《瓦尔登湖·第四章·声音·Sounds》第1节
But while we are confined to books, though the most select and classic, and read only particular written languages, which are themselves but dialects and provincial, we are in danger of forgetting the language which all things and events speak without metaphor, which alone is copious and standard. Much is published, but little printed. The rays which stream through the shutter will be no longer remembered when the shutter is wholly removed. No method nor discipline can supersede the necessity of being forever on the alert. What is a course of history, or philosophy, or poetry, no matter how well selected, or the best society, or the most admirable routine of life, compared with the discipline of looking always at what is to be seen? Will you be a reader, a student merely, or a seer? Read your fate, see what is before you, and walk on into futurity.
注释摘要
梭罗在这一段里做了一个根本性的区分，这区分是他整个瓦尔登实验的认识论基础。他把人类获取真理的途径分成了两种：一种是通过书本，哪怕是最精选的经典，哪怕是最精致的书写语言；另一种是通过事物和事件本身直接说话。他用的那个说法很锋利——"事物和事件不用比喻便讲出的语言"。这句话的潜台词是，书本语言再怎么精妙，也已经是一套转译系统，是中介，是"方言和土语"。而真实世…