On Solitude
Henry David Thoreau
I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone; let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows.
The reallydiligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The farmer can work alone in the field or the woods all day, hoeing or chopping, and not feel lonesome, because he is employed; but when he comes home at night he cannot sit down in a room alone, at the mercy of his thoughts, but must be where he can: see the folks, and recreate, and, as he thinks, remunerate himself for his day’s solitude; and hence he wonders how the student can sit alone in the house all night and most of the day without ennui and the blues; but he does not realize that the student, though in the house, is still at work in his field, and chopping in his woods, as the farmer in his, and in turn seeks the same recreation and society that the latter does, though it may be a more condensed form of it.
Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquette and politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not come to open war. We meet at the post office, and at the sociable, and about the fireside every night; we live thick and are in each other’ s way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another. Certainly less frequency would suffice for all important and hearty communications. Consider the girls in a factory—never alone, hardly in their dreams. It would be better if there were but one inhabitant to a square mile, as where I live. The value of a man is not in his skin, that we should touch him.
I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls. Let me suggest a few comparisons, that some one may convey an idea of my situation. I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs so loud, or than Walden Pond itself. What company has that lonely lake, I pray?
And yet it has not the blue devils, but the blue angels in it, in the azure tint of its waters. The sun is alone, except in thick weather, when there sometimes appear to be two, but one is a mock sun. God is alone—but the devil, he is far from being alone; he sees a great deal of company; he is legion. I am no more lonely than a single mullein or dandelion in a pasture, or a bean leaf, or sorrel, or a horse-fly, or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the Mill Creek, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house.
享受孤独
亨利·大卫·梭罗
我发现人若大部分时间用于独处，将有益身心。与人为伴，即使是挚友，也很快会有厌烦或虚度光阴的感觉。我喜欢独处。我发现没有比独处更好的伴侣了。出国，身在熙攘人群中，要比退守陋室更让人寂寞。心有所想、身有所系的人总是孤身一人，不论他身处何地。独处与否也不是由人与人之间的距离来确定的。
在剑桥苦读的学子虽身处蜂巢般拥挤的教室，实际上却和沙漠中的苦行僧一样，是在独处。农人终日耕于田间，伐于山野，此时他虽孤单但并不寂寞，因他专心于工作；但当他日暮而息，却未必能忍受形影相吊、空有思绪做伴的时光，他必到“可以看见大伙儿”的去处去找乐子，如他所认为的那样，以补偿白日里的孤独；因此他无法理解学子如何能终日独坐而不心生厌倦或备感凄凉；然而他没意识到，学子虽身在学堂，但心系劳作，耕于心田，伐于学林，这正和农人一样，学子在寻求的无非是和他一样的快乐与陪伴，只是形式更简洁罢了。
与人交往通常都因唾手可得而毫无价值。在频繁的相处中，我们无暇从彼此身上获取新的价值。我们每日三餐相聚，反复让彼此重新审视的也是依旧故我，并无新奇之处。为此我们要循规蹈矩——懂礼仪，讲礼貌，以便在这些频繁的接触中相安无事，无须论战而有辱斯文。我们相遇在邮局，邂逅在社交场所，围坐在夜晚的炉火旁，彼此干扰着，纠缠着；实际上我认为，这样我们都或多或少失去了对彼此的尊重。对于所有重要的倾心交流，相见不必过频。想想工厂里的女孩，她们虽从不落单，但也少有梦想。像这样方圆一英里仅一人居住，那情况会更好。一个人的价值非在肌肤相亲，而在心有灵犀。
我的房子里有很多伙伴，尤其在无人造访的清晨。把我和周围事物对比一下，你或许能窥见我的处境。比起那湖中大叫的潜鸟，还有那瓦尔登湖，我并不比它们孤独多少。你看：这孤单的湖又何以为伴呢？
然而它那一湾天蓝的湖水里有的却是天使的纯净，而非魔鬼的忧郁。太阳是孤独的，虽然时而在阴郁的天气里会出现两个太阳，但其中之一为幻日。上帝是孤独的——魔鬼才从不孤单，他永远不乏伙伴，因从他者甚众。比起牧场上的一朵毛蕊花，一支蒲公英，一片豆叶，一束酢浆草，一只牛虻或大黄蜂，我并不孤单多少；比起密尔溪，风标，北极星，南风，四月春雨，一月融雪，或者新房中的第一只蜘蛛，我也并不孤单。
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