228 
WALDEN. 
Moreover, when at the pond, I wished sometimes to 
add fish to my fare for variety. I have actually fished 
from the same kind of necessity that the first fishers 
did. Whatever humanity I might conjure up against it 
was all factitious, and concerned my philosophy more 
than my feelings. I speak of fishing only now, for I 
had long felt differently about fowling, and sold my gun 
before I went to the woods. Not that I am less hu¬ 
mane than others, but I did not perceive that my feel¬ 
ings were much affected. I did not pity the fishes nor 
the worms. This was habit. As for fowling, during 
the last years that I carried a gun my excuse was that 
I was studying ornithology, and sought only new or rare 
birds. But I confess that I am now inclined to think 
that there is a finer way of studying ornithology than 
this. It requires so much closer attention to the habits 
of the birds, that, if for that reason only, I have been 
willing to omit the gun. Yet notwithstanding the ob¬ 
jection on the score of humanity, I am compelled to 
doubt if equally valuable sports are ever substituted for 
these; and when some of my friends have asked me 
anxiously about their boys, whether they should let them 
hunt, I have answered, yes,—remembering that it was 
one of the best parts of my education, — make them 
hunters, though sportsmen only at first, if possible, 
mighty hunters at last, so that they shall not find game 
large enough for them in this or any vegetable wilder¬ 
ness, — hunters as well as fishers of men. Thus far I 
am of the opinion of Chaucer’s nun, who 
“ yave not of the text a pulled hen 
That saith that hunters hen not holy men.” 
There is a period in the history of the individual, as of 
