100 
WALDEN. 
its own traps, ruined by luxury and heedless expense, 
by want of calculation and a worthy aim, as the million 
households in the land; and the only cure for it as for 
them is in a rigid economy, a stern and more than Spar¬ 
tan simplicity of life and elevation of purpose. It lives 
too fast. Men think that it is essential that the Nation 
have commerce, and export ice, and talk through a tele¬ 
graph, and ride thirty miles an hour, without a doubt, 
whether they do or not; but whether we should live like 
baboons or like men, is a little uncertain. If we do not 
get out sleepers, and forge rails, and devote days and 
nights to the work, but go to tinkering upon our lives to 
improve them , who will build railroads ? And if railroads 
are not built, how shall we get to heaven in season ? But 
if we stay at home and mind our business, who will want 
railroads ? We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon 
us. Did you ever think what those sleepers are that 
underlie the railroad ? Each one is a man, an Irish¬ 
man, or a Yankee man. The rails are laid on them, and 
they are covered with sand, and the cars run smoothly 
over them. They are sound sleepers, I assure you. 
And every few years a new lot is laid down and run 
over; so that, if some have the pleasure of riding on a 
rail, others have the misfortune to be ridden upon. 
And when they run over a man that is walking in his 
sleep, a supernumerary sleeper in the wrong position, 
and wake him up, they suddenly stop the cars, and make 
a hue and cry about it, as if this were an exception. I 
am glad to know that it takes a gang of men for every 
five miles to keep the sleepers down and level in their 
beds as it is, for this is a sign that they may sometime 
get up again. 
Why should we live with such hurry and waste of 
