see where housework commences, and whence the endeavor, which costs

that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual

embryo man passes through the hunter stage of development.

far I am of the opinion of Chaucers nun, who

Having bathed, he sat down to re-create his intellectual man. It

the most original part of himself. He goes thither at first as a

detain us in scenery with which otherwise, at that age, we should

believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so

organs of feeding, make no use of them"; and they lay it down as "a

mud-turtles, muskrats, and other such savage tidbits, the fine lady

will, yet it concerned him very little. It was no more than the

that he worked in, and suggested work for certain faculties which

low and fare hard in many respects; and though I never did so, I

heathenish whose precepts fill the reader with shame, and provoke

and one does not see; one listens, and one does not hear; one eats,

and Columbia a trapper, and at the Falls of St. Mary a fisherman.

because he has not so many public holidays, and men and boys do not

too old and dignified to go a-fishing, and so they know it no more

trifles.

experience, but is an instinct. It appeared more beautiful to live

condition and actually migrate thither? All that he could think of

resolute and faithful, his road lies. The faintest assured

thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which

I hesitate to say these things, but it is not because of the

"How happys he who hath due place assigned

the while. The Governor and his Council faintly remember the pond,

indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little

life and health, occupy our bodies. Possibly we may withdraw from

imagination. The repugnance to animal food is not the effect of

found it to be the most serious objection to coarse labors long

pure; but no doubt such a clarifying process would be going on all

insectivorous fate. The gross feeder is a man in the larva state;

than temperance and purity. "That in which men differ from brute

god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by

his food in which appetite had no share? I have been thrilled to

being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon

may be vain to ask why the imagination will not be reconciled to

All sensuality is one, though it takes many forms; all purity is

our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness

make a good shepherds dog, but is far from being the Good Shepherd.

had traced to them, as because they were not agreeable to my

trembles round the world it is the insisting on this which thrills

all the assessment that we pay. Though the youth at last grows

beasts," says Mencius, "is a thing very inconsiderable; the common

from regarding myself as one of those privileged ones to whom the

life in him, he distinguishes his proper objects, as a poet or

Why do you stay here and live this mean moiling life, when a

ask no blessing; not because I am wiser than I was, but, I am

they were lucky, or well paid for their time, unless they got a long

There is a period in the history of the individual, as of the race,

sound harmonized with his mood. Still he thought of his work; but

impurity casts us down. He is blessed who is assured that the

their case it is to be observed, as a Hindoo commentator has

speak conformably to the rumor which we have heard. From exertion

without falling a little in self-respect. I have tried it again and

and there are whole nations in that condition, nations without fancy

health of its own; that we may be well, yet not pure. The other day

case was its uncleanness; and besides, when I had caught and cleaned

we are not civilized, and, if gentlemen and ladies, are not true men

it was one of the best parts of my education -- rｅａｄ•９9cｓｗ.ｃｏｍmake them hunters,

particular in these respects. I carry less religion to the table,

who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties

is not afraid to exhibit herself to them. The traveller on the

precisely such a dinner, whether of animal or vegetable food, as is

named, spiritual life, as do most men, and another toward a

instinct for it, which revives from time to time, but always when I

chastity? How shall a man know if he is chaste? He shall not know

animal food, and from much food of any kind. It is a significant

tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact

Such is oftenest the young mans introduction to the forest, and

intoxicating. Such apparently slight causes destroyed Greece and

I had long felt differently about fowling, and sold my gun before I

head, and he found himself planning and contriving it against his

and cooked and eaten my fish, they seemed not to have fed me

the fishes nor the worms. This was habit. As for fowling, during

freely without shame of one form of sensuality, and are silent about

indispensable in the minds approximation to God." Yet the spirit

food which entereth into the mouth defileth a man, but the appetite

just one exception, was fishing. Commonly they did not think that

To his beasts and disafforested his mind!

equally valuable sports are ever substituted for these; and when

went to the woods. Not that I am less humane than others, but I did

We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is no more

Else man not only is the herd of swine,

cannot be otherwise. A puritan may go to his brown-bread crust with

account of the inferior and brutish nature to which he is allied. I

trailing my pole, it being now quite dark, I caught a glimpse of a

Moreover, when at the pond, I wished sometimes to add fish to my

glorious existence is possible for you? Those same stars twinkle

answer with respect to those youths who were bent on this pursuit,

were to live in a wilderness I should again be tempted to become a

true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not

attention to the habits of the birds, that, if for that reason only,

But hes those devils too which did incline

forget them. They are the highest reality. Perhaps the facts most

would avoid uncleanness, and all the sins, work earnestly, though it

Can use this horse, goat, wolf, and evry beast,

so that they shall not find game large enough for them in this or

primitive but solitary amusements of hunting, fishing, and the like

indulges a taste for jelly made of a calfs foot, or for sardines

more boundless even than those of a savage. No wonder, then, that

boy among my contemporaries shouldered a fowling-piece between the

soul not being mistress of herself," says Thseng-tseu, "one looks,

race who shall teach man to confine himself to a more innocent and

village, and the state in which he lived. A voice said to him --

with the more civilized.

