Evans Experientialism  Evans Experientialism |
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 Civil Disobedience Part Three of Three |
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Henry David Thoreau |
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[1] The night in prison was novel and interesting
enough. The prisoners in their shirt-sleeves
were enjoying a chat and the evening air
in the doorway, when I entered. But the jailer
said, "Come, boys, it is time to lock
up"; and so they dispersed, and I heard
the sound of their steps returning into the
hollow apartments. My room-mate was introduced
to me by the jailer as "a first-rate
fellow and a clever man." When the door
was locked, he showed me where to hang my
hat, and how he managed matters there. The
rooms were whitewashed once a month; and
this one, at least, was the whitest, most
simply furnished, and probably the neatest
apartment in the town. He naturally wanted
to know where I came from, and what brought
me there; and, when I had told him, I asked
him in my turn how he came there, presuming
him to be an honest man, of course; and,
as the world goes, I believe he was. "Why,"
said he, "they accuse me of burning
a barn; but I never did it." As near
as I could discover, he had probably gone
to bed in a barn when drunk, and smoked his
pipe there; and so a barn was burnt. He had
the reputation of being a clever man, had
been there some three months waiting for
his trial to come on, and would have to wait
as much longer; but he was quite domesticated
and contented, since he got his board for
nothing, and thought that he was well treated.
[2] He occupied one window, and I the other;
and I saw that if one stayed there long,
his principal business would be to look out
the window. I had soon read all the tracts
that were left there, and examined where
former prisoners had broken out, and where
a grate had been sawed off, and heard the
history of the various occupants of that
room; for I found that even here there was
a history and a gossip which never circulated
beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this
is the only house in the town where verses
are composed, which are afterward printed
in a circular form, but not published. I
was shown quite a long list of verses which
were composed by some young men who had been
detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged
themselves by singing them.
[3] I pumped my fellow-prisoner as dry as
I could, for fear I should never see him
again; but at length he showed me which was
my bed, and left me to blow out the lamp.
[4] It was like travelling into a far country,
such as I had never expected to behold, to
lie there for one night. It seemed to me
that I never had heard the town-clock strike
before, nor the evening sounds of the village;
for we slept with the windows open, which
were inside the grating. It was to see my
native village in the light of the Middle
Ages, and our Concord was turned into a Rhine
stream, and visions of knights and castles
passed before me. They were the voices of
old burghers that I heard in the streets.
I was an involuntary spectator and auditor
of whatever was done and said in the kitchen
of the adjacent village-inn—a wholly new
and rare experience to me. It was a closer
view of my native town. I was fairly inside
of it. I never had seen its institutions
before. This is one of its peculiar institutions;
for it is a shire town.(1) I began to comprehend
what its inhabitants were about.
[5] In the morning, our breakfasts were put
through the hole in the door, in small oblong-square
tin pans, made to fit, and holding a pint
of chocolate, with brown bread, and an iron
spoon. When they called for the vessels again,
I was green enough to return what bread I
had left; but my comrade seized it, and said
that I should lay that up for lunch or dinner.
Soon after he was let out to work at haying
in a neighboring field, whither he went every
day, and would not be back till noon; so
he bade me good-day, saying that he doubted
if he should see me again.
[6] When I came out of prison—for some one
interfered, and paid that tax—I did not perceive
that great changes had taken place on the
common, such as he observed who went in a
youth and emerged a tottering and gray-headed
man; and yet a change had to my eyes come
over the scene—the town, and State, and country—greater
than any that mere time could effect. I saw
yet more distinctly the State in which I
lived. I saw to what extent the people among
whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors
and friends; that their friendship was for
summer weather only; that they did not greatly
propose to do right; that they were a distinct
race from me by their prejudices and superstitions,
as the Chinamen and Malays are; that in their
sacrifices to humanity, they ran no risks,
not even to their property; that after all
they were not so noble but they treated the
thief as he had treated them, and hoped,
by a certain outward observance and a few
prayers, and by walking in a particular straight
though useless path from time to time, to
save their souls. This may be to judge my
neighbors harshly; for I believe that many
of them are not aware that they have such
an institution as the jail in their village.
[7] It was formerly the custom in our village,
when a poor debtor came out of jail, for
his acquaintances to salute him, looking
through their fingers, which were crossed
to represent the grating of a jail window,
"How do ye do?" My neighbors did
not thus salute me, but first looked at me,
and then at one another, as if I had returned
from a long journey. I was put into jail
as I was going to the shoemaker's to get
a shoe which was mended. When I was let out
the next morning, I proceeded to finish my
errand, and, having put on my mended shoe,
joined a huckleberry party, who were impatient
to put themselves under my conduct; and in
half an hour—for the horse was soon tackled—was
in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one
of our highest hills, two miles off, and
then the State was nowhere to be seen.
