介绍:
2021年12月16日晚8:00——9:00
瓦尔登湖三人行（136）直播实况录制 腾讯会议版
英语文本
Walden [ˈwɔldən] (Issue 136)
11. Higher Laws (4)
[5] 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 that it would have been better if I had not fished. I think that I do not mistake. It is a faint intimation[ˌɪntɪˈmeɪʃən], yet so are the first streaks[striːk] of morning. There is unquestionably this instinct in me which belongs to the lower orders of creation; yet with every year I am less a fisherman, though without more humanity or even wisdom; at present I am no fisherman at all. But I see that if I were to live in a wilderness I should again be tempted to become a fisher and hunter in earnest. Beside, there is something essentially unclean about this diet and all flesh, and I began to see where housework commences, and whence the endeavor, which costs so much, to wear a tidy and respectable appearance each day, to keep the house sweet and free from all ill odors and sights. Having been my own butcher['bʊtʃə(r)] and scullion[ˈskʌljən] and cook, as well as the gentleman for whom the dishes were served up, I can speak from an unusually complete experience. 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[kɒst] more than it came to. A little bread or a few potatoes would have done as well, with less trouble and filth. 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 appeared more beautiful to live low and fare[feə] hard in many respects; 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[pəʊ'etɪk] faculties in the best condition has been particularly inclined to abstain[æbˈsteɪn] from animal food, and from much food of any kind. It is a significant fact, stated by entomologists[ˌentəˈmɒlədʒɪsts] - I find it in Kirby and Spence - that "some insects in their perfect state, though furnished with organs of feeding, make no use of them"; and they lay it down as "a general rule, that almost all insects in this state eat much less than in that of larvae[ˈlɑːvaiː]. The voracious[vəˈreɪʃəs] caterpillar[ˈkætəˌpɪlə] when transformed into a butterfly ... and the gluttonous[ˈɡlʌtnəs] maggot[ˈmæɡət] 蛆when become a fly" content themselves with a drop or two of honey or some other sweet liquid. The abdomen[ˈæbdəmən] under the wings of the butterfly still represents the larva. This is the tidbit[ˈtɪdbɪt] which tempts his insectivorous[ˌɪnsekˈtɪvərəs] fate. The gross[ɡrəʊs] feeder is a man in the larva[ˈlɑːvə] state; and there are whole nations in that condition, nations without fancy or imagination, whose vast abdomens betray them.
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