holds its life by the same tenure that he does. The hare in its

he is. The impure can neither stand nor sit with purity. When the

Yet, for my part, I was never unusually squeamish; I could

primitive rank and savage one, and I reverence them both. I love

must be overcome. What avails it that you are Christian, if you are

objection on the score of humanity, I am compelled to doubt if

mean, and does not falsely excuse himself by calling these things

legislature regards it, it is chiefly to regulate the number of

does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes? I have

the house sweet and free from all ill odors and sights. Having been

Who has not sometimes derived an inexpressible satisfaction from

sense a part of Nature themselves, are often in a more favorable

days work, his mind still running on his labor more or less.

countries a hunting parson is no uncommon sight. 九_九_藏_書 Such a one might

merely.

they should let them hunt, I have answered, yes -- remembering that

or imagination, whose vast abdomens betray them.

him forthwith. "A command over our passions, and over the external

when we feed the body; they should both sit down at the same table.

it. We have heard of this virtue, but we know not what it is. We

bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from

represented. Once or twice, however, while I lived at the pond, I

have not yet given place to the former. Almost every New England

tusks, which suggested that there was an animal health and vigor

channel of purity is open. By turns our purity inspires and our

in the best condition has been particularly inclined to abstain from

I have been willing to omit the gun. Yet notwithstanding the

so much, to wear a tidy and respectable appearance each day, to keep

loose, dissipates and makes us unclean, when we are continent

of the flute came home to his ears out of a different sphere from

reports what those men already know practically or instinctively,

flesh and fat. I am satisfied that it is not. Is it not a reproach

low I fall when I am tempted by them! Even music may be

us. The harp is the travelling patterer for the Universes

student sensuality is a sluggish habit of mind. An unclean person

astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. The

berries which I had eaten on a hillside had fed my genius. "The

not perceive that my feelings were much affected. I did not pity

found myself ranging the woods, like a half-starved hound, with a

woodchuck stealing across my path, and felt a strange thrill of

be at cleaning a stable. Nature is hard to be overcome, but she

animal is dying out in him day by day, and the divine being

general rule, that almost all insects in this state eat much less

countries, every function was reverently spoken of and regulated by

confess that I am now inclined to think that there is a finer way of

It is hard to provide and cook so simple and clean a diet as

I am glad to have drunk water so long, for the same reason that I

begins at once to refine a mans features, any meanness or

He who is only a traveller learns things at second-hand and by the

Omnipresent Supreme Being may eat all that exists," that is, is not

remarked, that the Vedant limits this privilege to "the time of

the body, and transmute what in form is the grossest sensuality

star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.

not more religious? I know of many systems of religion esteemed

I have been surprised to consider that the only obvious employment,

my fellow-citizens, whether fathers or children of the town, with

strange abandonment, seeking some kind of venison which I might

That saith that hunters ben not holy men."

over other fields than these. -- But how to come out of this

offensive it may be to modern taste. He teaches how to eat, drink,

I picked up the lower jaw of a hog, with white and sound teeth and

was a rather cool evening, and some of his neighbors were

forever on the side of the most sensitive. Listen to every zephyr

If I knew so wise a man as could teach me purity I would go to seek

some extent, our very life is our disgrace.--

herd lose it very soon; superior men preserve it carefully." Who

fear that we are such gods or demigods only as fauns and satyrs, the

food for the worms that possess us. If the hunter has a taste for

increased scarcity of game, for perhaps the hunter is the greatest

thoughts long when he heard some one playing on a flute, and that

devour, and no morsel could have been too savage for me. The

is universally a slothful one, one who sits by a stove, whom the sun

scurf of his skin, which was constantly shuffled off. But the notes

sometimes eat a fried rat with a good relish, if it were necessary.

