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 .