| I finished Walden today - an absolute joy. Here was one unexpected passage I particularly enjoyed.
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. . . .
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. . . .
If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius,
which are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or even
insanity, it may lead him; and yet that way, as he grows more resolute
and faithful, his road lies. The faintest assured objection which one
healthy man feels will at length prevail over the arguments and customs
of mankind. No man ever followed his genius till it misled him.
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