé huí yì， yī gè bèi 'ān fàng zài nà lǐ zhàn gǎng de huó rén。 zhèng rú rén men suǒ shuō， zhè wèi shì bīng dài zhe péi zàng wù， mái zài wǔ qì duī lǐ ……
　　
　　 yīn cǐ zhè xiē rén bìng fēi zuò wéi rén qù wèiguó xiào láo， ér shì zuò wéi ròu tǐ de jī qì。 tā men bāo kuò cháng bèi jūn、 mín bīng、 jiān yù kānshǒu、 jǐng chá、 dì fāng mín tuán děng。 zài dà bù fēn qíng kuàng xià， tā men zì jǐ de pàn duàn lì hé dào dé gǎn méi yòu fā huī rèn hé zuò yòng； tā men shì zì jǐ wéi mù cái、 ní tǔ hé shí kuài； yào shì néng zào chū mù tóu rén lái， yě néng dá dào tóng yàng de mùdì。 zhè zhǒng rén bù huì bǐ dào cǎo rén huò yī duī tǔ gèng néng yǐn qǐ rén men de zūn jìng。 tā men zhǐ jù yòu yǔ mǎ hé gǒu tóng děng de jià zhí。 rán 'ér zhè yàng de rén què bèi pǔ biàn shì wéi hǎo gōng mín。 qí tā rén， zhū rú dà duō shù lì fǎ zhě、 zhèng kè、 lǜ shī、 mù shī、 guān yuán děng， zhù yào yòng tóu nǎo lái wèiguó jiā fú wù。 dàn shì， yóu yú tā men hěn shǎo biàn bié dào dé shì fēi， ér yòu kě néng bù zhī bù jué dì xiàng shì fèng shàng dì yī yàng wéi mó guǐ fú wù。 yě yòu yī xiē zhēn zhèng chēng dé shàng shì yīng xióng、 ài guó zhě、 xùn dào zhě huò gǎi gé jiā de rén， tā men què shí yòng liáng xīn wèiguó jiā fú wù， yīn 'ér wǎng wǎng huì dǐ zhì guó jiā de xíng jìng， jiēguǒ tā men tōng cháng bèi guó jiā dāng zuò dí rén kàn dài。
　　
　　 yī gè rén jīn tiān gāi zěn yàng duì dài měi guó zhèng fǔ cái hé shì ní？ wǒ shuō， tā bù kě néng yǔ zhī xiāng lián 'ér bù shī tǐ miàn。 wǒ yī kè yě bù néng chéng rèn nà gè zhèng zhì zǔ zhì jiù shì wǒ de zhèng fǔ， yīn wéi tā yě shì nú lì de zhèng fǔ。
　　
　　 suǒ yòu de réndōu chéng rèn gé mìng de quán lì： nà jiù shì dāng rén men wú fǎ róng rěn yī gè dú cái huò wú néng de zhèng fǔ shí， jù jué xiào zhōng bìng dǐ kàng tā de quán lì。 dàn shì jīhū suǒ yòu de réndōu shuō xiàn zài bù shì nà zhǒng qíng kuàng。 tā men rèn wéi zhǐ yòu １ ７７ ５ nián dà gé mìng cái shǔ yú nà zhǒng fēi cháng shí qī。 yào shì yòu rén gào sù wǒ， zhè shì gè huài zhèng fǔ， yīn wéi tā xiàng jìn rù tā gǎng kǒu de wài guó shāng pǐn zhēng shuì， wǒ wán quán kě néng bù bǎ zhè zhǒng zhǐ kòng dāng huí shì， yīn wéi wǒ kě yǐ bù yào zhè xiē shāng pǐn： suǒ yòu jī qì dōuyòu mó cā， zhè yòu kě néng dǐ xiāo zuì 'è。 wú lùn rú hé， yào shì cóng zhōng jìn xíng shān dòng biàn shì jí dà de zuì 'è。 dàn shì dāng zhè yī mó cā kāi shǐ huǐ huài jī qì， dāng zhèn yā hé qiǎng jié yǐ zǔ zhì qǐ lái shí， wǒ shuō， ràng wǒ men zài yě bù yào zhè yàng de jī qì liǎo。 huàn jù huà shuō， dāng yī gè chéng nuò yào bǎo hù zì yóu de guó jiā de liù fēn zhī yī rén kǒu shì nú lì， dāng yī gè guó jiā wán quán bèi wài guó jūn duì fēi fǎ dì róu lìn、 zhēng fú， bìng yóu jūn fǎ guǎn zhì de shí hòu， wǒ xiǎng， guò bù liǎo duō jiǔ， chéng shí de rén biàn huì qǐ lái zào fǎn hé gé mìng。 shǐ dé zhè yī zé rèn gèng wéi jǐn pò de shì shí shì： bèi róu lìn de guó jiā bù shì wǒ men zì jǐ de， ér qīn lüè jūn què shì wǒ men de。
　　
　　 dāng rán， yī gè rén méi yòu zé rèn yī dìng yào zhì lì yú jiū zhèng mǒu zhǒng miù wù， nǎ pà shì zuì bù gōng zhèng de miù wù。 tā réng kě yǐ shìdàng dì cóng shì qí tā shì qíng。 dàn tā qǐ mǎ yòu zé rèn tóng zhè miù wù yī dāo liǎng duàn。 jì rán tā bù zài ná tā dāng huí zhèng shì， tā jiù yīnggāi jī běn shàng zhōng zhǐ duì tā de zhī chí。 yào shì wǒ zhì lì yú qí tā zhuī qiú hé sī suǒ， wǒ shǒu xiān zhì shǎo dé bǎo zhèng wǒ méi yòu qí zài bié rén jiān shàng。 wǒ bì xū xiān cóng tā shēn shàng pá xià lái， hǎo ràng tā yě néng jìn xíng tā zì jǐ de sī suǒ。 qǐng kàn zhè shè huì shì duō me dì bù hé xié。 wǒ céng tīng dào chéng lǐ yòu xiē shì mín shuō：“ wǒ xī wàng tā men mìng lìng wǒ qián qù zhèn yā nú lì qǐ yì， huò kāi fù mò xī gē； héng héng kàn wǒ shì fǒu huì qù。” dàn zhèng shì zhè xiē rén， tā men měi réndōu zhí jiē 'ér zhōng chéng dì， qǐ mǎ shì jiànjiē dì tōng guò chū qián， tí gōng liǎo yī gè tì shēn。 jù jué cān jiā yīcháng fēi zhèng yì zhàn zhēng díshì bīng shòu dào rén men de zàn měi。 kě zhè xiē zàn měi zhě zhōng de mǒu xiē rén bìng méi yòu jù jué yōng hù nà gè fā dòng zhè chǎng zhàn zhēng de fēi zhèng yì zhèng fǔ。 zhè xiē rén de xíng wéi hé quán wēi zhèng shì shì bīng men suǒ miè shì hé bù xiè yī gù de。 zài tā men kàn lái， sì hū guó jiā zài fàn zuì shí yě yòu zhuī huǐ zhī yì， yīn 'ér yào zhuān gù yī rén lái biān chī zì jǐ， dàn yòu méi yòu hòu huǐ dào yào tíng zhǐ piàn kè fàn zuì de chéng dù。 yīn cǐ zài zhì xù hé gōng mín zhèng fǔ de míng yì xià， wǒ men zuì hòu dōubèi pò duì wǒ men zì jǐ de bēi liè xíng jìng biǎo shì jìng yì hé zhī chí。 rén men zài fàn zuì de shǒu cì liǎn hóng zhī hòu xué huì liǎo mǎn bù zài hū。 bù dào dé sì hū yě biàn chéng liǎo fēi dào dé。 zhè zhǒng shì yìng zài wǒ men de shēng huó lǐ bìng fēi wán quán méi yòu bì yào。
　　
　　…… rú guǒ nǐ bèi lín jū piàn zǒu yī yuán qián， nǐ bù kě néng jǐn jǐn mǎn zú yú zhī dào zì jǐ shòu piàn， huò duì bié rén shuō zì jǐ shòu piàn， huò yào qiú tā rú shù cháng hái。 nǐ huì lì jí cǎi qǔ yòu lì bù zhòu huò dé quán bù tuì péi， bìng shè fǎ bǎo zhèng zì jǐ bù zài shòu piàn。 chū yú yuán zé de xíng dòng， héng héng chū yú zhèng yì gǎn bìng jiā yǐ lǚ xíng de xíng dòng， héng héng néng gòu gǎi biàn shì wù jí qí guān xì。 zhè zhǒng xíng dòng jī běn shàng shì gé mìng de， tā tóng yǐ qián rèn hé shì wù jié rán bù tóng。 tā bù jǐn fēn lí liǎo zhèng fǔ yǔ jiào huì， yě fēn lí liǎo jiā tíng； shì de， tā hái fēn lí gè rén， jiāng tā shēn shàng de 'è mó cóng shén shèng de bù fēn zhōng fēn lí chū qù。
　　
　　 fēi zhèng yì de fǎ lǜ díquè cún zài。 wǒ men jiū jìng shì mǎn zú yú fú cóng tā men， hái shì yīngdāng yī biān nǔ lì xiū gǎi、 yī biān fú cóng tā men zhí zhì wǒ men chéng gōng， huò zhě gān cuì chāo yuè tā men？ zài mù qián zhè zhǒng zhèng fǔ tǒng zhì xià de rén men tōng cháng rèn wéi tā men yīnggāi děng dài， zhí zhì tā men shuō fú liǎo duō shù rén lái xiū gǎi fǎ lǜ。 tā men rèn wéi， rú guǒ tā men dǐ kàng， zhè zhǒng jiū zhèng fāng fǎ jiāng bǐ zuì 'è de xiàn zhuàng gèng huài。 dàn zào chéng zhè zhǒng wú kě bǔ jiù jú miàn de zé rèn yīngdāng guī jiù yú zhèng fǔ běn shēn。 tā shǐ zhī yuè gǎi yuè huài。 tā wèishénme bù néng shì xiān yù jì dào gǎi gé bìng wéi zhī tí gōng fāng biàn？ tā wèishénme bù 'ài hù shǎo shù míng zhì de rén？ tā wèihé zài hái méi yòu shòu dào shāng hài shí jiù háo jiào zhe dǐ kàng？ tā wèihé bù gǔ lì gōng mín men jí shí zhǐ chū tā de cuò wù， bìng ràng tā men zhù dòng dì gànhǎoshì qíng？ tā wèihé zǒng shì bǎ jī dū dīng zài shí zì jià shàng， jiāng gē bái ní hé lù dé gé chū jiào mén， bìng xuān pàn huá shèng dùn hé fù lán kè lín wéi pàn nì？
