宛如黎明那第一道光~梭羅
摘自梭羅《湖濱散記》
這些年來，我反覆有著這樣一種感覺：每釣一次魚，我的自尊似乎就降低一些。試過一次又一次，每次都這樣。我釣魚技術還不錯，就像很多同伴那樣，偶而有釣魚的衝動。但每釣完魚，我總寧願沒釣過。我想，我沒弄錯，這是一種微妙的暗示，宛如黎明那第一道光。
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我反對肉食主要因其不潔；每當將魚抓來，洗淨、煮熟、食用後，我總覺得並無實質飽足感。這顯然沒什麼意思且不必要、不划算，只要一點點麵包或幾顆馬鈴薯，照樣能達到同樣效果，而且不需那麼麻煩與污穢。
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跟當代許多人一樣，幾年來，我已很少吃肉或喝茶與咖啡。這並非因為我發現它們有什麼害處，而是因為它們有違我的想像力。我對肉食之反感並非透過經驗，而是經由直覺。陋居粗食，在許多方面似乎更美麗；雖然我從未如此，但為了滿足我的想像力，我也都努力實行。我想，每一個渴望維持一種最好的高等感官或詩意能力的人，特別會想戒除肉食及任何過量食物。
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如果要追問，想像力與肉食脂肪為何無法共存？這或許難以得到解答，但我倒很滿意兩者之不相容。人類做為一種肉食動物，難道不就是一種譴責？沒錯，人可以在極大程度上靠獵捕其他動物為生，事實上也的確如此。但這極為可悲，任何一個設陷阱捕捉兔子或宰殺綿羊的人都知道這一點。而那些教導人們如何節制自我以追求一種更為無辜與健康飲食的人，才是人類的貢獻者。
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不管我個人實際上如何生活，我堅信，人類註定將透過一種逐漸的自我改善，停止掠食其他動物，就如同原始部落在跟較文明的人接觸後不再互吃人肉一樣。
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一個具有人道精神的人，不可能在超越欠缺思慮的孩童時期後，仍然想要任意殺害與他同樣保守著生命的任何一隻動物。
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記得有一次，我在一個村落花園裏掘地，有一隻麻雀輕輕在我肩膀上停了一會兒。這份榮幸，超越我所能佩戴的任何肩章。
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原文如下：
Henry David Thoreau，《Walden》
I have found repeatedly, of late years, that I cannot fish without falling a little in self-respect. I have tried it again and again. I have skill at it, and, like many of my fellows, a certain instinct for it, which revives from time to time, but always when I have done I feel it would have been better if I had not fished. I think that I do not mistake. It is a faint intimation, yet so are the first streaks of morning.
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The practical objection to animal food in my case was its uncleanness; and, besides, when I had caught, and cleaned, and cooked, and eaten my fish, they seemed not to have fed me essentially. It was insignificant and unnecessary, and cost more than it came to. A little bread or a few potatoes would have done as well, with less trouble and filth.
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Like many of my contemporaries, I had rarely for many years used animal food, or tea, or coffee, etc.: not so much because of any ill effects which I had traced to them, as because they were not agreeable to my imagination. The repugnance to animal food is not the effect of experience, but is an instinct. It appears more beautiful to live low and far hard in many respect; and though I never did so, I went far enough to please my imagination. I believe that every man who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition has been particularly inclined to abstain from animal food, and from much food of any kind.
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It may be vain to ask why the imagination will not be reconciled to flesh and fat. I am satisfied that it is not. Is it not a reproach that man is a carnivorous animal? True, he can and does live, in a great measure, by preying on other animals; but this is a miserable way-as anyone who will go to snaring rabbits, or slaughtering lambs, may learn-and he will be regarded as a benefactor of his race who shall teach man to confine himself to a more innocent and wholesome diet. Whatever my own practice may be, I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.
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No humane being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does.
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I once had a sparrow alight on my shoulder for a moment while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.