《瓦尔登湖·第一章·经济篇·Economy》第50节
House,................................ $ 28.12½ | Farm one year,.......................... 14.72½ | Food eight months,...................... 8.74 | Clothing, etc., eight months,........... 8.40¾ | Oil, &c., eight months,................. 2.00 | —————— | In all,........................... $ 61.99¾ I address myself now to those of my readers who have a living to get. And to meet this I have for farm produce sold $23.44 | Earned by day-labor,................... 13.34 | —————— | In all,............................ $36.78, which subtracted from the sum of the outgoes leaves a balance of $25.21¾ on the one side,—this being very nearly the means with which I started, and the measure of expenses to be incurred,—and on the other, beside the leisure and independence and health thus secured, a comfortable house for me as long as I choose to occupy it. These statistics, however accidental and therefore uninstructive they may appear, as they have a certain completeness, have a certain value also. Nothing was given me of which I have not rendered some account. It appears from the above estimate, that my food alone cost me in money about twenty-seven cents a week. It was, for nearly two years after this, rye and Indian meal without yeast, potatoes, rice, a very little salt pork, molasses, and salt, and my drink water. It was fit that I should live on rice, mainly, who loved so well the philosophy of India. To meet the objections of some inveterate cavillers, I may as well state, that if I dined out occasionally, as I always had done, and I trust shall have opportunities to do again, it was frequently to the detriment of my domestic arrangements. But the dining out, being, as I have stated, a constant element, does not in the least affect a comparative statement like this. I learned from my two years’ experience that it would cost incredibly little trouble to obtain one’s necessary food, even in this latitude; that a man may use as simple a diet as the animals, and yet retain health and strength. I have made a satisfactory dinner, satisfactory on several accounts, simply off a dish of purslane (Portulaca oleracea) which I gathered in my cornfield, boiled and salted. I give the Latin on account of the savoriness of the trivial name. And pray what more can a reasonable man desire, in peaceful times, in ordinary noons, than a sufficient number of ears of green sweet-corn boiled, with the addition of salt? Even the little variety which I used was a yielding to the demands of appetite, and not of health. Yet men have come to such a pass that they frequently starve, not for want of necessaries, but for want of luxuries; and I know a good woman who thinks that her son lost his life because he took to drinking water only.
注释摘要
梭罗在这里亮出了一份精确到四分之三美分的账簿，把他在瓦尔登湖边的第一年当成了一个经济实验来报告。这不是随意给出的约数——木板、旧砖、铁钉、铰链、甚至是粉笔，每一项都列得清清楚楚，最后房子只花了二十八美元多。同样，八个月的食物支出不过八美元多，油和家用两美元，加起来全部开支不到六十二美元。他反复强调没有人资助他，每一笔支出都有出处，这种记账的仔细本身就是一种…