　　
　　 yòu rén huì rèn wéi， zhèng fǔ duì yú nà xiē gù yì 'ér qièshí mào fàn tā quán wēi de rén wǎng wǎng shì shú shì wú dǔ de。 yào bù rán， tā zěn me méi yòu wèicǐ guī dìng guò míng què、 qiàdàng hé xiāng yìng de chéng fá？ yī gè méi yòu cái chǎn de rén zhǐ yào yòu yī huí jù jué xiàng zhōu zhèng fǔ jiāo nà ９ gè xiān lìng， tā jiù huì bèi sòng jìn jiān yù， guān yā tā de shí jiān bù shòu wǒ suǒ zhī dào de rèn hé fǎ lǜ xiàn zhì， jǐn jǐn yóu bǎ tā sòng jìn qù de nà huǒ rén rèn yì jué dìng。 dàn shì， rú guǒ tā cóng zhōu lǐ tōu liǎo９ ０ bèi yú９ xiān lìng de qián， tā hěn kuài jiù néng xiāo yáo fǎ wài。
　　
　　 rú guǒ zhè yàng de bù gōng zhèng shì zhèng fǔ jī qì bì yào mó cā de yī bù fēn， nà jiù ràng tā qù， ràng tā qù bā。 kě néng tā huì zì jǐ mó diào zhè xiē bù píng héng héng dāng rán， zhè jī qì dào shí yě huì wán dàn。 rú guǒ zhè zhǒng fēi zhèng yì yòu tā zhuān yòng de tánhuáng， huá lún， shéng zǐ， huò qū bǐng， nǐ kě néng rèn wéi gǎi zào tā bìng bù yī dìng jiù shì huài shì。 dàn shì rú guǒ tā de běn xìng jiù yào qiú nǐ duì lìng yī rén shī nüè， nà me wǒ yào shuō， qǐng fàn fǎ bā。 yòng nǐ de shēng mìng lái fǎn mó cā， hǎo ràng zhè jī qì tíng zhǐ yùn zhuǎn。 zài rèn hé qíng kuàng xià， wǒ bì xū bǎo zhèng zì jǐ bù cānyù wǒ suǒ qiǎn zé de zuì guò。
　　
　　 zhì yú shuō yào zhí xíng zhōu zhèng fǔ tí chū de xiāo chú zuì 'è de fāng fǎ， wǒ bù zhī dào yòu zhè zhǒng fāng fǎ。 tā men fèi shí tài jiǔ， yī gè rén de shēng mìng yòu xiàn。 wǒ yòu qí tā shì yào zuò。 wǒ lái dào zhè shì jiè de zhù yào mùdì bù shì yào jiāng tā jiàn chéng shēng huó de lè yuán， ér shì zài cǐ dì shēng huó， wú lùn tā hǎo hái shì huài。 yī gè rén bù bì yàng yàng shìdōu qù zuò， ér zhǐ xū zuò yī xiē shì。 zhèng yīn wèitā bù néng yàng yàng shìdōu zuò， tā jiù bù yīnggāi jiāng yī xiē shì zuò cuò。 jiǎ rú zhōu cháng huò zhōu yì huì méi yòu yì wù xiàng wǒ qǐng yuàn， wǒ yě méi yòu yì wù xiàng tā men qǐng yuàn。 rú guǒ tā men tīng bù dào wǒ de qǐng yuàn， wǒ gāi zěn me bàn？ zài mù qián qíng kuàng xià， zhōu zhèng fǔ duì cǐ bìng méi xiǎng chū rèn hé bàn fǎ。 zhēn zhèng de zuì guò zài yú tā de xiàn fǎ běn shēn。 zhè tīng lái kě néng guò yú yán lì、 gù zhí huò bù tōng qíng dá lǐ。 dàn wéi yòu zhè zhǒng jīng shén cái shì wǒ men duì dài xiàn zhì de tài dù， tā hán yòu zuì dà chéng dù de shàn yì hé zuì shēn kè de sī kǎo。 zhè yě shì suǒ yòu shì wù xiàng hǎo de fāng miàn zhuǎn huà de guī lǜ， jiù xiàng rén zài tóng jí bìng de shēng sǐ bó dǒu zhōng huì quán shēn jìng luán yī yàng。
　　
　　 wǒ háo bù yóu yù dì jìng gào nà xiē zì chēng wéi fèi nú lùn zhě de rén， tā men bì xū lì jí zhēn zhèng dì shōu huí wú lùn zài gè rén hé cái chǎn fāng miàn duì mǎ sà zhū sài zhōu zhèng fǔ de zhī chí， bù yào děng dào tā men xíng chéng duō shù hòu zài zài tā men zhōng jiān zhí xíng zhèng yì。 wǒ rèn wéi， zhǐ yào yòu shàng dì zhàn zài tā men nà yī biān jiù gòu liǎo， bù bì děng dài qí tā。 zài shuō， rèn hé bǐ tā lín jū gèng yǒng gǎn de réndōu kě yǐ xíng chéng yī gè duō shù。
　　
　　 wǒ měi nián jǐn yòu yī cì jī huì tōng guò shōu shuì guān zhí jiē miàn duì miàn dì hé měi guó zhèng fǔ， huò tā de dài biǎo héng héng zhōu zhèng fǔ dǎ jiāo dào。 zhè shì xiàng wǒ zhè zhǒng chǔjìng de rén bì rán hé tā dǎ jiāo dào de wéi yī fāng shì。 zhè gè zhèng fǔ shí fēn qīng chǔ dì yào qiú wǒ chéng rèn tā。 ér wǒ wèile yào zài zhè zhǒng qíng kuàng xià yìng fù tā， bìng biǎo dá duì tā wēi hū qí wēi de mǎn yì hé 'ài dài， wǒ de zuì jiǎn dān、 zuì yòu xiào、 bìng zài mù qián xíng shì xià zuì yòu bì yào de fāng shì jiù shì fǒu rèn tā。 wǒ de lín jū， shōu shuì guān， zhèng shì wǒ yào duì fù de rén， héng héng yīn wéi bì jìng wǒ bìng bù gēn yáng pí zhǐ wén jiàn， ér shì yào gēn rén zhēng lùn， héng héng tā yǐ zì yuàn dāng liǎo zhèng fǔ de dài lǐ rén……
　　
　　 zài yī gè bù gōng dào dì guān yā rén de zhèng fǔ de tǒng zhì xià， yī gè zhèng yì zhě de zhēn zhèng guī sù yě shì jiān yù。 jīn tiān， mǎ sà zhū sài tí gōngjǐ nà xiē jiào zì yóu hé yòu diǎn zhāoqì de rén de hé shì dì fāng jiù shì tā de jiān yù， zhōu zhèng fǔ 'àn zì jǐ de fǎ lìng jiāng tā men qū zhú chū qù huò jiān jìn qǐ lái， yīn wéi zhè xiē rén yǐ jīng 'àn zhào tā men de yuán zé bǎ zì jǐ fàng zhú chū qù liǎo。 zài jiān yù lǐ， zài nà xiē táo wáng de nú lì、 bǎo shì de mò xī gē zhàn fú hé qián lái tóu sù zhǒng zú pò hài de yìn dì 'ān rén zhōng jiān， tā men zhǎo dào liǎo guī sù。 zài nà gè yǔ shì gé jué， dàn gèng zì yóu、 gèng chéng shí de chǎng suǒ， zhōu zhèng fǔ guān yā de bù shì zàn chéng tā， ér shì fǎn duì tā de rén， héng héng nà shì yī gè xù nú zhōu lǐ de zì yóu rén kě yǐ wèn xīn wú kuì dì shēng huó de wéi yī dì fāng。 rú guǒ yòu rén rèn wéi， zì yóu rén de yǐng xiǎng zài jiān yù lǐ huì xiāo shī， tā men de shēng yīn zài yě bù néng cì tòng guān yuán men de 'ěr duǒ， tā men zài dà qiáng zhī nèi yě bù zài shì dí rén， nà jiù cuò liǎo。 tā men bù zhī dào zhēn lǐ yào bǐ miù wù qiáng dà xǔ duō bèi， yě bù zhī dào qīn shēn jīng lì guò yī xiē fēi zhèng yì de rén néng gòu duō me xióng biàn 'ér yòu xiào dì tóng fēi zhèng yì zuò dǒu zhēng。 tóu shàng nǐ de zhěng gè xuǎn piào bā， bù dān dān shì yī zhāng xiǎo zhǐ tiáo， ér shì nǐ de quán bù yǐng xiǎng。 shǎo shù fú cóng duō shù zé ruǎn ruò wú lì； tā shèn zhì hái suàn bù shàng shǎo shù。 dàn rú guǒ jìn quán lì dǐ zhì， tā jiāng shì bù kě dǎng。 yī dàn ràng zhōu zhèng fǔ lái xuǎn zé chū lù： yào me bǎ suǒ yòu zhèng yì zhě dū guān jìn jiān yù， yào me fàng qì zhàn zhēng hé nú lì zhì， wǒ xiǎng tā shì huì háo bù chí yí de。 