瓦尔登湖畔思考.docVIP

瓦尔登湖畔思考 　　 亨利?梭罗（Henry Thoreau，1817―1862），美国作家、思想家、自然主义者，著名散文集《瓦尔登湖》和论文《论公民的不服从权利》的作者。 　　梭罗于1817年生于马萨诸塞州康科德镇，就是因为茶叶事件爆发了美国独立战争的那个小镇。梭罗20岁于哈佛大学毕业，曾任教师，从事过各种体力劳动。他在学生时代与爱默生相识，在爱默生的影响下，阅读柯勒律治、卡莱尔等人的著作，研究东方的哲学思想，同时以爱默生倡导的“自助”精神进行思考，形成了一套独立见解。 　　梭罗的著作都是根据他在大自然中的体验写成，文章简练有力，朴实自然，富有思想内容，在美国19世纪散文中独树一帜。他的思想对英国工党、印度的甘地与美国黑人领袖马丁?路德?金等人都有很大的影响。 　　梭罗是美国超验主义(transcendentalism)的重要代表人物，超验主义的核心观点是主张人能超越感觉和理性而直接认识真理，认为人类世界的一切都是宇宙的一个缩影。爱默生的名言“相信你自己”是超验主义者座右铭。 　　梭罗于1845年春天，在老家康科德城的瓦尔登湖边建起一座木屋，过起自耕自食的生活，并在那里写下了著名的《瓦尔登湖》一书，书中记录了作者隐居瓦尔登湖畔，与大自然水乳交融、在田园生活中感知自然重塑自我的奇异历程。这本书的思想是崇尚简朴生活，热爱大自然的风光，内容丰厚，意义深远，语言生动，意境深邃。下面节选的是书中“我生活的地方：我为何生活”一章的部分内容，其中包含了作者对自然、对自己、对生活的一些思考。 　　 　　原文欣赏 　　Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks. I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did. They say that characters were engraven on the bathing tub of King Tchingthang to this effect: “Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again.” I can understand that. Morning brings back the heroic ages. I was as much affected by the faint hum of a mosquito making its invisible and unimaginable tour through my apartment at earliest dawn, when I was sitting with door and windows open, as I could be by any trumpet that ever sang of fame. It was Homer’s requiem; itself an Iliad and Odyssey in the air, singing its own wrath and wanderings. There was something cosmical about it; a standing advertisement, till forbidden, of the everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes which slumbers all the rest of the day and night. Little is to be expected of that day, if it can be called a day, to which we are not awakened by our Genius,