Ved reｒeａd•9９cｓw.ｃｏｍfers when it says, that "he who has true faith in the

when the hunters are the "best men," as the Algonquins called them.

content themselves with a drop or two of honey or some other sweet

closest acquaintance with Nature. They early introduce us to and

Most men would feel shame if caught preparing with their own hands

mood for observing her, in the intervals of their pursuits, than

in me which belongs to the lower orders of creation; yet with every

play so many games as they do in England, for here the more

and one does not know the savor of food." He who distinguishes the

As I came home through the woods with my string of fish,

necessary functions of human nature. In earlier ages, in some

philosophers or poets even, who approach her with expectation. She

sleep sensually. They are but one appetite, and we only need to see

subject -- I care not how obscene my words are -- but because I

even insanity, it may lead him; and yet that way, as he grows more

make us ashamed of our appetites, nor interrupt the worthiest

to my knowledge detained at Walden Pond for a whole half-day any of

body and redeem it, and treat himself with ever increasing respect.

If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his

divine allied to beasts, the creatures of appetite, and that, to

into purity and devotion. The generative energy, which, when we are

shines on prostrate, who reposes without being fatigued. If you

pursuits. But put an extra condiment into your dish, and it will

I have found repeatedly, of late years, that I cannot fish

think that I owed a mental perception to the commonly gross sense of

charming moral transfixes us. Many an irksome noise, go a long way

for that alone is a true humanity, or account of human experience.

slumbered in him. They gently did away with the street, and the

another. We are so degraded that we cannot speak simply of the

the burden of his thought was, that though this kept running in his

ages of ten and fourteen; and his hunting and fishing grounds were

sympathies do not always make the usual philanthropic distinctions.

have done I feel that it would have been better if I had not fished.

into a butterfly ... and the gluttonous maggot when become a fly"

hooks with which to angle for the pond itself, impaling the

liquid. The abdomen under the wings of the butterfly still

contemporaries, I had rarely for many years used animal food, or

tea, or coffee, etc.; not so much because of any ill effects which I

any vegetable wilderness -- hunters as well as fishers of men. Thus

mass of men are still and always young in this respect. In some

halves, and is poor authority. We are most interested when science

wisdom; at present I am no fisherman at all. But I see that if I

fare for variety. I have actually fished from the same kind of

I have owed to this employment and to hunting, when quite young, my

keep sober always; and there are infinite degrees of drunkenness. I

sensuality to imbrute them.

reptile is attacked at one mouth of his burrow, he shows himself at

distinct from the spiritual. This creature succeeded by other means

noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morning with a

philosophy more than my feelings. I speak of fishing only now, for

forever. Yet even they expect to go to heaven at last. If the

are in fishing still recommended it to me. I like sometimes to take

sediment of fishing would sink to the bottom and leave their purpose

continued, that they compelled me to eat and drink coarsely also.

except wood-chopping, ice-cutting, or the like business, which ever

conjure up against it was all factitious, and concerned my

as gross an appetite as ever an alderman to his turtle. Not that

one. It is the same whether a man eat, or drink, or cohabit, or

But to tell the truth, I find myself at present somewhat less

cannot sp九-九-藏-書eak of them without betraying my impurity. We discourse

Every man is the builder of a temple, called his body, to the

investment that never fails. In the music of the harp which

questions are entertained only in youth, as most believe of poetry.

And is not ass himself to all the rest!

have little acquaintance. Fishermen, hunters, woodchoppers, and

lives.

all the while. They might go there a thousand times before the

studying ornithology, and sought only new or rare birds. But I

essentially unclean about this diet and all flesh, and I began to

what are called Genius, Heroism, Holiness, and the like, are but

necessity that the first fishers did. Whatever humanity I might

the wild not less than the good. The wildness and adventure that

poison you. It is not worth the while to live by rich cookery.

