Chapter 2 Translation Preface - 2

When Thoreau returned to Cannes after graduating from college, he happened to be twenty years old. On October 22, 1837, he entered his first diary entry on that day: "'What are you working on now?' he asked. 'Do you keep a diary?' Well, I started today with this first entry. "If I want to be alone, I must escape from the present—I will take care of myself. How can I be alone in the palace of mirrors of the emperor of Rome? I would rather find an attic. Not even the spiders are disturbed there, Not to mention sweeping floors and stacking piles of firewood." The "he" in that provision, the person who asked the question was Emerson, and this was really a final decision.Thoreau has since recorded his thoughts in the form of diaries or journals.The diaries continued for twenty-five years continuously.Just as Rousseau wrote "The Thought of a Solitary Walker", he also wrote the diary of a lonely man.And he wants to be alone because he wants to think, and he loves thinking.

Later, on February 7, 1838, he made another entry: "This Stoic (ascetic) Zeno (Greek sage) has about as much relation to his world as I do today. He came, in a word, from a family of merchants--and there are many such Oh!--could do business, haggle, and perhaps quarrel, but he'd been in a storm, capsized, wrecked, and drifted on the coast of Pylaus, like some John, some Tommy Like a person among ordinary people like Adams. "He went into a shop and was fascinated by a book () by Xenophon (Greek soldier and writer). From then on he became a philosopher. A new life rose before him. Get up...Although Zeno's flesh and blood still wants to sail, capsize, and suffer from wind blowing and waves, Zeno is really

Righteous people have been sailing in a quiet ocean forever since then. " Here Thoreau compares himself to Zeno, and compares Emerson to Xenophon.Although Thoreau was not born in a merchant family, he was born in an era of merchants. At least he had to adapt to the commercial spirit of the United States at that time. Thoreau’s flesh and blood were also going to sail, and his ship was To turn over, he also encountered the experience of wind and waves in his life, but the real Thoreau was already in a quiet ocean, he yearned for those higher principles and outstanding people, he It is yearning for philosophers and philosophy.

On the fourth day after this diary, Emerson also wrote in his own diary: "I like this young friend very much. It seems that he has a free and upright mind, which I have never Haven't met yet." A few days later, Emerson wrote in his diary again: "How is my Henry Thoreau, who warms another lonely afternoon with his simplicity and clear intelligence And full of sunshine," Emerson remembered in mid-April: "I went climbing with Henry Thoreau yesterday afternoon, and the misty weather was warm and pleasant, as if the mountain was like a semicircular theater, drinking It's like a good wine," Under Emerson's urging, Thoreau began sending poems and writing articles to the "Sundial" magazine.But a demanding editor rejected his manuscript several times.Thoreau also gave a lecture entitled "Society" at Cannes College, which aroused the public's attention a little.By 1841, Emerson had invited Thoreau to live in his home.At that time, Emerson publicized his idealist transcendentalism in a big way, and gathered a group of colleagues, just like running a transcendentalism club.But Thoreau did not consider himself a transcendentalist.In a section of his diary, he wrote: "People often whisper in my ears, using their beautiful theories and all kinds of rhetoric to solve the problems of the universe, but it doesn't help me. I still go back to the boundless, and there are no islands and no islands." Going up into the vast ocean of the island, we are constantly probing and looking for a bottom layer where we can anchor and hold on tightly.”

Originally, Thoreau's family was relatively difficult, but he was still given college and finished college.Then his family thought he should go out and venture into the world.But he would rather go to Guoxiang and teach in a private middle school in Cannes.Soon after, his brother John, who was only one year older, also came running.The two teach together.The elder brother taught English and mathematics, and the younger brother taught classics, science and natural history.The students adore them both.Henry also took students to travel on the river, take classes outdoors, and have picnics, so that students can receive life education with nature as the classroom and all things as teaching materials.A friend once called Rousseau "poet and naturalist", and he was not exaggerating.His knowledge of life is rich and profound.When he is alone, all nature becomes his companion.According to the memory of Emerson's younger brother, Thoreau's students told him: When Thoreau lectured, the students listened quietly, so quiet that even a needle dropped in the classroom could be heard clearly.