Dear HCN,
In “Unarmed but dangerous
critics close in on hunting” (HCN, 12/11/95), a Sports Afield
columnist quotes Henry David Thoreau in support of hunting. To
finish the conveniently incomplete quote, “This was my answer with
respect to those youths who were bent on this pursuit, trusting
that they would soon outgrow it. No humane being, past the
thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature.” In
Walden one also finds, “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’ and “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.”
Thoreau, in effect, “grew up.” I wish others
would follow his example and do the
same.
Chris
Middings
Burlington,
Vermont
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Thoreau outgrew meat.
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