即使是在这个相对自由的国家1里，大多数人也会仅仅出于无知而犯错，让无谓的忧虑和过分粗重的劳动占满生活，再也无法摘取其间精美的果实。他们的手指饱受辛劳，僵硬笨拙又颤颤巍巍难以抓握。人们日复一日地劳作，其实从未有过完整的闲暇，甚至无法与他人维持最基本的人际关系，付出的劳力也会在市场上贬值。他别无他选，只好机械度日。倘若一个人每日都依赖已有的知识，他如何能记起自己的无知，如何才能成长？对人评头论足以前，我们有时应当先慷慨解囊供他吃饱穿暖，招待他以甘甜烈酒使之振作。我们本性中最高尚的品质就如同果皮上的粉霜，只有最轻柔的处理才能将其保存。然而我们不论是对待自己还是对待他人，都从未如此温柔。
Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to be anything but a machine. How can he remember well his ignorance—which his growth requires—who has so often to use his knowledge? We should feed and clothe him gratuitously sometimes, and recruit him with our cordials, before we judge of him. The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.
Footnotes
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在梭罗生活的时代，美国仍有蓄奴制度，梭罗并非不了解这个情况，甚至对此极为厌恶。这里说的自由仅是相对当时的其他国家而言。 ↩