《瓦尔登湖·第六章·访客·Visitors》第11节
There was a certain positive originality, however slight, to be detected in him, and I occasionally observed that he was thinking for himself and expressing his own opinion, a phenomenon so rare that I would any day walk ten miles to observe it, and it amounted to the re-origination of many of the institutions of society. Though he hesitated, and perhaps failed to express himself distinctly, he always had a presentable thought behind. Yet his thinking was so primitive and immersed in his animal life, that, though more promising than a merely learned man’s, it rarely ripened to any thing which can be reported. He suggested that there might be men of genius in the lowest grades of life, however permanently humble and illiterate, who take their own view always, or do not pretend to see at all; who are as bottomless even as Walden Pond was thought to be, though they may be dark and muddy.
注释摘要
在这段文字里，梭罗从他那位加拿大樵夫身上发现了某种稀罕的东西——一个人在用自己的脑子想事情，说出自己的话，而不是重复别人的意见。这个观察看似简单，但对梭罗来说却重大得惊人。他说这是“如此罕见的现象，我愿意哪天走上十英里路去观察它”，这话放在一个以特立独行为己任的超验主义者口中，并不夸张。在十九世纪中叶的新英格兰，教会、报纸、政党、市场、道德改良团体共同织成…