It was a singular experience that long acquaintance which I cultivatedwith beans, what with planting, and hoeing, and harvesting, and thres-hing, and picking over and selling them--the last was the hardest ofall--I might add eating, for I did taste. I was determined to knowbeans. When they were growing, I used to hoe from five o'clock in themorning till noon, and commonly spent the rest of the day about other af-fairs. Consider the intimate and curious acquaintance one makes withvarious kinds of weeds--it will bear some iteration in the account, forthere was no little iteration in the labor--disturbing their delicate organi-zations so ruthlessly, and making such invidious distinctions with hishoe, levelling whole ranks of one species, and sedulously cultivating an-other. That's Roman wormwood--that's pigweed--that's sorrel--that'spiper-grass--have at him, chop him up, turn his roots upward to thesun, don't let him have a fibre in the shade, if you do he'll turn himselft' other side up and be as green as a leek in two days. A long war, notwith cranes, but with weeds, those Trojans who had sun and rain anddews on their side. Daily the beans saw me come to their rescue armedwith a hoe, and thin the ranks of their enemies, filling up the trencheswith weedy dead. Many a lusty crest--waving Hector, that towered awhole foot above his crowding comrades, fell before my weapon androlled in the dust.

Those summer days which some of my contemporaries devoted to thefine arts in Boston or Rome, and others to contemplation in India, andothers to trade in London or New York, I thus, with the other farmers ofNew England, devoted to husbandry. Not that I wanted beans to eat, forI am by nature a Pythagorean, so far as beans are concerned, whetherthey mean porridge or voting, and exchanged them for rice; but, per-chance, as some must work in fields if only for the sake of tropes and ex-pression, to serve a parable-maker one day. It was on the whole a rareamusement, which, continued too long, might have become a dissipa-tion. Though I gave them no manure, and did not hoe them all once, Ihoed them unusually well as far as I went, and was paid for it in theend, "there being in truth, "as Evelyn says, "no compost or laetation what-soever comparable to this continual motion, repastination, and turning ofthe mould with the spade. ""The earth, "he adds elsewhere, "especially iffresh, has a certain magnetism in it, by which it attracts the salt, pow-er, or virtue (call it either) which gives it life, and is the logic of allthe labor and stir we keep about it, to sustain us; all dungings and othersordid temperings being but the vicars succedaneous to this improve-ment. "Moreover, this being one of those"worn-out and exhausted layfields which enjoy their sabbath,"had perchance, as Sir Kenelm Digbythinks likely, attracted" vital spirits" from the air. I harvested twelvebushels of beans.

P150-151

Economy

Where I Lived, and What I Lived For

Reading

Sounds

Solitude

Visitors

The Beanfield

The Village

The Ponds

Baker Farm

Higher Laws

Brute Neighbors

House Warming

Former Inhabitants and Winter Visitors

Winter Animals

The Pond in Winter

Spring

Conclusion

由亨利·戴维·梭罗所著的《瓦尔登湖》是美国作家梭罗独居瓦尔登湖畔的记录，描绘了他两年多时间里的所见、所闻和所思。大至四季交替造成的景色变化，小到两只蚂蚁的争斗，无不栩栩如生地再现于梭罗的生花妙笔之下，而且描写也不流于表浅，而是有着博物学家的精确。

《瓦尔登湖》是亨利·戴维·梭罗所著的一本著名散文集。书中详尽地描述了作者在瓦尔登湖湖畔一片再生林中度过两年零两个月的生活以及期间他的许多思考。这是一本极为优秀的人生哲理书，宁静、恬淡、充满智慧。同时也是一本清新、健康、引人向上的书。通过《瓦尔登湖》，我们不仅可以接触到大量的动物和植物学知识，还能了解到更多的人文、地理和历史知识。书中分析生活，批判习俗处，语语惊人，字字闪光，见解独特，耐人寻味。另外，许多篇页是形象描绘，优美细致，像湖水的纯洁透明，像山林的茂密翠绿也有一些篇页说理透彻，十分精辟，给人启迪。阅读它，我们能在平凡与简单中真切感受生活的意义与趣味，也更能感受寂静之美。