As I came ring of fish,
trailing my pole, it being noe dark, I caught a glimpse of a
a strange thrill of
savage deligrongly tempted to seize and devour him
ra t I wildness which he
represented. Once or the pond, I
found myself ranging tarved h a
strange abandonment, seeking some kind of venison w
devour, and no morsel could oo savage for me. the
scenes ably familiar. I found in
myself, and still find, an instinct toward a is
named, spiritual life, as do most men, and anotoward a
primitive rank and savage one, and I reverence th. I love
t less ture t
are in fisill recommended it to me. I like sometimes to take
rank he animals do. Perhaps
I o t and to ing, we young, my
closest acquaintance ure. troduce us to and
detain us in scenery t age, we should
tle acquaintance. Fisers, woodchoppers, and
othe fields and woods, in a peculiar
sense a part of Nature ten in a more favorable
mood for observing ervals of ts, than
ps even, ion. She
is not afraid to ex o traveller on the
prairie is naturally a er, on ters of the Missouri
and Columbia a trapper, and at t. Mary a fisherman.
raveller learns t second-he
y. e are most interested when science
reports ically or instinctively,
for t alone is a true y, or account of human experience.
take ts,
because so many public
play so many games as the more
primitive but solitary amusements of ing, fishe like
yet given place to t every New England
boy among my contemporaries she
ages of ten and fourteen; and ing and fishing grounds were
not limited, like t were
more boundless even t
oftener stay to play on t already a change
is taking place, o to an increased y, but to an
increased scarcity of game, for perer is test
friend of ted, not excepting ty.
Moreover, imes to add fiso my
fare for variety. I ually fishe same kind of
necessity t t fisever y I might
conjure up against it itious, and concerned my
phan my feelings. I speak of fishing only now, for
I differently about fowling, and sold my gun before I
to t t I am less I did
not perceive t my feelings pity
t. As for fowling, during
t years t I carried a gun my excuse I was
studying ornit only ne I
confess t I am noo t there is a finer way of
studying ornit requires so much closer
attention to ts of t, if for t reason only,
I o omit t notanding the
objection on ty, I am compelled to doubt if
equally valuable sports are ever substituted for these; and when
some of my friends ther
t t, I
it parts of my education -- make ters,
tsmen only at first, if possible, migers at last,
so t t find game large enoughis or
any vegetable wilderness -- ers as well as fishus
far I am of the opinion of Chaucers nun, who
quot;yave not of text a pulled hen
t sait ers ben not ;
tory of the race,
;best men,quot; as them.
e cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is no more
ion ed. this was my
ans to t on t,
trusting t tgro. No the
tless age of boyonly murder any creature which
s life by tenure t s
extremity cries like a c my
sympat alinctions.
Sucenest troduction to t, and
t original part of first as a
er and fisil at last, if ter
life in inguiss, as a poet or
naturalist it may be, and leaves the
mass of men are still and al. In some
countries a ing parson is no uncommon sig
make a good s is far from being the Good Shepherd.
I o consider t t,
except ing, or the like business, which ever
to my knoained at alden Pond for a whole half-day any of
my felloizens, h
just one exception,
time, unless t a long
string of fisunity of seeing the pond
all t go times before the
sediment of fiso ttom and leave their purpose
pure; but no doubt such a clarifying process would be going on all
tly remember the pond,
for t a-fis nohey are
too old and dignified to go a-fis no more
forever. Yet even t to go to last. If the
legislature regards it, it is co regulate the number of
o be used t t the hook of
o angle for tself, impaling the
legislature for a bait. ties, the
embryo man passes ter stage of development.
I edly, of late years, t I cannot fish
falling a little in self-respect. I ried it again and
again. I it, and, like many of my felloain
instinct for it, o time, but always when I
it er if I fished.
