A digital edition presented as a coöperative project of Princeton University Press and the Walden Woods Project. Originally published: Princeton University Press, ©1988. All rights reserved: Princeton University Press, ©1988
A lady once offered me a mat, but as I had no room to spare within the house, nor time to spare within or without to shake it, I declined it, preferring to wipe my feet on the sod before my door. It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.—Walden
