The Collected Works of Henry David Thoreau E-Book

Henry David Thoreau

• Herausgeber: PergamonMedia
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: Highlights of World Literature
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 3887

Beschreibung

This comprehensive eBook presents the complete works or all the significant works - the Œuvre - of this famous and brilliant writer in one ebook - easy-to-read and easy-to-navigate: • Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience • On the Duty of Civil Disobedience • Walking • The Oxford Book of American Essays • Walden • Cape Cod • The Maine Woods • Canoeing in the wilderness • A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers • Excursions • Wild Apples • A Plea for Captain John Brown • Excursions and Poems • The Writings of, Volume VI, Familiar Letters • A YANKEE IN CANADA • CONCORD TO MONTREAL • QUEBEC AND MONTMORENCI • ST. ANNE • THE WALLS OF QUEBEC • THE SCENERY OF QUEBEC; AND THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE • NATURAL HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS • A WALK TO WACHUSETT • THE LANDLORD • A WINTER WALK • THE SUCCESSION OF FOREST TREES • WALKING • AUTUMNAL TINTS • WILD APPLES • NIGHT AND MOONLIGHT • POEMS • NATURE • THE AURORA OF GUIDO • TO THE MAIDEN IN THE EAST • TO MY BROTHER • GREECE • THE FUNERAL BELL • THE MOON • THE FALL OF THE LEAF • THE THAW • A WINTER SCENE • TO A STRAY FOWL • POVERTY • PILGRIMS • THE DEPARTURE • INDEPENDENCE • DING DONG • OMNIPRESENCE • INSPIRATION (QUATRAIN) • MISSION • etc.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

WALDEN, and ON THE DUTY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

WALDEN

Economy

Where I Lived, and What I Lived For

Reading

Sounds

Solitude

Visitors

The Bean-Field

The Village

The Ponds

Baker Farm

Higher Laws

Brute Neighbors

House-Warming

Former Inhabitants and Winter Visitors

Winter Animals

The Pond in Winter

Spring

Conclusion

ON THE DUTY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

A PLEA FOR CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN

By Henry David Thoreau

[Read to the citizens of Concord, Mass., Sunday Evening, October 30, 1859.]

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

CAPE COD

Author of "A Week on the Concord," "Walden" "Excursions," "The Maine Woods," etc.

ILLUSTRATED BY

CLIFTON JOHNSON

NEW YORK

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.

PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1908

By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

I

THE SHIPWRECK

II

STAGE COACH VIEWS

III

THE PLAINS OF NAUSET

IV

THE BEACH

V

THE WELLFLEET OYSTERMAN

VI

THE BEACH AGAIN

VII

ACROSS THE CAPE

VIII

THE HIGHLAND LIGHT

IX

THE SEA AND THE DESERT

X

PROVINCETOWN

A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS.

A WEEK

ON THE

CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS

AUTHOR OF "WALDEN," ETC.

CONCORD RIVER.

SATURDAY.

SATURDAY.

SUNDAY.

SUNDAY.

MONDAY.

MONDAY.

ANTIGONE

ISMENE

ANTIGONE

TUESDAY.

TUESDAY.

ANACREON.

ON HIS LYRE.

TO A SWALLOW.

ON A SILVER CUP.

ON HIMSELF.

TO A DOVE

ON LOVE.

ON WOMEN.

ON LOVERS.

TO A SWALLOW.

TO A COLT.

CUPID WOUNDED.

WEDNESDAY

WEDNESDAY.

THE ATLANTIDES.

THE INWARD MORNING

THURSDAY.

THURSDAY.

AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS.

FRIDAY.

FRIDAY.

THE POET'S DELAY.

CANOEING IN THE WILDERNESS

CANOEING IN THE WILDERNESS

CANOEING IN THE WILDERNESS

By HENRY D. THOREAU

EDITED BY CLIFTON JOHNSON

ILLUSTRATED BY WILL HAMMELL

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CANOEING IN THE WILDERNESS

CANOEING IN THE WILDERNESS

I

MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY JULY 20-23, 1857

FOOTNOTES:

II

FRIDAY, JULY 24.

FOOTNOTES:

III

SATURDAY, JULY 25

IV

SUNDAY, JULY 26

V

MONDAY, JULY 27

VI

TUESDAY, JULY 28

FOOTNOTES:

VII

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29

VIII

THURSDAY, JULY 30

IX

FRIDAY, JULY 31

FOOTNOTES:

X

SATURDAY, SUNDAY, MONDAY AUGUST 1-3

FAMILIAR LETTERS

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I YEARS OF DISCIPLINE

II GOLDEN AGE OF ACHIEVEMENT

III FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS

APPENDIX

GENERAL INDEX

Wild Apples.

