Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life？  We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.  Men say that a stitch in time saves nine， and so they take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow.  As for work， we haven't any of any consequence.  We have the Saint Vitus' dance， and cannot possibly keep our heads still.  If I should only give a few pulls at the parish bell-rope， as for a fire， that is， without setting the bell，there is hardly a man on his farm in the outskirts of Concord，notwithstanding that press of engagements which was his excuse so many times this morning， nor a boy， nor a woman， I might almost say，but would forsake all and follow that sound， not mainly to save property from the flames， but， if we will confess the truth， much more to see it burn， since burn it must， and we， be it known， did not set it on fire ―― or to see it put out， and have a hand in it，if that is done as handsomely； yes， even if it were the parish church itself.  Hardly a man takes a half-hour's nap after dinner，but when he wakes he holds up his head and asks， "What's the news？" as if the rest of mankind had stood his sentinels.  Some give directions to be waked every half-hour， doubtless for no other purpose； and then， to pay for it， they tell what they have dreamed. After a night's sleep the news is as indispensable as the breakfast. "Pray tell me anything new that has happened to a man anywhere on this globe" ―― and he reads it over his coffee and rolls， that a man has had his eyes gouged out this morning on the Wachito River； never dreaming the while that he lives in the dark unfathomed mammoth cave of this world， and has but the rudiment of an eye himself.

　　For my part， I could easily do without the post-office.  I think that there are very few important communications made through it. To speak critically， I never received more than one or two letters in my life ―― I wrote this some years ago ―― that were worth the postage.  The penny-post is， commonly， an institution through which you seriously offer a man that penny for his thoughts which is so often safely offered in jest.  And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper.  If we read of one man robbed， or murdered， or killed by accident， or one house burned， or one vessel wrecked， or one steamboat blown up， or one cow run over on the Western Railroad， or one mad dog killed， or one lot of grasshoppers in the winter ―― we never need read of another.  One is enough.  If you are acquainted with the principle， what do you care for a myriad instances and applications？  To a philosopher all news， as it is called， is gossip， and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.  Yet not a few are greedy after this gossip.  There was such a rush， as I hear， the other day at one of the offices to learn the foreign news by the last arrival， that several large squares of plate glass belonging to the establishment were broken by the pressure ―― news which I seriously think a ready wit might write a twelve-month， or twelve years， beforehand with sufficient accuracy. As for Spain， for instance， if you know how to throw in Don Carlos and the Infanta， and Don Pedro and Seville and Granada， from time to time in the right proportions ―― they may have changed the names a little since I saw the papers ―― and serve up a bull-fight when other entertainments fail， it will be true to the letter， and give us as good an idea of the exact state or ruin of things in Spain as the most succinct and lucid reports under this head in the newspapers： and as for England， almost the last significant scrap of news from that quarter was the revolution of 1649； and if you have learned the history of her crops for an average year， you never need attend to that thing again， unless your speculations are of a merely pecuniary character.  If one may judge who rarely looks into the newspapers， nothing new does ever happen in foreign parts， a French revolution not excepted.

　　What news！ how much more important to know what that is which was never old！  "Kieou-he-yu （great dignitary of the state of Wei）

　　sent a man to Khoung-tseu to know his news.  Khoung-tseu caused the messenger to be seated near him， and questioned him in these terms：What is your master doing？  The messenger answered with respect：  My master desires to diminish the number of his faults， but he cannot come to the end of them.  The messenger being gone， the philosopher remarked：  What a worthy messenger！  What a worthy messenger！"  The preacher， instead of vexing the ears of drowsy farmers on their day of rest at the end of the week ―― for Sunday is the fit conclusion of an ill-spent week， and not the fresh and brave beginning of a new one ―― with this one other draggle-tail of a sermon， should shout with thundering voice， "Pause！  Avast！  Why so seeming fast， but deadly slow？"