I t I do not mistake. It is a faint intimation, yet so are
t streaks of morning. tionably tinct
in me ion; yet h every
year I am less a fis more y or even
present I am no fis all. But I see t if I
o live in a ed to become a
fiser in earnest. Beside, thing
essentially unclean about t and all fleso
see ws
so muco idy and respectable appearance eaco keep
t and free from all ill odors and sights. having been
my ocleman for
whe dishes were served up, I can speak from an unusually
complete experience. tical objection to animal food in my
case s uncleanness; and besides, w and cleaned
and cooked and eaten my fis to have fed me
essentially. It and unnecessary, and cost more
t came to. A little bread or a featoes would have done
as rouble and filth. Like many of my
contemporaries, I had rarely for many years used animal food, or
tea, or coffee, etc.; not so mucs which I
raced to t agreeable to my
imagination. to animal food is not t of
experience, but is an instinct. It appeared more beautiful to live
lohough I never did so, I
far enougo please my imagination. I believe t every man
o preserve ic faculties
in t condition icularly inclined to abstain from
animal food, and from muc is a significant
fact, stated by entomologists -- I find it in Kirby and Spence --
t quot;some insects in t state, th
organs of feeding, make no use of t;; and t do;a
general rule, t almost all insects in tate eat much less
t of larvae. terpillar wransformed
into a butterfly ... and ttonous maggot w;
content two of
liquid. tterfly still
represents tidbit s his
insectivorous fate. tate;
and tions in t condition, nations fancy
or imagination, ray them.
It is o provide and cook so simple and clean a diet as
offend tion; but to be fed
table.
Yet pers eaten temperately need not
make us asites, nor interrupt t
pursuits. But put an extra condiment into your dis will
poison you. It is not o live by rich cookery.
Most men heir own hands
precisely sucable food, as is
every day prepared for t till therwise
civilized, and, if gentlemen and ladies, are not true men
and ainly suggests
may be vain to ask be reconciled to
fles. I am satisfied t it is not. Is it not a reproach
t man is a carnivorous animal? true, he can and does live, in a
great measure, by preying on ot this is a miserable
s, or slaughtering
lambs, may learn -- and or of his
race and
ice may be, I
t it is a part of tiny of ts gradual
improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage
tribes off eating eacact
he more civilized.
If one listens to test but constant suggestions of his
genius, rue, to remes, or
even insanity, it may lead t way, as he grows more
resolute and faitest assured
objection h prevail over
ts and customs of mankind. No man ever followed his
genius till it misled were bodily weakness,
yet per to be
regretted, for ty to higher principles.
If t are suc you greet th joy, and
life emits a fragrance like flo-scented herbs, is more
elastic, more starry, more immortal -- t is your success. All
nature is your congratulation, and you arily to
bless yourself. test gains and values are fart from
being appreciated. e easily come to doubt if t. e soon
forget t reality. Pers most
astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. the
true of my daily life is someangible and
indescribable as tints of morning or evening. It is a little
star-dust caug of tched.
Yet, for my part, I was never unusually squeamish; I could
sometimes eat a fried rat were necessary.
I am glad to er so long, for t I
prefer tural sky to an opium-eaters heaven. I would fain
keep sober ale degrees of drunkenness. I
believe t er is t so
noble a liquor; and th a
cup of ea! Ah, how
loed by them! Even music may be
intoxicating. Sucly sligroyed Greece and
Rome, and roy England and America. Of all ebriosity, who
does not prefer to be intoxicated by thes? I have
found it to be t serious objection to coarse labors long
continued, t to eat and drink coarsely also.
But to tell trut present somew less
particular in ts. I carry less religion to table,
ask no blessing; not because I am , I am
obliged to confess, because, is to be regretted,
. Perhese
questions are entertained only in yout believe of poetry.
My practice is quot;now; my opinion is heless I am far
from regarding myself as one of to whe
Ved refers quot;rue faithe
Omnipresent Supreme Being may eat all t exists,quot; t is, is not
bound to inquire w is ; and even in
t is to be observed, as a ator has
remarked, t t limits to quot;time of
distress.quot;
sometimes derived an inexpressible satisfaction from
ite o
t I oal perception to the commonly gross sense of
taste, t I e, t some
berries he
soul not being mistress of ; says tseu, quot;one looks,
and one does not see; one listens, and one does not s,
and one does not kno; inguishe
true savor of ton;
cannot be otan may go to h
as gross an appetite as ever an alderman to urtle. Not t
food o t tite
is eaten. It is neity nor tity,
but tion to sensual savors;
a viand to sustain our animal, or inspire our spiritual life, but
food for t possess us. If ter aste for
mud-turtles, muskrats, and otidbits, the fine lady
indulges a taste for jelly made of a calfs foot, or for sardines
from over to the mill-pond, she
to . they, how you and I, can
live tly life, eating and drinking.
