Chapter I: Economy

Thoreau explains his reasons for living in the woods and for writing so extensively about his own life and experiences.

Thoreau observes that his neighbors in Concord seem to be doing penance in a thousand ways, their lives filled with endless, fruitless labor.

He argues that inheriting farms and tools is a misfortune, making young men serfs of the soil and blinding them to their true calling.

Thoreau describes how excessive labor makes men into machines and how the struggle to get out of debt leads to mean and sneaking lives.

He contends that the worst slave-driver is oneself and that the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, mistaking resignation for wisdom.

Thoreau challenges the authority of age and tradition, stating that the old have no important advice to give the young about life.

He dismisses the idea that all of life has been tried, arguing that man's capacities have never been measured and precedents are meaningless.

Thoreau suggests that what his neighbors call good, he believes to be bad, and that one generation rightly abandons the enterprises of another.

He advocates for trusting nature more, denying the possibility of change less, and considering what the gross necessaries of life truly are.

Thoreau defines the necessaries of life for man as Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel, which all serve to maintain our vital heat.

He elaborates on the primary need to keep warm, noting that many devote their lives to this end without ever truly living.

Thoreau argues that luxuries are hindrances to human elevation and that the wisest have always lived lives of voluntary poverty.

Once necessities are met, man should adventure on life, and Thoreau directs his words to the mass of men who are discontented.

He hints at his desire to live deliberately, to stand on the present moment, and describes his search for a lost hound, horse, and dove.

Thoreau describes his various self-appointed roles, such as being present for the sunrise and acting as a reporter for a little-known journal.

He continues listing his unpaid jobs, including inspector of storms and surveyor of forest paths, which his townsmen never officially recognized.

He tells a story of an Indian who failed to sell his baskets, comparing it to his own choice to avoid the necessity of selling his.

Thoreau uses an extended metaphor of a merchant trading with the Celestial Empire to describe the demanding business of living a full life.

He suggests Walden Pond is a good place for his business, not for its railroad or ice trade, but for other, unstated advantages.

Thoreau discusses clothing, arguing its purpose is to retain heat and cover nakedness, and criticizes the anxiety over fashionable, unpatched clothes.

He advises against any enterprise that requires new clothes, suggesting one should instead become a new wearer of old clothes.

Thoreau compares layers of clothing to a tree's bark and laments the power of Fashion, which dictates what people wear without reason.

He reflects on how every generation laughs at old fashions but follows the new, and questions if the factory system is the best way to get clothing.

He traces the need for shelter from a simple covering at night to a place of physical and emotional warmth, from caves to modern houses.

Thoreau considers how slight a shelter is truly necessary, citing the example of a simple box and the efficiency of Indian wigwams.

He argues that the cost of a modern house is the amount of life required to obtain it, which is far greater than a savage's wigwam.

Considering his neighbors, he finds that most have toiled for decades to own their farms and still have not paid off their mortgages.

Thoreau suggests the farmer is often imprisoned rather than housed by his property, and that civilization has improved houses but not the men within them.

He points to the degraded poor in railroad shanties and English factories as evidence that the luxury of one class is paid for by another's indigence.

He criticizes the clutter of modern houses, arguing for furniture as simple as an Arab's and lamenting the luxury of railroad cars.

Thoreau argues that men have settled on earth and forgotten heaven, becoming housekeepers and farmers instead of sojourners in nature.

He describes the simple dug-out shelters of the first settlers, praising their prudence in satisfying the most pressing wants first.

Thoreau recounts borrowing an axe in March 1845, cutting down pines for timber, and hewing the main beams for his house by hand.

He buys the shanty of an Irish railroad worker for $4.25 to use its boards, then takes it apart and moves it to the pond side.

He digs his cellar, raises the frame of his house with the help of acquaintances, and begins to occupy it on the Fourth of July.

He reflects on the virtue of building one's own house, arguing that true architectural beauty grows from the character of the indweller.

After building a chimney and shingling the sides, Thoreau provides a detailed list of materials and their exact cost, totaling $28.12½.

He compares his house's cost to a student's annual rent at Cambridge, arguing that education could be had for less sacrifice of life.

Thoreau critiques modern inventions like the telegraph and railroad as improved means to an unimproved end, distracting from serious things.

He details the expenses and income from his small farm, concluding he did better than any farmer in Concord that year by living simply.

He argues that men become keepers of herds rather than the other way around, and that a nation of philosophers would not use animal labor.

Thoreau provides a detailed list of his food expenses over eight months, which amounted to about twenty-seven cents a week.

He learned from his experience that one can live on a simple diet like purslane or corn, and that men starve for want of luxuries, not necessaries.

He describes how a New Englander could raise and make all his own food, from bread to molasses, thus avoiding trade and barter.

He lists his sparse furniture and argues that the more one has of such things, the poorer one is, for they are traps to be dragged through life.

He explains why he has no curtains or mats, and describes an auction of a deacon's effects as an increasing of trumpery rather than a purification.

He praises the custom of some Native American tribes who annually burn all their old things and start fresh with a new fire.

Thoreau found he could meet all his expenses by working about six weeks a year, leaving his winters and summers free for study.

He urges each person to find and pursue their own way, not their father's or neighbor's, and explains why he prefers a solitary dwelling.

He confesses to indulging little in philanthropy, finding it a full profession that does not agree with his constitution and can be a tainted good.

He argues that one must give the poor the aid they most need, and that philanthropy is an overrated virtue compared to true spiritual fatherhood.

Thoreau wants the flower and fruit of a man, not just his griefs, and believes reformers are often driven by their own private ailments.

A poem by T. Carew is presented, which criticizes the pedantic and lazy virtues sometimes associated with a life of poverty.