CONTENTS

THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE.THE WILD APPLE.THE CRAB.HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS.THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR.THEIR BEAUTY.THE NAMING OF THEM.THE LAST GLEANING.THE "FROZEN-THAWED" APPLE.

THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE.

THE WILD APPLE.

THE CRAB.

HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS.

THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR.

THEIR BEAUTY.

THE NAMING OF THEM.

THE LAST GLEANING.

THE "FROZEN-THAWED" APPLE.

WALKING

THE MAINE WOODS

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

KTAADN

CHESUNCOOK

THE ALLEGASH AND EAST BRANCH

APPENDIX

I. TREES

II. FLOWERS AND SHRUBS

III. LIST OF PLANTS

IV. LIST OF BIRDS

V. QUADRUPEDS

VI. OUTFIT FOR AN EXCURSION

VII. A LIST OF INDIAN WORDS

EXCURSIONS.

CONTENTS.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

NATURAL HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS

A WALK TO WACHUSETT

THE LANDLORD

A WINTER WALK

THE SUCCESSION OF FOREST TREES

WALKING

AUTUMNAL TINTS

WILD APPLES

NIGHT AND MOONLIGHT

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

BY R.W. EMERSON.

EXCURSIONS.

RETURN OF SPRING.

A WALK TO WACHUSETT.

THE LANDLORD.

A WINTER WALK.

WALKING.

THE OLD MARLBOROUGH ROAD.

AUTUMNAL TINTS.

THE PURPLE GRASSES.

THE RED MAPLE.

THE ELM.

FALLEN LEAVES.

THE SUGAR-MAPLE.

THE SCARLET OAK.

WILD APPLES.

THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE.

THE WILD APPLE.

THE CRAB.

HOW THE WILD APPLE GROWS.

THE FRUIT, AND ITS FLAVOR.

THEIR BEAUTY.

THE NAMING OF THEM.

THE LAST GLEANING.

THE "FROZEN-THAWED" APPLE.

NIGHT AND MOONLIGHT.

EXCURSIONS AND POEMS

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

EXCURSIONS

A YANKEE IN CANADA

CHAPTER I CONCORD TO MONTREAL

CHAPTER II QUEBEC AND MONTMORENCI

CHAPTER III ST. ANNE

CHAPTER IV THE WALLS OF QUEBEC

CHAPTER V THE SCENERY OF QUEBEC; AND THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE

NATURAL HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS[3]

A WALK TO WACHUSETT

THE LANDLORD

A WINTER WALK

THE SUCCESSION OF FOREST TREES[6]

WALKING

AUTUMNAL TINTS

WILD APPLES

NIGHT AND MOONLIGHT

TRANSLATIONS

THE PROMETHEUS BOUND OF ÆSCHYLUS

TRANSLATIONS FROM PINDAR

POEMS

NATURE

INSPIRATION[8]

THE AURORA OF GUIDO[9]

TO THE MAIDEN IN THE EAST[10]

TO MY BROTHER

GREECE[11]

THE FUNERAL BELL

THE MOON

THE FALL OF THE LEAF[12]

THE THAW

A WINTER SCENE[14]

TO A STRAY FOWL

POVERTY A FRAGMENT

PILGRIMS

THE DEPARTURE

INDEPENDENCE[15]

DING DONG[17]

OMNIPRESENCE

INSPIRATION

MISSION

DELAY

PRAYER

First Edition

WALDEN, and ON THE DUTY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

By Henry David Thoreau

ON THE DUTY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

WALDEN

Economy

When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.

I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained. I will therefore ask those of my readers who feel no particular interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of these questions in this book. In most books, theI, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me. Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students. As for the rest of my readers, they will accept such portions as apply to them. I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits.

I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese and Sandwich Islanders as you who read these pages, who are said to live in New England; something about your condition, especially your outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether it cannot be improved as well as not. I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. What I have heard of Bramins sitting exposed to four fires and looking in the face of the sun; or hanging suspended, with their heads downward, over flames; or looking at the heavens over their shoulders "until it becomes impossible for them to resume their natural position, while from the twist of the neck nothing but liquids can pass into the stomach"; or dwelling, chained for life, at the foot of a tree; or measuring with their bodies, like caterpillars, the breadth of vast empires; or standing on one leg on the tops of pillars—even these forms of conscious penance are hardly more incredible and astonishing than the scenes which I daily witness. The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor. They have no friend Iolaus to burn with a hot iron the root of the hydra's head, but as soon as one head is crushed, two spring up.

I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man's life, pushing all these things before them, and get on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot! The portionless, who struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh.

But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool's life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before. It is said that Deucalion and Pyrrha created men by throwing stones over their heads behind them:—