yào shì jīn nián yòu yī qiān rén jù jiāo shuì kuǎn， nà hái suàn bù shàng shì bào lì liúxiě de shǒu duàn。 wǒ men ruò jiāo liǎo shuì， zé shǐ zhōu zhèng fǔ yòu néng lì shí xíng bào lì， zào chéng wú gū liúxiě。 shì shí shàng zhè jiù shì hé píng gé mìng de dìng yì， yào shì rèn hé zhè zhǒng gé mìng shì kě néng de huà。 jiǎ rú nà wèi shōu shuì guān huò rèn hé qí tā zhèng fǔ guān yuán wèn wǒ， zhèng rú yòu rén yǐ wèn guò de：“ nà me wǒ gāi zěn me bàn ní？” wǒ de huí dá shì：“ rú guǒ nǐ zhēn yào gān diǎn shì， jiù qǐng cí zhí bā。” dāng chén mín jù jué xiào zhōng， guān yuán cí qù zhí wù， nà me zhè chǎng gé mìng jiù chéng gōng liǎo。 jiù suàn zhè zhǒng zuò fǎ kě néng huì yǐn qǐ liúxiě bā。 dāng rén men de liáng xīn shòu dào chuāngshāng shí， zhè nán dào bù yě shì yī zhǒng liúxiě má？ yóu yú zhè zhǒng chuāngshāng， yī gè rén jiāng shī qù tā zhēn zhèng de yǒng qì hé bù xiǔ de qì zhì。 tā huì rú cǐ liúxiě bù zhǐ， zhí zhì jīng shén shàng de sǐ wáng。 xiàn zài wǒ kàn dào zhè zhǒng wú xíng de xuè zhèng zài liú tǎng。
　　
　　 jǐ nián qián， zhōu zhèng fǔ céng yǐ jiào huì de míng yì yào qiú wǒ zhī fù yī bǐ qián yǐ gòngyǎng yī gè mù shī， tā de chuán dào wǒ fù qīn tīng guò， ér wǒ cóng lái wèi tīng guò。“ fù qián bā，” tā shuō，“ yào bù rán jiù jìn jiān yù。” wǒ jiù shì bù fù。 dàn bù xìng de shì lìng yī gè rén jué dé yīnggāi fù。 wǒ bù míng bái wèishénme jiào shī yào fù shuì gěi mù shī， ér bù shì mù shī fù gěi jiào shī。 wǒ bù shì zhōu lì xué xiào de jiào shī， dàn wǒ kào zì yuàn juān kuǎn wéi shēng。 wǒ bù míng bái wèishénme xué xiào jiù bù néng xiàng jiào huì nà yàng， zài zhōu de zhī chí xià， tí chū zì jǐ de shuì dān。 rán 'ér， zài dāng xuǎn yì yuán men de yào qiú xià， wǒ qū zūn xiě xià liǎo zhè yàng de shēng míng：“ jǐn yǐ cǐ yán wéi zhèng， wǒ， hēng lì · dà wèi · suō luó， bù xī wàng bèi rèn wéi shì rèn hé wǒ méi yòu jiā rù de lián hé tuán tǐ de yī yuán。” wǒ bǎ zhè shēng míng jiāo gěi liǎo zhèn gōng suǒ de wén shū， tā hái bǎo liú zhe。 suī rán zhōu zhèng fǔ dāng shí shuō guò， tā bì xū jiān chí tā yuán xiān de jué dìng， dàn tīng shuō wǒ bù xī wàng bèi rèn wéi shì nà gè jiào táng de chéng yuán， dǎ nà yǐ lái， tā yī zhí méi duì wǒ tí chū lèi sì yào qiú。 wǒ yuàn yì yī yī qiān zì， yǐ biǎo shì yǔ wǒ cóng wèi qiān zì rèn kě de yī qiē shè huì tuán tǐ duàn jué guān xì。 kě xī wǒ bù zhī dào zhè xiē tuán tǐ de míng chēng， yě bù zhī dào gāi dào hé chù qù xún yī fèn wán zhěng de míng dān。
　　
　　 wǒ yòu liù nián méi jiāo rén tóu shuì liǎo。 jiù wéi zhè wǒ céng jìn jiān yù zhù liǎo yī wǎn。 dāng wǒ zài nà lǐ zhàn zhe sī kǎo， miàn duì nà 'èr sān yīng chǐ hòu de jiān shí shí qiáng、 yī yīng chǐ hòu de mù tiě mén hé tòu guāng de tiě shān lán shí， wǒ jìn bù zhù qiáng liè dì gǎn dào zhè jiān yù bǎ wǒ jǐn dāng zuò yī gè xuè ròu zhī qū guān jìn lái shì hé děng yú chǔn。 wǒ huái yí tā zuì hòu shì fǒu huì duàn dìng zhè jiù shì tā duì fù wǒ de zuì hǎo fāng fǎ， ér cóng méi xiǎng dào yào yǐ mǒu zhǒng fāng shì lái jiào wǒ zuò diǎn shì。 wǒ zài xiǎng， suī rán wǒ hé wǒ de jiē fāng lín lǐ men zhī jiān gé liǎo yī dǔ shí qiáng， dàn tā men yào dá dào xiàng wǒ yī yàng zì yóu， hái yòu yī dǔ gèng nán pān yuè、 gèng nán dǎ pò de qiáng。 wǒ yī kè yě méi gǎn dào bèi jiān jìn， nà qiáng sì hū shì shí kuài huóní huī de jù dà làng fèi。 wǒ sì hū gǎn dào， quán tǐ shì mín zhōng， zhǐ yòu wǒ yī rén fù liǎo shuì。 tā men wán quán bù zhī gāi zěn yàng duì dài wǒ， tā men de yán xíng quē fá jiào yǎng。 wú lùn tā men duì wǒ jìn xíng wēi xié huò zàn yáng， zǒng shì cuò kàn liǎo wǒ de běn yì。 yīn wéi tā men rèn wéi， wǒ de zhù yào yuàn wàng shì zhàn dào shí qiáng de lìng yī biān。 kàn dào tā men zài wǒ chén sī shí rú hé qín fèn dì suǒ mén， wǒ zhǐ hǎo fù zhī yī xiào。 wǒ de sī xù bù bì kāi mén， bù bì shè zhàng， yòu gēn tā men chū qù liǎo， ér zhè cái shì zhēn zhèng de wēi xiǎn。 yīn wéi tā men yǐ wú fǎ lǐ jiě wǒ， tā men biàn jué dìng chéng fá wǒ de ròu tǐ； jiù xiàng yī qún wán tóng， dāng tā men wú fǎ jiē jìn tā men suǒ tòng hèn de rén shí， biàn nüè dài tā de gǒu。 wǒ gǎn dào zhōu zhèng fǔ zhì néng dī xià， tā jiù xiàng ná zhe yín tānɡ chí de gū dú nǚ rén yī yàng dǎn xiǎo。 tā dí yǒu bù fēn。 wǒ duì tā shèng xià de yī diǎn zūn jìng yǐ jīng dàng rán wú cún， wǒ zhēn wéi tā yí hàn。
　　
　　 yóu cǐ kàn lái， zhōu zhèng fǔ cóng wèi yòu yì shí dì zhèng shì guò yī gè rén de xīn líng， wú lùn shì cóng lǐ zhì hái shì dào yì de jiǎo dù。 tā zhǐ kàn dào yī gè rén de ròu tǐ hé gǎn guān。 tā bìng bù jù bèi gāo jí zhì néng， yě bù jiàn dé chéng shí， zhǐ shì zài wù zhì shàng qiáng dà bà liǎo。 wǒ bù shì shēng lái jiù shòu qiáng zhì de rén。 wǒ yào 'àn zì jǐ de fāng shì hū xī kōng qì。 ràng wǒ men kàn kàn shuí zuì qiáng dà。 mín zhòng yòu shénme lì liàng？ tā men zhǐ néng qiǎngpò wǒ， ér wǒ yào fú cóng bǐ wǒ gèng gāo de fǎ guī。 tā men qiǎngpò wǒ chéng wéi xiàng tā men yī yàng de rén。 wǒ méi tīng shuō yòu rén yīngdāng fú cóng duō shù rén de qiǎngpò 'ér yǐ zhè zhǒng huò nà zhǒng fāng shì shēng huó。 nà yàng suàn shì shénme yàng de shēng huó？ dāng zhèng fǔ mìng lìng wǒ shuō“ jiāo qián hái shì jiāo mìng” shí， wǒ wèishénme yào cōng máng dì bǎ wǒ de qián gěi tā？ tā kě néng kùn nán chóngchóng， bù zhī rú hé shì hǎo； rán 'ér wǒ zěn me kě néng bāng zhù tā？ tā bì xū xiàng wǒ zhè yàng zì jǐ bāng zhù zì jǐ。 wèicǐ kū bí zǐ bù zhí dé。 shè huì zhè bù jī qì shì fǒu chéng gōng yùn zhuǎn wǒ bù fù zé rèn， wǒ bù shì gōng chéng shī de 'ér zǐ。 wǒ fā xiàn， dāng yī lì xiàng zǐ hé yī lì lì zǐ bìng pái luò dì hòu， méi yòu nǎ gè tíng xià lái qiān ràng lìng yī gè。 liǎng zhě dū 'àn tā men zì jǐ de guī lǜ， jìn zuì dà de néng lì qù fā yá、 shēngzhǎng、 biàn dé mào shèng。 kě néng zhí zhì yī gè chāo yuè bìng huǐ miè lìng yī gè。 yī zhū zhí wù rú bù néng 'àn zì jǐ běn xìng shēngzhǎng zé sǐ wáng； yī gè rén yě tóng yàng rú cǐ。
　　
