From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Service
The Service
Henry David Thoreau John Brown · Lyceum movement
Nonviolent resistance
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Simple living · Tax resistance
Tax resisters · Transcendentalism
The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
Walden Pond
The Service is an essay written in 1840 by Henry David
Thoreau. He submitted it to The Dial for publication, but
they declined to print it. It was not published until after
Thoreau’s death.
The essay uses war and military discipline as
metaphors that, as Thoreau would have it, can instruct us
in how to order and conduct our lives.
Maxham daguerreotype - 1856
Core works and topics Themes
Civil Disobedience The Service is in part a contrarian swipe at the many paci-
Herald of Freedom fist writers and lecturers whose teachings on “nonresis-
The Last Days of John Brown tance” were then very much in vogue, in part thanks to
Life Without Principle Christian anarchist and pacifist Adin Ballou who spoke
Paradise (to be) Regained on the subject at the Concord Lyceum on occasion and
A Plea for Captain John Brown who founded the New England Non-Resistance Society
Reform and the Reformers (of which William Lloyd Garrison was also a leader, and a
Remarks After the Lyceum speaker as well).
Hanging of John Brown Thoreau debated the subject “Is it ever proper to of-
The Service fer forcible resistance?” in a formal Lyceum debate (ar-
Sir Walter Raleigh guing the affirmative) in 1841, and surviving records of
Slavery in Massachusetts the Lyceum note that the subject came up many times in
Thomas Carlyle and His Works debates, discussions, and lectures.
Walden Thoreau’s own views were very much influenced by
A Walk to Wachusett these non-resistants, and are often confused with them
A Week on the Concord and even today. When Amos Bronson Alcott resisted his taxes
Merrimack Rivers to protest war and slavery, three years before Thoreau
Wendell Phillips Before the would resist his taxes over the same issues, Alcott’s ac-
Concord Lyceum tion was explained within the context of “non-resistant”
The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau philosophy. When Thoreau explained his own tax resis-
Thoreau Society tance, he took pains to distinguish his theory from theirs,
Related topics titling his essay Resistance to Civil Government.
Abolitionism · Anarchism In The Service, Thoreau tosses barbs at the non-resis-
Anarchism in the United States tance preachers, warning his readers that pacifism can be
Civil disobedience a temptation to passivity:
Concord, Massachusetts
Conscientious objection Better that we have some of that testy spirit of
Direct action · Ecology knight errantry, and if we are so blind as to think
Environmentalism the world is not rich enough nowadays to afford
History of tax resistance a real foe to combat, with our trusty swords and
Individualist anarchism double-handed maces, hew and mangle some unre-
al phantom of the brain. In the pale and shivering
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Service
fogs of the morning, gathering them up betimes, term of service, nor to cut it short by a reprieve, –
and withdrawing sluggishly to their daylight but earnestly applying ourselves to the campaign
haunts, I see Falsehood sneaking from the full blaze before us.
of truth, and with good relish could do execution
on their rearward ranks, with the first brand that
came to hand. We too are such puny creatures as
On-line text
to be put to flight by the sun, and suffer our ardor • The Service at sniggle.net.
to grow cool in proportion as his increases; our own
short-lived chivalry sounds a retreat with the
fumes and vapors of the night; and we turn to meet
Printed sources
mankind, with its meek face preaching peace, and • My Thoughts are Murder to the State by Henry David
such non-resistance as the chaff that rides before Thoreau (ISBN 978-1434804266)
the whirlwind. • The Service by Henry David Thoreau (ISBN
Of such sort, then, be our crusade, – which, 978-1410104700)
while it inclines chiefly to the hearty good will and • The Higher Law: Thoreau on Civil Disobedience and
activity of war, rather than the insincerity and Reform (ISBN 978-0691118765)
sloth of peace, will set an example to both of calm- • Collected Essays and Poems by Henry David Thoreau
ness and energy; – as unconcerned for victory as (ISBN 978-1-88301195-6)
careless of defeat, – not seeking to lengthen our
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Categories:
• 1840 works
• Essays by Henry David Thoreau
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