《瓦尔登湖·第一章·经济篇·Economy》第40节
It would be worth the while to build still more deliberately than I did, considering, for instance, what foundation a door, a window, a cellar, a garret, have in the nature of man, and perchance never raising any superstructure until we found a better reason for it than our temporal necessities even. There is some of the same fitness in a man’s building his own house that there is in a bird’s building its own nest. Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds universally sing when they are so engaged? But alas! we do like cowbirds and cuckoos, which lay their eggs in nests which other birds have built, and cheer no traveller with their chattering and unmusical notes. Shall we forever resign the pleasure of construction to the carpenter? What does architecture amount to in the experience of the mass of men? I never in all my walks came across a man engaged in so simple and natural an occupation as building his house. We belong to the community. It is not the tailor alone who is the ninth part of a man; it is as much the preacher, and the merchant, and the farmer. Where is this division of labor to end? and what object does it finally serve? No doubt another may also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself.
注释摘要
梭罗在这段话里把话题从房子造价转向了建造本身的精神意义。他并不是在说人人都该去钉木板、挖地基，而是在追问：人到底应该在多大程度上亲自参与构建自己的基本生存条件，而不是把这一切都交给一个分工越来越细的社会系统。他提议盖房子不妨比他还慢一些，因为一个门、一扇窗、一个地窖、一个阁楼，这些东西不应该仅仅是物质需要的结果，而应该在人自身的本性里有根。换句话说，在只为…