　　 wǒ bù xiǎng yǔ rèn hé rén huò guó jiā zhēng chǎo。 wǒ bù xiǎng wú gù tiǎo tī， zhǎo chū xì wēi chā bié， yě bù xiǎng biāo bǎng zì jǐ gāo lín jū yī děng。 kě yǐ shuō， wǒ shèn zhì shì yào xún zhǎo yī gè jiè kǒu lái zūn shǒu guó jiā fǎ lìng。 zūn shǒu guó jiā fǎ lìng wǒ shì zài gāo xīng bù guò liǎo。 dàn zài zhè yī wèn tí shàng， wǒ què shí yòu lǐ yóu huái yí zì jǐ。 měi nián dāng shōu shuì guān dào lái shí， wǒ zǒng yào shěn chá yī xià guó jiā hé zhōu zhèng fǔ de fǎ lìng hé tài dù， yǐ jí rén mín de qíng xù， yǐ biàn zhǎo dào yī gè zūn shǒu de qián tí。 wǒ xiāng xìn zhōu zhèng fǔ hěn kuài jiù huì shǐ wǒ fàng qì suǒ yòu zhè xiē zuò fǎ， rán hòu， wǒ jiāng biàn chéng yī gè hé wǒ de tóng bāo xiāng sì de 'ài guó zhě。 cóng fàng dī liǎo de jiǎo dù kàn， xiàn fǎ suī rán yòu xǔ duō quē xiàn， tā réng bù shī wéi yī bù hěn hǎo de xiàn fǎ。 fǎ lǜ hé fǎ tíng lìng rén zūn jìng。 shèn zhì běn zhōu zhèng fǔ hé měi guó zhèng fǔ zài xǔ duō fāng miàn yě shì xiāng dāng lìng rén qīn pèi 'ér yòu hǎn jiàn de jī gòu， lìng rén gǎn 'ēn bù jìn， xǔ duō rén duì cǐ yǐ zuò chū miáo shù。 dàn shì cóng lüè gāo yī diǎn de jiǎo dù kàn， tā men zhèng rú wǒ yǐ miáo shù guò de nà yàng。 yào shì huàn chéng zuì gāo de jiǎo dù， yòu shuí shuō dé chū tā men shì shénme， huò tā men hái zhēn zhí dé yī kàn huò yī xiǎng？
　　
　　 rán 'ér zhèng fǔ yǔ wǒ méi yòu duō dà guān xì， wǒ jiāng jìn liàng bù qù xiǎng tā。 shèn zhì zài zhè gè shì jiè lǐ， wǒ zài zhèng fǔ tǒng zhì xià shēng huó de shí kè bù duō。 yào shì yī gè rén sī kǎo zì yóu， huàn xiǎng zì yóu， xiǎng xiàng zì yóu， bù cún zài de shì wù cóng bù huì hěn jiǔ dì bèi tā kàn zuò shì cún zài zhī wù， nà me， bù míng zhì de tǒng zhì zhě hé gǎi gé jiā de zǔ 'ài duì tā yě qǐ bù liǎo duō dà zuò yòng。
　　
　　
　　
　　 wǒ zhī dào dà duō shù rén yǔ wǒ xiǎng de bù yī yàng。 dàn shì nà xiē zhuān mén yǐ yán jiū zhè yī lèi wèn tí wéi zhí yè de rén yě hěn shǎo lìng wǒ mǎn yì。 yóu yú zhèng zhì jiā hé lì fǎ zhě men wán quán chǔyú zhè yī jī gòu zhī nèi， tā men jué bù kě néng qīng chǔ 'ér kè guān dì guān chá tā。 tā men cháng shuō yào tuī jìn shè huì， dàn tā men shè cǐ jiù méi yòu lì zú zhī chù。 tā men kě néng yòu yī dìng de jīng yàn hé jiàn shí， háo wú yí wèn， yě kě néng xiǎng chū liǎo yī xiē yòu dú chuàng xìng de shèn zhì shì yòu yòng de zhì dù， duì cǐ wǒ men chéng zhì dì gǎn xiè tā men。 dàn tā men suǒ yòu de zhì huì hé xiào yòng dōuhěn yòu xiàn。 tā men jīng cháng huì wàng jì zhè shì jiè bìng bù shì yóu zhèng cè hé quán yí zhī jì suǒ tǒng zhì。 dān ní 'ěr · wéi bó sī tè cóng wèi diào chá guò zhèng fǔ， yīn cǐ， tā yě wú quán tán lùn tā。 duì nà xiē bù kǎo lǜ chè dǐ gǎi gé xiàn xíng zhèng fǔ de yì yuán men lái shuō， tā de huà jiù shì zhì huì。 ér zài sī xiǎng jiā， nà xiē yī zhí zài cānyù lì fǎ de sī xiǎng jiā yǎn lǐ， tā cóng wèi zhèng shì guò zhè yī wèn tí。 jù wǒ liǎo jiě， yòu xiē rén tōng guò duì zhè yī wèn tí de níng jìng hé míng zhì de sī kǎo， bù jiǔ jiāng huì jiē shì， wéi bó sī tè de sī kǎo fàn wéi hé tǎn dàng xiōng huái dōushì yòu xiàn de。
　　
　　 dàn shì yǔ dà duō shù gǎi gé zhě de píng yōng zhí yè xiāng bǐ， yǔ nà xiē gèng wéi píng yōng 'ér pǔ tōng de zhèng kè de zhì huì yǔ kǒu cái xiāng bǐ， wéi bó sī tè de huà jīhū shì wéi yī yòu lǐ zhì， yòu jià zhí de huà。 wǒ men wèiyòu tā 'ér gǎn xiè shàng dì。 xiāng bǐ 'ér yán， tā zǒng shì jiān qiáng yòu lì， yòu dú chuàng xìng， yóu qí shì jiǎng jiū shí jì de。 rán 'ér tā de běn zhì bù shì zhì huì， ér shì jǐn shèn。 lǜ shī de zhēn lǐ bù shì zhēn lǐ， zhǐ bù guò shì xié diào， huò xié diào de quán yí zhī jì。 zhēn lǐ de zì shēn yǒng yuǎn shì hé xié de， tā bù shì yòng lái jiē shì nà xiē kě néng yǔ cuò wù xíng wéixiàng yī zhì de zhèng yì。 wéi bó sī tè bèi chēng wéi“ xiàn fǎ de hàn wèi zhě” wán quán dāng zhī wú kuì。 tā duì xiàn fǎ zhǐ yòu hàn wèi， ér cóng wèi zhēn zhèng gōng jī guò。 tā bù shì lǐng xiù， ér shì suí cóng。 tā de lǐng xiù shì１７ ８７ nián qǐ cǎo xiàn fǎ de rén。“ wǒ cóng wèi zuò chū nǔ lì，” tā shuō，“ cóng wèi jiàn yì zuò chū nǔ lì， cóng wèi zhī chí guò nǔ lì， yě cóng wèi dǎ suàn zhī chí nà xiē qǐ tú dǎ rǎo yuán dìng 'ān pái de nǔ lì。 zhèng shì yóu yú xiàn fǎ de 'ān pái， gè zhōu zǔ chéng liǎo mù qián zhè gè lián bāng。” zài kǎo lǜ xiàn fǎ duì nú lì zhì de mò rèn wèn tí shí， tā shèn zhì shuō，“ jì rán zhè shì zǎo xiān qì yuē de yī bù fēn， héng héng nà jiù ràng tā cún zài xià qù。” jìn guǎn tā jīng míng guò rén， cái néng chāo qún， hái shì wú fǎ jiāng yī jiàn shì cóng tā de chún zhèng zhì guān xì zhōng fēn lí chū lái， bǎ tā kàn zuò shì jué duì yào yòng cái zhì lái chù lǐ de shì， héng héng bǐ rú： zài dāng jīn měi guó， jiù nú lì zhì zhè yī wèn tí， yī gè rén dào dǐ yīnggāi gān xiē shénme。 kě shì wéi bó sī tè zhǐ néng huò shì bèi pò jué wàng dì zuò chū xià liè huí dá， tóng shí hái shēng míng tā shì zuò wéi yī gè sī xià de péng yǒu yǐ bǎ huà shuō jué liǎo， héng héng tā zhè me shuō huà， hái néng yòu shénme xīn de hé gè rén de shè huì zé rèn de zhǔn zé kě tán？“ fāng fǎ，” tā shuō，“ yǐ jí nà xiē xù nú zhōu de zhèng fǔ yīnggāi 'àn shénme xíng shì lái diào zhěng zhè yī zhì dù， bì xū yóu tā men zì jǐ kǎo lǜ， tā men bì xū duì tā men de xuǎn mín， duì yòu guān shì dù、 rén xìng hé zhèng yì de pǔ biàn cháng guī jí shàng dì běn shēn fù zé。 zài qí tā dì fāng xíng chéng， cóng mǒu zhǒng rén lèi gǎn qíng zhōng chǎn shēng， huò yóu qí tā yuán yīn zǔ chéng de shè tuán dū yǔ cǐ háo bù xiāng gān。 tā men cóng wèi dé dào guò wǒ de gǔ lì， jiāng lái yě yǒng yuǎn bù huì dé dào。”
　　
　　 nà xiē bù zhī zhēn lǐ yòu gèng chún jié de yuán quán de rén， nà xiē bù zài yán zhēn lǐ de xiǎo xī wǎng gāo chù zhuī xún de rén， tā men hěn cōng míng dì shǒu zài shèng jīng hé xiàn fǎ bàng biān， bì gōng bì jìng dì jū shuǐ jiě kě。 ér nà xiē kàn dào shuǐ shì cóng nǎ 'ér huì rù zhè xiē húpō de rén men què zài cì zhěng zhuāng chū fā， jì xù tā men tàn xún zhēn lǐ yuán tóu de lì chéng。
　　
