我想聊的话题与远在中国和三明治群岛1的人们并不会有多大关联，因为正在翻阅书页的你们应该都来自新英格兰地区，所以我想要谈谈你们的处境，特别是你们的外在条件或者在当今世界、具体至本镇的处境。我要谈谈你们处境如何、如此糟糕的境地是否必要、究竟能否加以改善。我曾走遍康科德，每行至各处，不论是在商铺、办事处还是田野间，人们总是以千奇百怪的方式做着我观念里的苦行。我听说有的婆罗门会四面烤火，坐着仰视太阳；有的将身体倒悬，头颅朝下，接受火焰炙烤；有的回首凝视天空“直到他们再也无法恢复自然的姿势，只有液体可以穿过扭曲的脖子抵达胃部”；有的待在树下，在链条束缚下度过余生；有的像毛虫一样，用自己的身躯丈量广袤的国土；还有的单脚站立在柱子上——即使是这样有意为之的苦行2，也远不及我每日之所见匪夷所思、震撼人心。与我邻里乡亲所承担的辛劳相比，赫拉克勒斯的十二项试炼都显得微不足道。毕竟大力神面对的试炼只有十二项，且总有尽时。可我从未见过乡亲们杀死或捕获什么怪物，也未见他们真正做完任何活计。他们没有伊俄拉俄斯这样的朋友帮忙灼烧海德拉的断颈，于是刚砍掉一个，两个新头便冒了出来。3
I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese and Sandwich Islanders as you who read these pages, who are said to live in New Eng land; something about your condition, especially your outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether it cannot be improved as well as not. I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. What I have heard of Brahmins sitting exposed to four fires and looking in the face of the sun; or hanging suspended, with their heads downward, over flames; or looking at the heavens over their shoulders “until it becomes impossible for them to resume their natural position, while from the twist of the neck nothing but liquids can pass into the stomach;” or dwelling, chained for life, at the foot of a tree; or measuring with their bodies, like caterpillars, the breadth of vast empires; or standing on one leg on the tops of pillars,-even these forms of conscious penance are hardly more incredible and astonishing than the scenes which I daily witness. The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in com parison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor. They have no friend lolas to burn with a hot iron the root of the hydra’s head, but as soon as one head is crushed, two spring up.