　　為什么我們應該生活得這樣匆忙，這樣浪費生命呢？我們下了決心，要在饑餓以前就餓死。人們時常說，及時縫一針，可以將來少縫九針，所以現在他們縫了一千針，只是為了明天少縫九千針。說到工作，任何結果也沒有，我們患了跳舞病，連腦袋都無法保住靜止。如果在寺院的鐘樓下，我剛拉了幾下繩子，使鐘聲發出火警的信號來，鐘聲還沒大響起來，在康科德附近的田園里的人，盡管今天早晨說了多少次他如何如何地忙，沒有一個男人，或孩子，或女人，我敢說是會不放下工作而朝著那聲音跑來的，主要不是要從火里救出財產來，如果我們說老實話，更多的還是來看火燒的，因為已經燒著了，而且這火，要知道，不是我們放的；或者是來看這場火是怎么被救滅的，要是不費什么勁，也還可以幫忙救救火；就是這樣，即使教堂本身著了火也是這樣。一個人吃了午飯，還只睡了半個小時的午覺，一醒來就抬起了頭，問，“有什么新聞？”好像全人類在為他放哨。有人還下命令，每隔半小時喚醒他一次，無疑的是并不為什么特別的原因：然后，為報答人家起見，他談了談他的夢。睡了一夜之后，新聞之不可缺少，正如早飯一樣的重要。“清告訴我發生在這個星球之上的任何地方的任何人的新聞，”――于是他一邊喝咖啡，吃面包卷，一邊讀報紙，知道了這天早晨的瓦奇多河上，有一個人的眼睛被挖掉了；一點不在乎他自己就生活在這個世界的深不可測的大黑洞里，自己的眼睛里早就是沒有瞳仁的了。

　　拿我來說，我覺得有沒有郵局都無所謂。我想，只有根少的重要消息是需要郵遞的。

　　我一生之中，確切他說，至多只收到過一兩封信是值得花費那郵資的――這還是我幾年之前寫過的一句話。通常，一便士郵資的制度，其目的是給一個人花一便士，你就可以得到他的思想了，但結果你得到的常常只是一個玩笑。我也敢說，我從來沒有從報紙上讀到什么值得紀念的新聞。如果我們讀到某某人被搶了，或被謀殺或者死于非命了，或一幢房子燒了，或一只船沉了，或一只輪船炸了，或一條母牛在西部鐵路上給撞死了，或一只瘋狗死了，或冬天有了一大群蚱蜢，――我們不用再讀別的了。有這么一條新聞就夠了。如果你掌握了原則，何必去關心那億萬的例證及其應用呢？對于一個哲學家，這些被稱為新聞的，不過是瞎扯，編輯和讀者就只不過是在喝茶的長舌婦。然而不少人都貪婪地聽著這種瞎扯。我聽說那一天，大家這樣搶啊奪啊，要到報館去聽一個最近的國際新聞，那報館里的好幾面大玻璃窗都在這樣一個壓力之下破碎了，――那條新聞，我嚴肅地想過，其實是一個有點頭腦的人在十二個月之前，甚至在十二年之前，就已經可以相當準確地寫好的。比如，說西班牙吧，如果你知道如何把唐卡洛斯和公主，唐彼得羅，塞維利亞和格拉納達這些字眼時時地放進一些，放得比例適合――這些字眼，自從我讀報至今，或許有了一點變化了吧，――然后，在沒有什么有趣的消息時，就說說斗牛好啦，這就是真實的新聞，把西班牙的現狀以及變遷都給我們詳詳細細地報道了，完全跟現在報紙上這個標題下的那些最簡明的新聞一個樣：再說英國吧，來自那個地區的最后的一條重要新聞幾乎總是一六四九年的革命；如果你已經知道她的谷物每年的平均產量的歷史，你也不必再去注意那些事了，除非你是要拿它來做投機生意，要賺幾個錢的話。如果你能判斷，誰是難得看報紙的，那末在國外實在沒有發生什么新的事件，即使一場法國大革命，也不例外。

　　什么新聞！要知道永不衰老的事件，那才是更重要得多！蓬伯玉（衛大夫）派人到孔子那里去。孔子與之坐而問焉。曰：夫子何為？對曰：夫子欲寡其過而未能也。使者出。子曰：使乎，使乎。在一個星期過去了之后、疲倦得直瞌睡的農夫們休息的日子里，――這個星期日，真是過得糟透的一星期的適當的結尾，但決不是又一個星期的新鮮而勇敢的開始啊，――偏偏那位牧師不用這種或那種拖泥帶水的冗長的宣講來麻煩農民的耳朵，卻雷霆一般地叫喊著：“停！停下！為什么看起來很快，但事實上你們卻慢得要命呢？”

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