　　 zài měi guó méi yòu chū xiàn guò lì fǎ tiān cái。 zhè zhǒng rén zài shì jiè shǐ shàng yì shǔ hǎn jiàn。 yǎn shuō jiā、 zhèng zhì jiā hé xióng biàn zhě chéng qiān shàng wàn， dàn shì yòu néng lì jiě jué dāng qián jí shǒu wèn tí de fā yán rén què shàng wèi kāi kǒu shuō huà。 wǒ men xǐ huān xióng biàn zhǐ shì yīn wéi tā shì yī mén jì shù， ér bù tài kǎo lǜ tā kě néng biǎo dá de zhēn lǐ huò jī qǐ mǒu zhǒng yīng xióng zhù yì。 wǒ men de lì fǎ zhě men shàng wèi dǒng dé zì yóu mào yì hé zì yóu、 lián méng、 gōng zhèng duì yī gè guó jiā suǒ jù yòu de xiāng duì jià zhí。 tā men méi yòu tiān zī huò cái néng jiě jué zhū rú shuì shōu、 jīn róng、 shāng yè、 shēng chǎn hé nóng yè děng shì sú zhèng wù。 yào shì wǒ men wán quán tīng píng guó huì lǐ fèi huà lián piān de lì fǎ zhě men de zhǐ dǎo， ér tā men de zhǐ dǎo yòu dé bù dào rén mín jí shí yǔ hé lǐ de jiū zhèng， yào bù liǎo duō jiǔ， měi guó zài shì jiè shàng de dì wèi biàn huì sàng shī。《 xīn yuē quán shū》 wèn shì yǐ yòu yī qiān bā bǎi nián， suī rán wǒ kě néng méi yòu zī gé shuō xià miàn de huà， dàn shì jù yòu zú gòu zhì huì hé shí jì néng lì yǐ《 xīn yuē》 jīng shén lái zhǐ dǎo lì fǎ kē xué de rén yòu zài nǎ lǐ？
　　
　　 zhèng fǔ de quán wēi， shèn zhì shì wǒ yuàn shùn cóng de quán wēi， héng héng yīn wéi wǒ lè yú fú cóng nà xiē dǒng dé bǐ wǒ duō、 gānde bǐ wǒ hǎo de rén， shèn zhì zài xǔ duō shì qíng shàng fú cóng nà xiē dǒng dé hé gānde dōubù rú wǒ de rén， héng héng réng rán shì bù gòu chún jié de。 yán gé shuō lái， tā bì xū dé dào bèi tǒng zhì zhě de chéng rèn hé tóng yì。 zhǐ yào wǒ méi ràng bù， tā duì wǒ gè rén hé cái chǎn jiù méi yòu chún cuì de quán lì。 cóng jué duì jūn zhù zhì dào yòu xiàn jūn zhù zhì， zài cóng yòu xiàn jūn zhù zhì dào mín zhù zhì de jìn chéng jiù shì tōng xiàng zhēn zhèng zūn zhòng gè rén de jìn chéng。 wǒ men suǒ zhī dào de mín zhù zhì shì fǒu jiù shì zhèng fǔ kě néng zuò de zuì hòu gǎi jìn？ nán dào jiù bù néng zài mài jìn yī bù， chéng rèn bìng zǔ zhì rén quán？ zhōu zhèng fǔ bì xū jiāng gè rén zuò wéi yī zhǒng gèng gāo hé dú lì de lì liàng 'ér jiā yǐ chéng rèn， bìng yú yǐ xiāng yìng duì dài， yīn wéi zhèng fǔ suǒ yòu de quán lì hé quán wēi dōulái zì yú zhè yī lì liàng。 zài cǐ zhī qián， jué bù huì yòu zhēn zhèng zì yóu hé wén míng de zhōu。 wǒ zì míng dé yì de shì， wǒ zuì hòu hái shì shè xiǎng liǎo yī gè zhōu， zhè gè zhōu néng gōng zhèng duì dài suǒ yòu de rén， bīn bīn yòu lǐ dì jiāng gè rén shì wéi lín jū。 jí biàn yòu xiē rén lí qún suǒ jū， zhǐ yào tā men bù dǎo luàn， yě bù tīng mìng yú rén， ér shì wán chéng zuò wéi lín jū hé tóng bāo de suǒ yòu yì wù， zhōu zhèng fǔ réng néng chǔzhī tài rán， rèn qí zì yóu。 yī gè zhōu rú néng jié chū zhè zhǒng guǒ shí， bìng rěn nài dào guā shú dì luò de shí kè， nà jiāng wéi wǒ suǒ shè xiǎng de， lìng yī gè gèng wán shàn、 gèng zhuàng lì de zhōu pū píng dào lù， jìn guǎn zhè gè zhōu zhì jīn rèn hé dì fāng dū hái kàn bù dào。
　　
　　
　　 zhāi zì《 měi guó de lì shǐ wén xiàn》 zhào yī fán biān
　　
　　 sān lián shū diàn１９８９ nián bǎn

　　I heartily accept the motto, -- "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, -- "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.
　　
　　This American government -- what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions, and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
　　
　　But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.
　　
　　After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? -- in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power? Visit the Navy Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts -- a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments, though it may be
　　
　　"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
　　
　　As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
　　
　　Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
　　
　　O'er the grave where our hero we buried."
　　
　　The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be "clay," and "stop a hole to keep the wind away," but leave that office to his dust at least:--
　　
　　"I am too high-born to be propertied,
　　
　　To be a secondary at control,
　　
　　Or useful serving-man and instrument
　　
　　To any sovereign state throughout the world."
　　
　　He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.
　　
　　How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also.
　　
　　All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me that this was a bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without them. All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.
　　
　　Paley, a common authority with many on moral questions, in his chapter on the "Duty of Submission to Civil Government," resolves all civil obligation into expediency; and he proceeds to say that "so long as the interest of the whole society requires it, that is, so long as the established government cannot be resisted or changed without public inconveniency, it is the will of God... that the established government be obeyed, and no longer.... This principle being admitted, the justice of every particular case of resistance is reduced to a computation of the quantity of the danger and grievance on the one side, and of the probability and expense of redressing it on the other." Of this, he says, every man shall judge for himself. But Paley appears never to have contemplated those cases to which the rule of expediency does not apply, in which a people, as well as an individual, must do justice, cost what it may. If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself. This, according to Paley, would be inconvenient. But he that would save his life, in such a case, shall lose it. This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people.
　　
　　In their practice, nations agree with Paley; but does any one think that Massachusetts does exactly what is right at the present crisis?
　　
　　"A drab of state, a cloth-o'-silver slut, To have her train borne up, and her soul trail in the dirt."
　　
