📝 您未登录，登录后完成练习可保存成绩、查看最佳记录。
总字符
0
正确字符
0
错误字符
0
错误率
0.00%
耗时(秒)
0
速度 WPM
0
0 / 65
1I have found repeatedly, of late years, that I cannot fish without falling a little in self-respect. I have tried it
2again and again. I have skill at it, and, like many of my fellows, a certain instinct for it, which revives from time to
3time, 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
4mistake. It is a faint intimation, yet so are the first streaks of morning. There is unquestionably this instinct in me
5which belongs to the lower orders of creation; yet with every year I am less a fisherman, though without more humanity
6or 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
7tempted to become a fisher and hunter in earnest. Beside, there is something essentially unclean about this diet and all
8flesh, and I began to see where housework commences, and whence the endeavor, which costs so much, to wear a tidy and
9respectable appearance each day, to keep the house sweet and free from all ill odors and sights. Having been my own
10butcher and scullion and cook, as well as the gentleman for whom the dishes were served up, I can speak from an
11unusually complete experience. The practical objection to animal food in my case was its uncleanness; and, besides, when
12I had caught and cleaned and cooked and eaten my fish, they seemed not to have fed me essentially. It was insignificant
13and unnecessary, and cost more than it came to. A little bread or a few potatoes would have done as well, with less
14trouble and filth. Like many of my contemporaries, I had rarely for many years used animal food, or tea, or coffee, &c.;
15not so much because of any ill effects which I had traced to them, as because they were not agreeable to my imagination.
16The repugnance to animal food is not the effect of experience, but is an instinct. It appeared more beautiful to live
17low and fare hard in many respects; and though I never did so, I went far enough to please my imagination. I believe
18that every man who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition has been
19particularly inclined to abstain from animal food, and from much food of any kind. It is a significant fact, stated by
20entomologists, I find it in Kirby and Spence, that "some insects in their perfect state, though furnished with organs of
21feeding, make no use of them;" and they lay it down as "a general rule, that almost all insects in this state eat much
22less than in that of larvæ. The voracious caterpillar when transformed into a butterfly," . . "and the gluttonous maggot
23when become a fly," content themselves with a drop or two of honey or some other sweet liquid. The abdomen under the
24wings of the butterfly still represents the larva. This is the tid-bit which tempts his insectivorous fate. The gross
25feeder is a man in the larva state; and there are whole nations in that condition, nations without fancy or imagination,
26whose vast abdomens betray them. It is hard to provide and cook so simple and clean a diet as will not offend the
27imagination; but this, I think, is to be fed when we feed the body; they should both sit down at the same table. Yet
28perhaps this may be done. The fruits eaten temperately need not make us ashamed of our appetites, nor interrupt the
29worthiest pursuits. But put an extra condiment into your dish, and it will poison you. It is not worth the while to live
30by rich cookery. Most men would feel shame if caught preparing with their own hands precisely such a dinner, whether of
31animal or vegetable food, as is every day prepared for them by others. Yet till this is otherwise we are not civilized,
32and, if gentlemen and ladies, are not true men and women. This certainly suggests what change is to be made. It may be
33vain to ask why the imagination will not be reconciled to flesh and fat. I am satisfied that it is not. Is it not a
34reproach that man is a carnivorous animal? True, he can and does live, in a great measure, by preying on other animals;
35but this is a miserable way,--as any one who will go to snaring rabbits, or slaughtering lambs, may learn,--and he will
36be regarded as a benefactor of his race who shall teach man to confine himself to a more innocent and wholesome diet.
37Whatever my own practice may be, I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual
38improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came
39in contact with the more civilized. If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius, which are
40certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or even insanity, it may lead him; and yet that way, as he grows more
41resolute and faithful, his road lies. The faintest assured objection which one healthy man feels will at length prevail
42over the arguments and customs of mankind. No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the result were
43bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in
44conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a
45fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal,--that is your success. All
46nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are
47farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest
48reality. Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. The true harvest of my
49daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust
50caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched. Yet, for my part, I was never unusually squeamish; I could
51sometimes eat a fried rat with a good relish, if it were necessary. I am glad to have drunk water so long, for the same
52reason that I prefer the natural sky to an opium-eater's heaven. I would fain keep sober always; and there are infinite
53degrees of drunkenness. I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor; and think
54of dashing the hopes of a morning with a cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea! Ah, how low I fall
55when I am tempted by them! Even music may be intoxicating. Such apparently slight causes destroyed Greece and Rome, and
56will destroy England and America. Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes? I have
57found it to be the most serious objection to coarse labors long continued, that they compelled me to eat and drink
58coarsely also. But to tell the truth, I find myself at present somewhat less particular in these respects. I carry less
59religion to the table, ask no blessing; not because I am wiser than I was, but, I am obliged to confess, because,
60however much it is to be regretted, with years I have grown more coarse and indifferent. Perhaps these questions are
61entertained only in youth, as most believe of poetry. My practice is "nowhere," my opinion is here. Nevertheless I am
62far from regarding myself as one of those privileged ones to whom the Ved refers when it says, that "he who has true
63faith in the Omnipresent Supreme Being may eat all that exists," that is, is not bound to inquire what is his food, or
64who prepares it; and even in their case it is to be observed, as a Hindoo commentator has remarked, that the Vedant
65limits this privilege to "the time of distress."
🎉 全部完成！共 65 行