[8] This is the whole history of "My
Prisons."(2)
[9] I have never declined paying the highway
tax, because I am as desirous of being a
good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject;
and as for supporting schools, I am doing
my part to educate my fellow-countrymen now.
It is for no particular item in the tax-bill
that I refuse to pay it. I simply wish to
refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw
and stand aloof from it effectually. I do
not care to trace the course of my dollar,
if I could, till it buys a man or a musket
to shoot one with—the dollar is innocent—but
I am concerned to trace the effects of my
allegiance. In fact, I quietly declare war
with the State, after my fashion, though
I will still make what use and get what advantage
of her I can, as is usual in such cases.
[10] If others pay the tax which is demanded
of me, from a sympathy with the State, they
do but what they have already done in their
own case, or rather they abet injustice to
a greater extent than the State requires.
If they pay the tax from a mistaken interest
in the individual taxed, to save his property,
or prevent his going to jail, it is because
they have not considered wisely how far they
let their private feelings interfere with
the public good.
[11] This, then, is my position at present.
But one cannot be too much on his guard in
such a case, lest his action be biased by
obstinacy or an undue regard for the opinions
of men. Let him see that he does only what
belongs to himself and to the hour.
[12] I think sometimes, Why, this people
mean well; they are only ignorant; they would
do better if they knew how: why give your
neighbors this pain to treat you as they
are not inclined to? But I think, again,
This is no reason why I should do as they
do, or permit others to suffer much greater
pain of a different kind. Again, I sometimes
say to myself, When many millions of men,
without heat, without ill-will, without personal
feeling of any kind, demand of you a few
shillings only, without the possibility,
such is their constitution, of retracting
or altering their present demand, and without
the possibility, on your side, of appeal
to any other millions, why expose yourself
to this overwhelming brute force? You do
not resist cold and hunger, the winds and
the waves, thus obstinately; you quietly
submit to a thousand similar necessities.
You do not put your head into the fire. But
just in proportion as I regard this as not
wholly a brute force, but partly a human
force, and consider that I have relations
to those millions as to so many millions
of men, and not of mere brute or inanimate
things, I see that appeal is possible, first
and instantaneously, from them to the Maker
of them, and, secondly, from them to themselves.
But, if I put my head deliberately into the
fire, there is no appeal to fire or to the
Maker of fire, and I have only myself to
blame. If I could convince myself that I
have any right to be satisfied with men as
they are, and to treat them accordingly,
and not according, in some respects, to my
requisitions and expectations of what they
and I ought to be, then, like a good Mussulman
(3) and fatalist, I should endeavor to be
satisfied with things as they are, and say
it is the will of God. And, above all, there
is this difference between resisting this
and a purely brute or natural force, that
I can resist this with some effect; but I
cannot expect, like Orpheus,(4) to change
the nature of the rocks and trees and beasts.
[13] I do not wish to quarrel with any man
or nation. I do not wish to split hairs,
to make fine distinctions, or set myself
up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather,
I may say, even an excuse for conforming
to the laws of the land. I am but too ready
to conform to them. Indeed, I have reason
to suspect myself on this head; and each
year, as the tax-gatherer comes round, I
find myself disposed to review the acts and
position of the general and State governments,
and the spirit of the people, to discover
a pretext for conformity.
"We must affect our country as our parents,
And if at any time we alienate Our love or
industry from doing it honor, We must respect
effects and teach the soul Matter of conscience
and religion, And not desire of rule or benefit."(5)
[14] I believe that the State will soon be
able to take all my work of this sort out
of my hands, and then I shall be no better
a patriot than my fellow-countrymen. Seen
from a lower point of view, the Constitution,
with all its faults, is very good; the law
and the courts are very respectable; even
this State and this American government are,
in many respects, very admirable and rare
things, to be thankful for, such as a great
many have described them; but seen from a
point of view a little higher, they are what
I have described them; seen from a higher
still, and the highest, who shall say what
they are, or that they are worth looking
at or thinking of at all? [15] However, the
government does not concern me much, and
I shall bestow the fewest possible thoughts
on it. It is not many moments that I live
under a government, even in this world. If
a man is thought-free, fancy-free, imagination-free,
that which is not never for a long time appearing
to be to him, unwise rulers or reformers
cannot fatally interrupt him.
[16] I know that most men think differently
from myself; but those whose lives are by
profession devoted to the study of these
or kindred subjects, content me as little
as any. Statesmen and legislators, standing
so completely within the institution, never
distinctly and nakedly behold it. They speak
of moving society, but have no resting-place
without it. They may be men of a certain
experience and discrimination, and have no
doubt invented ingenious and even useful
systems, for which we sincerely thank them;
but all their wit and usefulness lie within
certain not very wide limits. They are wont
to forget that the world is not governed
by policy and expediency. Webster never goes
behind government, and so cannot speak with
authority about it. His words are wisdom
to those legislators who contemplate no essential
reform in the existing government; but for
thinkers, and those who legislate for all
time, he never once glances at the subject.