Our lingly moral. there is never an
instants truce betue and vice. Goodness is the only
investment t never fails. In the harp which
trembles round t is ting on thrills
us. travelling patterer for the Universes
Insurance Company, recommending its latle goodness is
all t t last grows
indifferent, t indifferent, but are
forever on t sensitive. Listen to every zephyr
for some reproof, for it is surely tunate who
does not . e cannot toucring or move a stop but the
cransfixes us. Many an irksome noise, go a long way
off, is satire on the meanness of our
lives.
e are conscious of an animal in us, wion
as our ure slumbers. It is reptile and sensual, and
per be whe worms which, even in
life and hdraw from
it, but never cs nature. I fear t it may enjoy a certain
s o not pure. ther day
I picked up te and sound teeth and
tusks, th and vigor
distinct from tual. ture succeeded by other means
temperance and purity. quot;t in we
beasts,quot; says Mencius, quot;is a the common
very soon; superior men preserve it carefully.quot; ho
kno of life if ained to purity?
If I kneeacy I o seek
;A command over our passions, and over ternal
senses of ts, are declared by to be
indispensable in tion to God.quot; Yet t
can for time pervade and control every member and function of
transmute sensuality
into purity and devotion. tive energy, which, when we are
loose, dissipates and makes us unclean,
invigorates and inspires us. City is the flowering of man; and
w are called Genius,
various fruits once to God whe
cy is open. By turns our purity inspires and our
impurity casts us dohe
animal is dying out in he divine being
establis has cause for shame on
account of tisure to which he is allied. I
fear t he
divine allied to beasts, tures of appetite, and t, to
some extent, our very life is our disgrace.--
quot;h due place assigned
to s and disafforested his mind!
. . . . . . .
Can use t, ,
And is not ass o all t!
Else man not only is the herd of swine,
But oo which did incline
to a ;
All sensuality is one, t takes many forms; all purity is
one. It is t, or drink, or co, or
sleep sensually. t one appetite, and o see
a person do any one of to kno
and nor sit y. he
reptile is attacked at one mout
anote, you must be temperate. is
city? e? know
it. e ue, but is. e
speak conformably to tion
come y; from sloty. In the
student sensuality is a sluggis of mind. An unclean person
is universally a slots by a stove, whe sun
srate, igued. If you
ly, t
be at cleaning a stable. Nature is o be overcome, but she
must be overcome. avails it t you are Cian, if you are
not purer then, if you deny yourself no more, if you are
not more religious? I knoems of religion esteemed
s fill th shame, and provoke
o ne be to tes
merely.
I ate to say t it is not because of the
subject -- I care not because I
cannot speak of t betraying my impurity. e discourse
freely sy, and are silent about
anot speak simply of the
necessary functions of ure. In earlier ages, in some
countries, every function ly spoken of and regulated by
laoo trivial for the hindoo lawgiver, however
offensive it may be to modern taste. eaco eat, drink,
co, void excrement and urine, and ting w is
mean, and does not falsely excuse hings
trifles.
Every man is temple, called o the
god er a style purely off by
ead. e are all sculptors and painters, and
our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness
begins at once to refine a mans features, any meanness or
sensuality to imbrute them.
Jo at ember evening, after a hard
days work, ill running on his labor more or less.
doo re-create ellectual man. It
her cool evening, and some of his neighbors were
appre. attended to train of his
ts long
sound ill of
t t running in his
riving it against his
it concerned tle. It he
scurf of antly s tes
of te came o of a different sphere from
t ed ain faculties which
slumbered in ly did areet, and the
village, and tate in wo him --
ay his mean moiling life, when a
glorious existence is possible for you? tars twinkle
over ot o come out of this
condition and actually migrate t hink of
o practise some neerity, to let o his
body and redeem it, and treat .