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All trials are trials for one’s life, just as all sentences are sentences of death, and three times have I been tried[169a]. The first time I left the box to be arrested, the second time to be led back to the House of Detention, the third time to pass into a prison for two years. Society, as we have constituted it, will have no place for me, has none to offer[169b]; but Nature, whose sweet rains fall on unjust and just alike, will have clefts in the rocks where I may hide, and secret valleys in whose silence I may weep undisturbed. She will hang the night with stars so that I may walk abroad in the darkness without stumbling, and send the wind over my footprints so that none may track me to my hurt[169c]: she will cleanse me in great waters, and with bitter herbs make me whole.
人所受之审都是永世之审，一如所服之刑都是至死之刑。三次了，我被提审过[169a]。第一次我下了被告席遭逮捕，第二次审后我被带回拘留所，第三次把我转到监狱坐两年牢。社会，就我们所组成的社会，将不会有我的安身之处，也给不出我的安身之处[169b]；但是大自然，雨丝亲切地同降于义人和小人身上的大自然，将会有岩缝给我藏身，有无人知晓的河谷让我清清静静地痛哭。她会在夜空张挂起星星，让我在外摸黑行走时不致绊倒，再送长风抹平我的脚印，不让人跟踪害我[169c]。她将以浩淼之水洁净我，用苦口的药草调治我复元。
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