CHAPTER XII. 
METAPHYSICS OF BEAR-HUNTING. 
THERE are those who can learn nothing through the ex- 
,@Tiences of others, however impressively presented; who 
itust hear, see, taste, smell and feel for themselves, before 
“Ley can understand the most self-evident truths. The knock- 
Jown argument is the only one that has availed with me for 
evil or for good; and that, it seems, I was to huve the full 
benefit of, before the frantic scepticism, which had fustened 
upon this period of my life, could be reached. The passion 
of the hunter-naturalist for solitary communion with the soul 
of nature, which had strengthened the life of my childhood 
843 
