Walden [?w?ld?n] (Issue 165) 13. House-Warming (12) [13] Gilpin, in his account of the forest borderers of England, says that "the encroachments of trespassers, and the houses and fences thus raised on the borders of the forest," were "considered as great nuisances[?nju?snsis] by the old forest law, and were severely punished under the name of purprestures[p???prest??s], as tending ad terrorem ferarum - ad nocumentum forest?, etc.," to the frightening of the game and the detriment[?detr?m?nt] of the forest. But I was interested in the preservation of the venison[?ven?sn] and the vert生材;綠色more than the hunters or woodchoppers, and as much as though I had been the Lord Warden himself; and if any part was burned, though I burned it myself by accident, I grieved with a grief that lasted longer and was more inconsolable[??nk?n?s??l?bl] than that of the proprietors[pr??pra??t?s]; nay, I grieved when it was cut down by the proprietors themselves. I would that our farmers when they cut down a forest felt some of that awe[??]敬畏which the old Romans did when they came to thin, or let in the light to, a consecrated grove (lucum conlucare), that is, would believe that it is sacred to some god. The Roman made an expiatory[?eksp??t?r?] offering, and prayed, Whatever god or goddess thou art to whom this grove is sacred, be propitious[pr??p???s] to me, my family, and children, etc (Et cetera). [14] It is remarkable what a value is still put upon wood even in this age and in this new country, a value more permanent and universal than that of gold. After all our discoveries and inventions no man will go by a pile of wood. It is as precious to us as it was to our Saxon[?s?ksn] and Norman ancestors. If they made their bows of it, we make our gun-stocks of it. Michaux, more than thirty years ago, says that the price of wood for fuel in New York and Philadelphia "nearly equals, and sometimes exceeds, that of the best wood in Paris, though this immense capital annually requires more than three hundred thousand cords, and is surrounded to the distance of three hundred miles by cultivated plains." In this town the price of wood rises almost steadily, and the only question is, how much higher it is to be this year than it was the last. Mechanics[m??k?n?ks] and tradesmen who come in person to the forest on no other errand, are sure to attend the wood auction, and even pay a high price for the privilege of gleaning after the woodchopper. It is now many years that men have resorted to the forest for fuel and the materials of the arts: the New Englander and the New Hollander, the Parisian[p?'rizj?n] and the Celt, the farmer and Robin Hood, Goody Blake and Harry Gill[g?l]; in most parts of the world the prince and the peasant, the scholar and the savage, equally require still a few sticks from the forest to warm them and cook their food. Neither could I do without them. 吉爾朋在他關(guān)于英格蘭森林邊地居民的描述里說到“入侵者的侵占，房子和籬笆就在森林的邊界升起來，”被“古來的森林法看做是極討厭的作為，以侵占公產(chǎn)的名義將會受到嚴(yán)懲，作為維護(hù)和圣化森林，等等，”來對付那可怕的游戲和對森林的損害。不過我感興趣于對野物和綠色的保護(hù)，而不是獵人和伐木人，就算我是阿瓦隆領(lǐng)主本人，如果森林的一部分被焚毀了，哪怕就是我本人由于意外毀了它，我也會更長久地陷入悲痛而且比那擁有者更傷心不已；不僅如此，哪怕就是擁有者本人砍伐它，我也會悲傷。我但愿我們的農(nóng)夫[fū]們當(dāng)他們砍倒一片森林的時候能感到那種敬畏，像過去的那些羅馬人，當(dāng)他們想弄薄，或讓光線射入，一片神圣的小樹林（lucum conlucare，)那就是，他們信奉它是獻(xiàn)給某個神的。那羅馬人總會做補償性祭品和祈禱，不管你是什么神或女神，這片樹林獻(xiàn)給你，請賜福給我、我的家人及孩子，等等。 值得注意的是即便在我們這個時代這個新國家，我們?nèi)匀毁x予木材的價值，這種價值比黃金更普遍和更久遠(yuǎn)。在我們所有的發(fā)現(xiàn)和發(fā)明之后，沒有人能走過一堆木頭。它對于我們?nèi)匀缓臀覀兊娜隹诉d和諾曼祖先一樣珍貴。如果他們曾用它做他們的弓箭，我們也在用它做我們的槍托。米修早在三十年前就說，在紐約和費城兩地燃料木材的價格“幾乎相同，而且有時候超過巴黎最好的木頭，雖然這一行當(dāng)?shù)木揞~利潤年年要求三十萬考特木頭，那些都在三百英里之外被農(nóng)田包圍著?！痹谶@個鎮(zhèn)子，木材的價格幾乎是在穩(wěn)步上漲，可唯一的問題是，今年比去年到底漲了多少。技師和商人親自來這里沒有別的目的，就是加入木材交易，甚至緊隨伐木人之后付出高昂代價的采伐特權(quán)。已經(jīng)過去好多年了，自從人們?nèi)ド植扇∪剂夏静暮退囆g(shù)品原料：新英格蘭人和新荷蘭人，巴黎人和凱爾特人，農(nóng)夫和羅賓漢，古迪?布萊克和哈里?吉爾；在這世界的大多地區(qū)國君和農(nóng)民，學(xué)者和野人，同樣在向森林要求幾根樹枝取暖和煮飯。我也同樣離不了它們。