HIGHER LAWS. 
As I came home through the woods with my string 
of fish, trailing my pole, it being now quite dark, I 
caught a glimpse of a woodchuck stealing across my 
path, and felt a strange thrill of savage delight, and was 
strongly tempted to seize and devour him raw; not that 
I was hungry then, except for that wildness which he 
represented. Once or twice, however, while I lived at 
the pond, I found myself ranging the woods, like a half- 
starved hound, with a strange abandonment, seeking 
some kind of venison which I might devour, and no 
morsel could have been too savage for me. The wildest 
scenes had become unaccountably familiar. I found in 
myself, and still find, an instinct toward a higher, or, as 
it is named, spiritual life, as do most men, and another 
toward a primitive rank and savage one, and I rever¬ 
ence them both. I love the wild not less than the good. 
The wildness and adventure that are in fishing still rec¬ 
ommended it to me. I like sometimes to take rank hold 
on life and spend my day more as the animals do. Per¬ 
haps I have owed to this employment and to hunting, 
when quite young, my closest acquaintance with Nature. 
( 226 ) 
