Question

semester a excerpt from \civil disobedience\ by henry david thoreau i have paid no poll tax for six years. i was put into a jail once on this account, for one night, and, as i stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, i could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if i were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. i wondered that it should have concluded at length that this was the best use it could put me to, and had never thought to avail itself of my services in some way. i saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free as i was. i did not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar. i felt as if i alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax. they plainly did not know how to treat me, but behaved like persons who are underbred. in every threat and in every compliment there was a blunder, for they thought that my chief desire was to stand the other side of that stone wall. i could not but smile to see how industriously they locked the door on my meditations, which followed them out again without let or hindrance, and they were really all that was dangerous. as they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body, just as boys, if they cannot come at some person against whom they have a spite, will abuse his dog. read the excerpt from \civil disobedience\. as they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body. just as boys, if they cannot come at some person against whom they have a spite, will abuse his dog. based on his transcendental beliefs, thoreau most likely believed that the state was angry it could never truly imprison him. had the authority to force him to pay the poll tax. could imprison him but could never confine his soul. was preparing to imprison others to teach him a lesson.

Explanation:

Thoreau, un pensador trascendental, creía en la primacía del espíritu y la conciencia individual sobre las instituciones estatales. Aunque el Estado podía restringir su cuerpo, no podía restringir su alma o su espíritu. En el texto, muestra que siente que la cárcel es una forma ineficaz de castigarlo ya que su mente y espíritu siguen libres.

Answer:

could imprison him but could never confine his soul.