I know of those whose serene and wise speculations
on this theme would soon reveal the limits
of his mind's range and hospitality. Yet,
compared with the cheap professions of most
reformers, and the still cheaper wisdom and
eloquence of politicians in general, his
are almost the only sensible and valuable
words, and we thank Heaven for him. Comparatively,
he is always strong, original, and, above
all, practical. Still, his quality is not
wisdom, but prudence. The lawyer's truth
is not truth, but consistency or a consistent
expediency. Truth is always in harmony with
herself, and is not concerned chiefly to
reveal the justice that may consist with
wrong-doing. He well deserves to be called,
as he has been called, the Defender of the
Constitution. There are really no blows to
be given by him but defensive ones. He is
not a leader, but a follower. His leaders
are the men of '87.(6) "I have never
made an effort," he says, "and
never propose to make an effort; I have never
countenanced an effort, and never mean to
countenance an effort, to disturb the arrangement
as originally made, by which the various
States came into the Union." Still thinking
of the sanction which the Constitution gives
to slavery, he says, "Because it was
a part of the original compact—let it stand."(7)
Notwithstanding his special acuteness and
ability, he is unable to take a fact out
of its merely political relations, and behold
it as it lies absolutely to be disposed of
by the intellect—what, for instance, it behooves
a man to do here in America to-day with regard
to slavery, but ventures, or is driven, to
make some such desperate answer as the following,
while professing to speak absolutely, and
as a private man—from which what new and
singular code of social duties might be inferred?
"The manner," says he, "in
which the governments of those States where
slavery exists are to regulate it is for
their own consideration, under their responsibility
to their constituents, to the general laws
of propriety, humanity, and justice, and
to God. Associations formed elsewhere, springing
from a feeling of humanity, or any other
cause, have nothing whatever to do with it.
They have never received any encouragement
from me, and they never will."
[17] They who know of no purer sources of
truth, who have traced up its stream no higher,
stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and
the Constitution, and drink at it there with
reverence and humility; but they who behold
where it comes trickling into this lake or
that pool, gird up their loins once more,
and continue their pilgrimage toward its
fountain-head.
[18] No man with a genius for legislation
has appeared in America. They are rare in
the history of the world. There are orators,
politicians, and eloquent men, by the thousand;
but the speaker has not yet opened his mouth
to speak who is capable of settling the much-vexed
questions of the day. We love eloquence for
its own sake, and not for any truth which
it may utter, or any heroism it may inspire.
Our legislators have not yet learned the
comparative value of free-trade and of freedom,
of union, and of rectitude, to a nation.
They have no genius or talent for comparatively
humble questions of taxation and finance,
commerce and manufacturers and agriculture.
If we were left solely to the wordy wit of
legislators in Congress for our guidance,
uncorrected by the seasonable experience
and the effectual complaints of the people,
America would not long retain her rank among
the nations. For eighteen hundred years,
though perchance I have no right to say it,
the New Testament has been written; yet where
is the legislator who has wisdom and practical
talent enough to avail himself of the light
which it sheds on the science of legislation?
[19] The authority of government, even such
as I am willing to submit to—for I will cheerfully
obey those who know and can do better than
I, and in many things even those who neither
know nor can do so well—is still an impure
one: to be strictly just, it must have the
sanction and consent of the governed. It
can have no pure right over my person and
property but what I concede to it. The progress
from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from
a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress
toward a true respect for the individual.
Even the Chinese philosopher (8) was wise
enough to regard the individual as the basis
of the empire. Is a democracy, such as we
know it, the last improvement possible in
government? Is it not possible to take a
step further towards recognizing and organizing
the rights of man? There will never be a
really free and enlightened State until the
State comes to recognize the individual as
a higher and independent power, from which
all its own power and authority are derived,
and treats him accordingly. I please myself
with imagining a State at least which can
afford to be just to all men, and to treat
the individual with respect as a neighbor;
which even would not think it inconsistent
with its own repose if a few were to live
aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor
embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties
of neighbors and fellow-men. A State which
bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it
to drop off as fast as it ripened, would
prepare the way for a still more perfect
and glorious State, which also I have imagined,
but not yet anywhere seen.
Notes
1. At the time, Concord was a county seat 2. Reference to Le Mie Prigioni by Silvio
Pellico (1789-1854), about his 8 years as
a political prisoner, English translation
1833 3. A Muslim 4. In Greek mythology, a musician whose songs
could charm rocks and trees and beasts 5. George Peele (1557?-1597?), Battle of
Alcazar (in later editions only) 6. Writers of the Constitution in 1787 7. Danial Webster (1782-1852) from speech
in U. S. Senate 8. Probably Confucius (551-479 B. C.)  THE END "On a knoll called Author's Ridge in Concord, Massachusetts is a small gravestone marked simply "Henry". It is a fitting tribute to a man whose life's maxim was 'Simplify, Simplify, Simplify'." |
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