《瓦尔登湖·第一章·经济篇·Economy》第19节
We don garment after garment, as if we grew like exogenous plants by addition without. Our outside and often thin and fanciful clothes are our epidermis, or false skin, which partakes not of our life, and may be stripped off here and there without fatal injury; our thicker garments, constantly worn, are our cellular integument, or cortex; but our shirts are our liber or true bark, which cannot be removed without girdling and so destroying the man. I believe that all races at some seasons wear something equivalent to the shirt. It is desirable that a man be clad so simply that he can lay his hands on himself in the dark, and that he live in all respects so compactly and preparedly, that, if an enemy take the town, he can, like the old philosopher, walk out the gate empty-handed without anxiety. While one thick garment is, for most purposes, as good as three thin ones, and cheap clothing can be obtained at prices really to suit customers; while a thick coat can be bought for five dollars, which will last as many years, thick pantaloons for two dollars, cowhide boots for a dollar and a half a pair, a summer hat for a quarter of a dollar, and a winter cap for sixty-two and a half cents, or a better be made at home at a nominal cost, where is he so poor that, clad in such a suit, of his own earning, there will not be found wise men to do him reverence?
注释摘要
梭罗在这一段里用了一个他一生最偏爱的类比手法：把人的衣服比作树的结构。十九世纪植物学里有一个区分——外生植物（exogenous plants）是从外往里逐年增粗的，每一年在树皮下加上一圈新的木质层，像橡树、松树，而内生植物则从中心向外生长。他说我们穿衣服就像外生植物那样，一层一层地叠加在体表之外，而不是从内里生长出真正属于自己的东西。“epidermis…