　　Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may. I quarrel not with far-off foes, but with those who, near at home, co-operate with, and do the bidding of those far away, and without whom the latter would be harmless. We are accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the few are not materially wiser or better than the many. It is not so important that many should be as good as you, as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump. There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to the question of free-trade, and quietly read the prices-current along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may be, fall asleep over them both. What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot to-day? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and Godspeed, to the right, as it goes by them. There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man; but it is easier to deal with the real possessor of a thing than with the temporary guardian of it.
　　
　　All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.
　　
　　I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore, or elsewhere, for the selection of a candidate for the Presidency, made up chiefly of editors, and men who are politicians by profession; but I think, what is it to any independent, intelligent, and respectable man what decision they may come to? Shall we not have the advantage of his wisdom and honesty, nevertheless? Can we not count upon some independent votes? Are there not many individuals in the country who do not attend conventions? But no: I find that the respectable man, so called, has immediately drifted from his position, and despairs of his country, when his country has more reason to despair of him. He forthwith adopts one of the candidates thus selected as the only available one, thus proving that he is himself available for any purposes of the demagogue. His vote is of no more worth than that of any unprincipled foreigner or hireling native, who may have been bought. Oh for a man who is a man, and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your hand through! Our statistics are at fault: the population has been returned too large. How many men are there to a square thousand miles in this country? Hardly one. Does not America offer any inducement for men to settle here? The American has dwindled into an Odd Fellow -- one who may be known by the development of his organ of gregariousness, and a manifest lack of intellect and cheerful self-reliance; whose first and chief concern, on coming into the world, is to see that the almshouses are in good repair; and, before yet he has lawfully donned the virile garb, to collect a fund for the support of the widows and orphans that may be; who, in short ventures to live only by the aid of the Mutual Insurance company, which has promised to bury him decently.
　　
　　It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support. If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too. See what gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen say, "I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico; -- see if I would go"; and yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute. The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards and sets at naught; as if the state were penitent to that degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but not to that degree that it left off sinning for a moment. Thus, under the name of Order and Civil Government, we are all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness. After the first blush of sin comes its indifference; and from immoral it becomes, as it were, unmoral, and not quite unnecessary to that life which we have made.
　　
　　The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it. The slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble are most likely to incur. Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform. Some are petitioning the State to dissolve the Union, to disregard the requisitions of the President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves -- the union between themselves and the State -- and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury? Do not they stand in the same relation to the State, that the State does to the Union? And have not the same reasons prevented the State from resisting the Union, which have prevented them from resisting the State?
　　
　　How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again. Action from principle -- the perception and the performance of right -- changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divides states and churches, it divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine.
　　
　　Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?
　　
　　One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial of its authority was the only offence never contemplated by government; else, why has it not assigned its definite, its suitable and proportionate, penalty? If a man who has no property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law that I know, and determined only by the discretion of those who placed him there; but if he should steal ninety times nine shillings from the State, he is soon permitted to go at large again.
　　
　　If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth -- certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.
　　
　　As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man's life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong. It is not my business to be petitioning the Governor or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then? But in this case the State has provided no way; its very Constitution is the evil. This may seem to be harsh and stubborn and unconciliatory; but it is to treat with the utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit that can appreciate or deserves it. So is an change for the better, like birth and death which convulse the body.
　　
　　I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait till they constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they have God on their side, without waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.