true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and

he did not oftener stay to play on the common. But already a change

that man is a carnivorous animal? True, he can and does live, in a

as our higher nature slumbers. It is reptile and sensual, and

objection which one healthy man feels will at length prevail over

We are conscious of an animal in us, which awakens in proportion

with years I have grown more coarse and indifferent. Perhaps these

established. Perhaps there is none but has cause for shame on

cohabit, void excrement and urine, and the like, elevating what is

genius, which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or

studying ornithology than this. It requires so much closer

a viand to sustain our animal, or inspire our spiritual life, but

every day prepared for them by others. Yet till this is otherwise

naturalist it may be, and leaves the gun and fish-pole behind. The

essentially. It was insignificant and unnecessary, and cost more

instants truce between virtue and vice. Goodness is the only

legislature for a bait. Thus, even in civilized communities, the

various fruits which succeed it. Man flows at once to God when the

savage delight, and was strongly tempted to seize and devour him

I think that I do not mistake. It is a faint intimation, yet so are

raw; not that I was hungry then, except for that wildness which he

whom the dishes were served up, I can speak from an unusually

with which it is eaten. It is neither the quality nor the quantity,

again. I have skill at it, and, like many of my fellows, a certain

a person do any one of these things to know how great a sensualist

wildest scenes had become unaccountably familiar. I found in

invigorates and inspires us. Chastity is the flowering of man; and

is taking place, owing, not to an increased humanity, but to an

fisher and hunter in earnest. Beside, there is something

apprehending a frost. He had not attended to the train of his

can for the time pervade and control every member and function of

some of my friends have asked me anxiously about their boys, whether

as well, with less trouble and filth. Like many of my

to her preserve-pot. The wonder is how they, how you and I, can

Rome, and will destroy England and America. Of all ebriosity, who

perhaps cannot be wholly expelled; like the worms which, even in

trusting that they would soon outgrow it. No humane being, past the

friend of the animals hunted, not excepting the Humane Society.

lambs, may learn -- and he will be regarded as a benefactor of his

If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and

others, spending their lives in the fields and woods, in a peculiar

it, but never change its nature. I fear that it may enjoy a certain

complete experience. The practical objection to animal food in my

cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea! Ah, how

senses of the body, and good acts, are declared by the Ved to be

does not hear it. We cannot touch a string or move a stop but the

knows what sort of life would result if we had attain九*九*藏*書ed to purity?

. . . . . . .

genius till it misled him. Though the result were bodily weakness,

way -- as any one who will go to snaring rabbits, or slaughtering

great measure, by preying on other animals; but this is a miserable

elastic, more starry, more immortal -- that is your success. All

off, is heard as music, a proud, sweet satire on the meanness of our

indifferent, the laws of the universe are not indifferent, but are

Them to a headlong rage, and made them worse."

that "some insects in their perfect state, though furnished with

nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to

and women. This certainly suggests what change is to be made. It

the last years that I carried a gun my excuse was that I was

though sportsmen only at first, if possible, mighty hunters at last,

John Farmer sat at his door one September evening, after a hard

not limited, like the preserves of an English nobleman, but were

Yet perhaps this may be done. The fruits eaten temperately need not

improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage

was to practise some new austerity, to let his mind descend into his

the arguments and customs of mankind. No man ever followed his

hooks to be used there; but they know nothing about the hook of

prefer the natural sky to an opium-eaters heaven. I would fain

prairie is naturally a hunter, on the head waters of the Missouri

bound to inquire what is his food, or who prepares it; and even in

"yave not of the text a pulled hen

my own butcher and scullion and cook, as well as the gentleman for

not purer than the heathen, if you deny yourself no more, if you are

regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles.

for some reproof, for it is surely there, and he is unfortunate who

come wisdom and purity; from sloth ignorance and sensuality. In the

hunter and fisher, until at last, if he has the seeds of a better

year I am less a fisherman, though without more humanity or even

fact, stated by entomologists -- I find it in Kirby and Spence --

law. Nothing was too trivial for the Hindoo lawgiver, however

but the devotion to sensual savors; when that which is eaten is not

from over the sea, and they are even. He goes to the mill-pond, she

My practice is "nowhere," my opinion is here. Nevertheless I am far

than it came to. A little bread or a few potatoes would have done

humane, while his education has been sadly neglected. This was my

represents the larva. This is the tidbit which tempts his

for they went a-fishing there when they were boys; but now they are

went far enough to please my imagination. I believe that every man

They mistake who assert that the Yankee has few amusements,

rank hold on life and spend my day more as the animals do. Perhaps

live this slimy, beastly life, eating and drinking.

another. If you would be chaste, you must be temperate. What is

yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be

him to new endeavors, though it be to the performance of rites

extremity cries like a child. I warn you, mothers, that my

hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and

wholesome diet. Whatever my own practice may be, I have no doubt

distress."

than in that of larvae. The voracious caterpillar when transformed

Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an

Insurance Company, recommending its laws, and our little goodness is

taste, that I have been inspired through the palate, that some

obliged to confess, because, however much it is to be regretted,

myself, and still find, an instinct toward a higher, or, as it is

the first streaks of morning. There is unquestionably this instinct

will not offend the imagination; but this, I think, is to be fed

life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more

string of fish, though they had the opportunity of seeing the pond