Such is oftenest the young man's introduction to the forest,and the most original part of himself.He goes thither at first as a hunter and fisher,until at last,if he has the seeds of a better life in him,he distinguishes his proper objects,as a poet or naturalist it may be,and leaves the gun and fish-pole behind.The mass of men are still and always young in this respect.In some countries a hunting parson is no uncommon sight.Such a one might make a good shepherd's dog,but is far from being the Good Shepherd.I have been surprised to consider that the only obvious employment,except wood-chopping,ice-cutting,or the like business,which ever to my knowledge detained at Walden Pond for a whole half-day any of my fellow-citizens,whether fathers or children of the town,with just one exception,was fishing.Commonly they did not think that they were lucky,or well paid for their time,unless they got a long string of fish,though they had the opportunity of seeing the pond all the while.They might go there a thousand times before the sediment of fishing would sink to the bottom and leave their purpose pure;but no doubt such a clarifying process would be going on all the while.The Governor and his Council faintly remember the pond,for they went a-fishing there when they were boys;but now they are too old and dignified to go a-fishing,and so they know it no more forever.Yet even they expect to go to heaven at last.If the legislature regards it,it is chiefly to regulate the number of hooks to be used there;but they know nothing about the hook of hooks with which to angle for the pond itself,impaling the legislature for a bait.Thus,even in civilized communities,the embryo man passes through the hunter stage of development.
I have found repeatedly,of late years,that I cannot fish without falling a little in self-respect.I have tried it again and again.I have skill at it,and,like many of my fellows,a certain instinct for it,which revives from time to time,but always when I have done I feel that it would have been better if I had not fished.I think that I do not mistake.It is a faint intimation,yet so are the first streaks of morning.There is unquestionably this instinct in me which belongs to the lower orders of creation;yet with every year I am less a fisherman,though without more humanity or even wisdom;at present I am no fisherman at all.But I see that if I were to live in a wilderness I should again be tempted to become a fisher and hunter in earnest.Beside,there is something essentially unclean about this diet and all flesh,and I began to see where housework commences,and whence the endeavor,which costs so much,to wear a tidy and respectable appearance each day,to keep the house sweet and free from all ill odors and sights.Having been my own butcher and scullion and cook,as well as the gentleman for whom the dishes were served up,I can speak from an unusually complete experience.The practical objection to animal food in my case was its uncleanness;and besides,when I had caught and cleaned and cooked and eaten my fish,they seemed not to have fed me essentially.It was insignificant and unnecessary,and cost more than it came to.A little bread or a few potatoes would have done as well,with less trouble and filth.Like many of my 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 had traced to them,as because they were not agreeable to my imagination.The repugnance to animal food is not the effect of experience,but is an instinct.It appeared more beautiful to live low and fare hard in many respects;and though I never did so,I went far enough to please my imagination.I believe that every man who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition has been particularly inclined to abstain from animal food,and from much food of any kind.It is a significant fact,stated by entomologists,-I find it in Kirby and Spence,-that “some insects in their perfect state,though furnished with organs of feeding,make no use of them;”and they lay it down as “a general rule,that almost all insects in this state eat much less than in that of larv.The voracious caterpillar when transformed into a butterfly...and the gluttonous maggot when become a fly”content themselves with a drop or two of honey or some other sweet liquid.The abdomen under the wings of the butterfly still represents the larva.This is the tidbit which tempts his insectivorous fate.The gross feeder is a man in the larva state;and there are whole nations in that condition,nations without fancy or imagination,whose vast abdomens betray them.