　　
　　I meet this American government, or its representative, the State government, directly, and face to face, once a year -- no more -- in the person of its tax-gatherer; this is the only mode in which a man situated as I am necessarily meets it; and it then says distinctly, Recognize me; and the simplest, the most effectual, and, in the present posture of affairs, the indispensablest mode of treating with it on this head, of expressing your little satisfaction with and love for it, is to deny it then. My civil neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the very man I have to deal with -- for it is, after all, with men and not with parchment that I quarrel -- and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government. How shall he ever know well what he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until he is obliged to consider whether he shall treat me, his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his neighborliness without a ruder and more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action? I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name -- if ten honest men only -- ay, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever. But we love better to talk about it: that we say is our mission. Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its service, but not one man. If my esteemed neighbor, the State's ambassador, who will devote his days to the settlement of the question of human rights in the Council Chamber, instead of being threatened with the prisons of Carolina, were to sit down the prisoner of Massachusetts, that State which is so anxious to foist the sin of slavery upon her sister -- though at present she can discover only an act of inhospitality to be the ground of a quarrel with her -- the Legislature would not wholly waive the subject the following winter.
　　
　　Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. The proper place to-day, the only place which Massachusetts has provided for her freer and less desponding spirits, is in her prisons, to be put out and locked out of the State by her own act, as they have already put themselves out by their principles. It is there that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race, should find them; on that separate, but more free and honorable ground, where the State places those who are not with her, but against her -- the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor. If any think that their influence would be lost there, and their voices no longer afflict the ear of the State, that they would not be as an enemy within its walls, they do not know by how much truth is stronger than error, nor how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced a little in his own person. Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible. If the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But what shall I do?" my answer is, "If you really wish to do anything, resign your office." When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished. But even suppose blood should flow. Is there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man's real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now.
　　
　　I have contemplated the imprisonment of the offender, rather than the seizure of his goods -- though both will serve the same purpose -- because they who assert the purest right, and consequently are most dangerous to a corrupt State, commonly have not spent much time in accumulating property. To such the State renders comparatively small service, and a slight tax is wont to appear exorbitant, particularly if they are obliged to earn it by special labor with their hands. If there were one who lived wholly without the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But the rich man -- not to make any invidious comparison -- is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains them for him; and it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it. It puts to rest many questions which he would otherwise be taxed to answer; while the only new question which it puts is the hard but superfluous one, how to spend it. Thus his moral ground is taken from under his feet. The opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as what are called the "means" are increased. The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor. Christ answered the Herodians according to their condition. "Show me the tribute-money," said he; -- and one took a penny out of his pocket; -- if you use money which has the image of Caesar on it, and which he has made current and valuable, that is, if you are men of the State, and gladly enjoy the advantages of Caesar's government, then pay him back some of his own when he demands it; "Render therefore to Caesar that which is Caesar's, and to God those things which are God's" -- leaving them no wiser than before as to which was which; for they did not wish to know.
　　
　　When I converse with the freest of my neighbors, I perceive that, whatever they may say about the magnitude and seriousness of the question, and their regard for the public tranquillity, the long and the short of the matter is, that they cannot spare the protection of the existing government, and they dread the consequences to their property and families of disobedience to it. For my own part, I should not like to think that I ever rely on the protection of the State. But, if I deny the authority of the State when it presents its tax-bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard. This makes it impossible for a man to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably in outward respects. It will not be worth the while to accumulate property; that would be sure to go again. You must hire or squat somewhere, and raise but a small crop, and eat that soon. You must live within yourself, and depend upon yourself always tucked up and ready for a start, and not have many affairs. A man may grow rich in Turkey even, if he will be in all respects a good subject of the Turkish government. Confucius said, "If a state is governed by the principles of reason, poverty and misery are subjects of shame; if a state is not governed by the principles of reason, riches and honors are the subjects of shame." No: until I want the protection of Massachusetts to be extended to me in some distant Southern port, where my liberty is endangered, or until I am bent solely on building up an estate at home by peaceful enterprise, I can afford to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts, and her right to my property and life. It costs me less in every sense to incur the penalty of disobedience to the State than it would to obey. I should feel as if I were worth less in that case.
　　
　　Some years ago, the State met me in behalf of the Church, and commanded me to pay a certain sum toward the support of a clergyman whose preaching my father attended, but never I myself. "Pay," it said, "or be locked up in the jail." I declined to pay. But, unfortunately, another man saw fit to pay it. I did not see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster: for I was not the State's schoolmaster, but I supported myself by voluntary subscription. I did not see why the lyceum should not present its tax-bill, and have the State to back its demand, as well as the Church. However, at the request of the selectmen, I condescended to make some such statement as this in writing:-- "Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau, do not wish to be regarded as a member of any incorporated society which I have not joined." This I gave to the town clerk; and he has it. The State, having thus learned that I did not wish to be regarded as a member of that church, has never made a like demand on me since; though it said that it must adhere to its original presumption that time. If I had known how to name them, I should then have signed off in detail from all the societies which I never signed on to; but I did not know where to find a complete list.
　　
　　I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. I wondered that it should have concluded at length that this was the best use it could put me to, and had never thought to avail itself of my services in some way. I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through, before they could get to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar. I felt as if I alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax. They plainly did not know how to treat me, but behaved like persons who are underbred. In every threat and in every compliment there was a blunder; for they thought that my chief desire was to stand the other side of that stone wall. I could not but smile to see how industriously they locked the door on my meditations, which followed them out again without let or hindrance, and they were really all that was dangerous. As they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body; just as boys, if they cannot come at some person against whom they have a spite, will abuse his dog. I saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it did not know its friends from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it, and pitied it.
　　
　　Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They only can force me who obey a higher law than I. They force me to become like themselves. I do not hear of men being forced to have this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were that to live? When I meet a government which says to me, "Your money or your life," why should I be in haste to give it my money? It may be in a great strait, and not know what to do: I cannot help that. It must help itself; do as I do. It is not worth the while to snivel about it. I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society. I am not the son of the engineer. I perceive that, when an acorn and a chestnut fall side by side, the one does not remain inert to make way for the other, but both obey their own laws, and spring and grow and flourish as best they can, till one, perchance, overshadows and destroys the other. If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.
　　
　　The night in prison was novel and interesting enough. The prisoners in their shirt-sleeves were enjoying a chat and the evening air in the doorway, when I entered. But the jailer said, "Come, boys, it is time to lock up"; and so they dispersed, and I heard the sound of their steps returning into the hollow apartments. My room-mate was introduced to me by the jailer as "a first-rate fellow and a clever man." When the door was locked, he showed me where to hang my hat, and how he managed matters there. The rooms were whitewashed once a month; and this one, at least, was the whitest, most simply furnished, and probably the neatest apartment in the town. He naturally wanted to know where I came from, and what brought me there; and, when I had told him, I asked him in my turn how he came there, presuming him to be an honest man, of course; and, as the world goes, I believe he was. "Why," said he, "they accuse me of burning a barn; but I never did it." As near as I could discover, he had probably gone to bed in a barn when drunk, and smoked his pipe there; and so a barn was burnt. He had the reputation of being a clever man, had been there some three months waiting for his trial to come on, and would have to wait as much longer; but he was quite domesticated and contented, since he got his board for nothing, and thought that he was well treated.
　　
　　He occupied one window, and I the other; and I saw that if one stayed there long, his principal business would be to look out the window. I had soon read all the tracts that were left there, and examined where former prisoners had broken out, and where a grate had been sawed off, and heard the history of the various occupants of that room; for I found that even here there was a history and a gossip which never circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where verses are composed, which are afterward printed in a circular form, but not published. I was shown quite a long list of verses which were composed by some young men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged themselves by singing them.
　　
　　I pumped my fellow-prisoner as dry as I could, for fear I should never see him again; but at length he showed me which was my bed, and left me to blow out the lamp.
　　
　　It was like travelling into a far country, such as I had never expected to behold, to lie there for one night. It seemed to me that I never had heard the town-clock strike before, nor the evening sounds of the village; for we slept with the windows open, which were inside the grating. It was to see my native village in the light of the Middle Ages, and our Concord was turned into a Rhine stream, and visions of knights and castles passed before me. They were the voices of old burghers that I heard in the streets. I was an involuntary spectator and auditor of whatever was done and said in the kitchen of the adjacent village-inn -- a wholly new and rare experience to me. It was a closer view of my native town. I was fairly inside of it. I never had seen its institutions before. This is one of its peculiar institutions; for it is a shire town. I began to comprehend what its inhabitants were about.
