"Thoreau - Civil Disobedience" - читать интересную книгу автора (Thoreau Henry David)

redressing it on the other." Of this, he says, every man shall judge
for himself. But Paley appears never to have contemplated those
cases to which the rule of expediency does not apply, in which a
people, as well as an individual, must do justice, cost what it may.
If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore
it to him though I drown myself. This, according to Paley, would be
inconvenient. But he that would save his life, in such a case, shall
lose it. This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on
Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people.
In their practice, nations agree with Paley; but does any one
think that Massachusetts does exactly what is right at the present
crisis?

"A drab of state, a cloth-o'-silver slut,
To have her train borne up, and her soul trail in the dirt."

Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are
not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred
thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in
commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not
prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may. I
quarrel not with far-off foes, but with those who, near at home,
cooperate with, and do the bidding of those far away, and without whom
the latter would be harmless. We are accustomed to say, that the
mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the few
are not materially wiser or better than the many. It is not so
important that many should be as good as you, as that there be some
absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump.
There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the
war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who,
esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down
with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what
to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to
the question of free trade, and quietly read the prices-current
along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may
be, fall asleep over them both. What is the price-current of an honest
man and patriot today? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes
they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They
will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may
no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote, and
a feeble countenance and God-speed, to the right, as it goes by
them. There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to
one virtuous man. But it is easier to deal with the real possessor
of a thing than with the temporary guardian of it.
All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with
a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral
questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of
the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right;
but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am
willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore,