On Getting Acquainted 



challenge if you are well balanced, or anger if you 

 have a fighting spirit, than to have a stranger 

 watching your every move while you go about 

 your lawful affairs. The fact that you cannot 

 word a reason for your alarm or challenge or anger 

 makes you all the more certain that you have an 

 unanswerable reason; which is your inborn right 

 to be let alone. 



This natural and inalienable right (which so- 

 ciety curbs for its own protection, and reform 

 societies trample on for their peculiar pleasure) 

 may help you to understand why the animal be- 

 comes alarmed when he finds you watching him 

 closely. He desires above all things else, above his 

 dinner even, to be let alone; and your eye may as 

 surely disturb his peace, his self-possession, his sense 

 of security, as any gun you may shoot at him or 

 any fire you may kindle in his fragrant domain. 



You have but to think a moment in order to 

 understand why even your look may be too dis- 

 turbing. When a beast of prey sees a buck that 

 he wants to catch, what is his invariable mode of 

 procedure? First he hides, then he creeps or 

 skulks or waits, all the while keeping his eyes 

 fastened upon his victim, watching every move 

 with fierce intensity till the moment comes to 

 spring. It follows, naturally enough, that when 

 the same beast of prey finds other eyes fixed upon 



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