　　
　　In the morning, our breakfasts were put through the hole in the door, in small oblong-square tin pans, made to fit, and holding a pint of chocolate, with brown bread, and an iron spoon. When they called for the vessels again, I was green enough to return what bread I had left; but my comrade seized it, and said that I should lay that up for lunch or dinner. Soon after he was let out to work at haying in a neighboring field, whither he went every day, and would not be back till noon; so he bade me good-day, saying that he doubted if he should see me again.
　　
　　When I came out of prison -- for some one interfered, and paid that tax -- I did not perceive that great changes had taken place on the common, such as he observed who went in a youth and emerged a tottering and gray-headed man; and yet a change had to my eyes come over the scene -- the town, and State, and country -- greater than any that mere time could effect. I saw yet more distinctly the State in which I lived. I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions, as the Chinamen and Malays are; that in their sacrifices to humanity, they ran no risks, not even to their property; that after all they were not so noble but they treated the thief as he had treated them, and hoped, by a certain outward observance and a few prayers, and by walking in a particular straight though useless path from time to time, to save their souls. This may be to judge my neighbors harshly; for I believe that many of them are not aware that they have such an institution as the jail in their village.
　　
　　It was formerly the custom in our village, when a poor debtor came out of jail, for his acquaintances to salute him, looking through their fingers, which were crossed to represent the grating of a jail window, "How do ye do?" My neighbors did not thus salute me, but first looked at me, and then at one another, as if I had returned from a long journey. I was put into jail as I was going to the shoemaker's to get a shoe which was mended. When I was let out the next morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my mended shoe, joined a huckleberry party, who were impatient to put themselves under my conduct; and in half an hour -- for the horse was soon tackled -- was in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one of our highest hills, two miles off, and then the State was nowhere to be seen.
　　
　　This is the whole history of "My Prisons."
　　
　　I have never declined paying the highway tax, because I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject; and as for supporting schools, I am doing my part to educate my fellow-countrymen now. It is for no particular item in the tax-bill that I refuse to pay it. I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand aloof from it effectually. I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I could, till it buys a man or a musket to shoot one with -- the dollar is innocent -- but I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance. In fact, I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as is usual in such cases.
　　
　　If others pay the tax which is demanded of me, from a sympathy with the State, they do but what they have already done in their own case, or rather they abet injustice to a greater extent than the State requires. If they pay the tax from a mistaken interest in the individual taxed, to save his property, or prevent his going to jail, it is because they have not considered wisely how far they let their private feelings interfere with the public good.
　　
　　This, then, is my position at present. But one cannot be too much on his guard in such a case, lest his action be biased by obstinacy or an undue regard for the opinions of men. Let him see that he does only what belongs to himself and to the hour.
　　
　　I think sometimes, Why, this people mean well; they are only ignorant; they would do better if they knew how: why give your neighbors this pain to treat you as they are not inclined to? But I think, again, This is no reason why I should do as they do, or permit others to suffer much greater pain of a different kind. Again, I sometimes say to myself, When many millions of men, without heat, without ill-will, without personal feeling of any kind, demand of you a few shillings only, without the possibility, such is their constitution, of retracting or altering their present demand, and without the possibility, on your side, of appeal to any other millions, why expose yourself to this overwhelming brute force? You do not resist cold and hunger, the winds and the waves, thus obstinately; you quietly submit to a thousand similar necessities. You do not put your head into the fire. But just in proportion as I regard this as not wholly a brute force, but partly a human force, and consider that I have relations to those millions as to so many millions of men, and not of mere brute or inanimate things, I see that appeal is possible, first and instantaneously, from them to the Maker of them, and, secondly, from them to themselves. But, if I put my head deliberately into the fire, there is no appeal to fire or to the Maker of fire, and I have only myself to blame. If I could convince myself that I have any right to be satisfied with men as they are, and to treat them accordingly, and not according, in some respects, to my requisitions and expectations of what they and I ought to be, then, like a good Mussulman and fatalist, I should endeavor to be satisfied with things as they are, and say it is the will of God. And, above all, there is this difference between resisting this and a purely brute or natural force, that I can resist this with some effect; but I cannot expect, like Orpheus, to change the nature of the rocks and trees and beasts.
　　
　　I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather, I may say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land. I am but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I have reason to suspect myself on this head; and each year, as the tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself disposed to review the acts and position of the general and State governments, and the spirit of the people, to discover a pretext for conformity.
　　
　　"We must affect our country as our parents,
　　
　　And if at any time we alienate
　　
　　Our love or industry from doing it honor,
　　
　　We must respect effects and teach the soul
　　
　　Matter of conscience and religion,
　　
　　And not desire of rule or benefit."
　　
　　I believe that the State will soon be able to take all my work of this sort out of my hands, and then I shall be no better a patriot than my fellow-countrymen. Seen from a lower point of view, the Constitution, with all its faults, is very good; the law and the courts are very respectable; even this State and this American government are, in many respects, very admirable and rare things, to be thankful for, such as a great many have described them; but seen from a point of view a little higher, they are what I have described them; seen from a higher still, and the highest, who shall say what they are, or that they are worth looking at or thinking of at all?
　　
　　However, the government does not concern me much, and I shall bestow the fewest possible thoughts on it. It is not many moments that I live under a government, even in this world. If a man is thought-free, fancy-free, imagination-free, that which is not never for a long time appearing to be to him, unwise rulers or reformers cannot fatally interrupt him.
　　
　　I know that most men think differently from myself; but those whose lives are by profession devoted to the study of these or kindred subjects, content me as little as any. Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold it. They speak of moving society, but have no resting-place without it. They may be men of a certain experience and discrimination, and have no doubt invented ingenious and even useful systems, for which we sincerely thank them; but all their wit and usefulness lie within certain not very wide limits. They are wont to forget that the world is not governed by policy and expediency. Webster never goes behind government, and so cannot speak with authority about it. His words are wisdom to those legislators who contemplate no essential reform in the existing government; but for thinkers, and those who legislate for all time, he never once glances at the subject. I know of those whose serene and wise speculations on this theme would soon reveal the limits of his mind's range and hospitality. Yet, compared with the cheap professions of most reformers, and the still cheaper wisdom and eloquence of politicians in general, his are almost the only sensible and valuable words, and we thank Heaven for him. Comparatively, he is always strong, original, and, above all, practical. Still, his quality is not wisdom, but prudence. The lawyer's truth is not truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency. Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing. He well deserves to be called, as he has been called, the Defender of the Constitution. There are really no blows to be given by him but defensive ones. He is not a leader, but a follower. His leaders are the men of '87. "I have never made an effort," he says, "and never propose to make an effort; I have never countenanced an effort, and never mean to countenance an effort, to disturb the arrangement as originally made, by which the various States came into the Union." Still thinking of the sanction which the Constitution gives to slavery, he says, "Because it was a part of the original compact -- let it stand." Notwithstanding his special acuteness and ability, he is unable to take a fact out of its merely political relations, and behold it as it lies absolutely to be disposed of by the intellect -- what, for instance, it behooves a man to do here in America to-day with regard to slavery, but ventures, or is driven, to make some such desperate answer as the following, while professing to speak absolutely, and as a private man -- from which what new and singular code of social duties might be inferred? "The manner," says he, "in which the governments of those States where slavery exists are to regulate it is for their own consideration, under their responsibility to their constituents, to the general laws of propriety, humanity, and justice, and to God. Associations formed elsewhere, springing from a feeling of humanity, or any other cause, have nothing whatever to do with it. They have never received any encouragement from me, and they never will."
　　
　　They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humility; but they who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its fountain-head.
　　
　　No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There are orators, politicians, and eloquent men, by the thousand; but the speaker has not yet opened his mouth to speak who is capable of settling the much-vexed questions of the day. We love eloquence for its own sake, and not for any truth which it may utter, or any heroism it may inspire. Our legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of free-trade and of freedom, of union, and of rectitude, to a nation. They have no genius or talent for comparatively humble questions of taxation and finance, commerce and manufacturers and agriculture. If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonable experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations. For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written; yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation?
　　
　　The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to -- for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I, and in many things even those who neither know nor can do so well -- is still an impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it. The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual. Even the Chinese philosopher was wise enough to regard the individual as the basis of the empire. Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. I please myself with imagining a State at least which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow-men. A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen.