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Civil Disobedience-Part2_HENRY DAVID THOREAU(1817-1862)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ and



excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington

and Franklin rebels?



One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial

of its authority was the only offense never contemplated by



its government; else, why has it not assigned its definite,

its suitable and proportionate, penalty? If a man who has



no property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the

State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law



that I know, and determined only by the discretion of those

who put him there; but if he should steal ninety times nine



shillings from the State, he is soon permitted to go at

large again.



If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of

the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance



it will wear smooth--certainly the machine will wear out.

If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a



crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider

whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if



it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent

of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let



your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I

have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself



to the wrong which I condemn.

As for adopting the ways of the State has provided for



remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too

much time, and a man's life will be gone. I have other



affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly

to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it,



be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but

something; and because he cannot do everything, it is



not necessary that he should be petitioning the Governor

or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me;



and if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then?

But in this case the State has provided no way: its very



Constitution is the evil. This may seem to be harsh and

stubborn and unconcilliatory; but it is to treat with the



utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit that can

appreciate or deserves it. So is all change for the better,



like birth and death, which convulse the body.

I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves



Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw

their support, both in person and property, from the



government of Massachusetts, and not wait till they

constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right



to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they

have God on their side, without waiting for that other one.



Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes

a majority of one already.



I meet this American government, or its representative,

the State government, directly, and face to face, once a



year--no more--in the person of its tax-gatherer; this is

the only mode in which a man situated as I am necessarily



meets it; and it then says distinctly, Recognize me; and

the simplest, the most effectual, and, in the present



posture of affairs, the indispensablest mode of treating

with it on this head, of expressing your little satisfaction



with and love for it, is to deny it then. My civil

neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the very man I have to deal



with--for it is, after all, with men and not with parchment

that I quarrel--and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent



of the government. How shall he ever know well that he is

and does as an officer of the government, or as a man,



until he is obliged to consider whether he will treat me,

his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and



well-disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace,

and see if he can get over this obstruction to his



neighborlines without a ruder and more impetuous thought or

speech corresponding with his action. I know this well,



that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I




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