Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chronology
- Bibliographical note
- Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)
- Selections from Walden
- Economy
- Higher Laws
- Conclusion
- Life without Principle
- Slavery in Massachusetts
- A Plea for Captain John Brown
- Martyrdom of John Brown
- The Last Days of John Brown
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Higher Laws
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chronology
- Bibliographical note
- Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)
- Selections from Walden
- Economy
- Higher Laws
- Conclusion
- Life without Principle
- Slavery in Massachusetts
- A Plea for Captain John Brown
- Martyrdom of John Brown
- The Last Days of John Brown
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Summary
As I came home through the woods with my string of fish, 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 reverence them both. I love the wild not less than the good. The wildness and adventure that are in fishing still recommended it to me. I like sometimes to take rank hold on life and spend my day more as the animals do. Perhaps I have owed to this employment and to hunting, when quite young, my closest acquaintance with Nature. They early introduce us and detain us in scenery with which otherwise, at that age, we should have little acquaintance.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Thoreau: Political Writings , pp. 81 - 90Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996