A person would do well to only drink water, rather than beverages that have side affects like coffee and alcohol such as giving a big boost of energy or make the body unable to perform to its best. Thoreau feels strongly about this and he proves it when he says, "I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morning with a cp of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea!” What he is basically saying is that things like coffee, wine, and tea only harm a person, while water would be the only smart choice to consume. Water is the only drink that is best because it refreshes but doesn’t make the body feel different, other than being refreshed. Thoreau is correct because water is pure and it only restores the body to give it what it needs to perform, while other drinks just bring down the body and are not worth the trouble.
In Walden, Thearou observes that "the greatest gains and values are the farthest from being appreciated." I concur to his assertion. With all of the materialistic things that are worried, complained about and "needed", when somthing meaningfuk and significant is gained from the whole experience it is not even noticed because we are blinded by the bling.
(Pg.158-borders edition). Men in life mistakenly see themselves pure and saintly, but truth is, no men are.To be pure is to obey the God that you chose to follow and abide by all laws,according to Thoreau. "If I knew so wise a man as could teach me purity I would go to seek him forthwith". In full agreement, Thoreau, in other words, is saying that there is no man on this world that has not sin, that is not pure.If he is mistaken, he would love to encounter that person. In modern time, you will almost never come across a pure body.
Dover Edition p. 140. "I am glad to have drunk water so long [...] Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?"
Most people do not find a direct connection between music and beverages. In Walden, however, Henry David Thoreau highlights the similarities between music, coffee, tea, and alcohol--all taint and intoxicate man. Coffee and tea are stimulants--they cause the mind to be unnaturally alert--while alcohol is a depressant, diminishing the body's functions and being potentially dangerous. Thoreau's assertion about coffee, tea, and alcohol is therefore correct and water is a healthier, purer alternative. Music, however, is misunderstood in Walden. Thoreau idolizes the intoxication of a breath of fresh air, showing his reverence for nature; likewise, music is a part of nature. It is present in birdsong, in the splatter of rain, in the ripple of the brook. While Thoreau’s assertion about coffee, tea, and alcohol is accurate, his view of music is inconsistent with the rest of his beliefs.
assertion page 139 "i believe that every ... much food of any kind"
Omnivore is a useless word. To be an omnivore is excessive and unnecessary. Humans are perfectly able to sustain themselves without eating meat. It has become accepted by most that an opponents characteristics are not gained when they are consumed. Nor does eating meat drastically improve health or character. The purpose of consuming animal flesh is purely luxury. Not only does meat not provide any substantial benefits, it perhaps damages the clarity and innocence of the mind. As put by Thoreau, “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.”
"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 any one 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 more innocent and whole some diet"
Henry David Thoreau makes a valid asserstion basically stating todays society is full of carnivorous people who are choosing to make their lives miserable with their eating habits that kill many animals, instead of the innocent and healthy diet that many who have seen killings before understand and teach.
pg 139 "The fruits eaten temperately need not make us ashamed of our appetites, nor interrupt the worthiest pursuits. But put an extra condiment into your dish, and it will poison you. It is not worth the while to live by rich cookery"
I love food. Watching people make food, eating or even just cooking food myself makes me happy.Many people have this love affair with food but Henry David Thoreau doesn't. Thoreau asserts that peoples dealings with food should be restrained and that we shouldn't over indulge our senses in a meal. Thoreau is right in saying that we should partake in a meal with less greed, it ist the gluttony of our society today that has caused us to become overweight. My love affair with food, the taste and smells , the beauty of it, it has all caused me to overlook the fact that food is only for nutrients and not taste. It is not here to make me feel better but to help my body perform its activities better.
"I am glad to have drunk water so long, for the same reason that i prefer the natural sky(...) who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?" (pg. 140, para. 3)
Buddha insisted that "To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear." In other words, Buddha believed that in order to maintain a stable mind one must maintain a pure and healthy body.
(I didn't get to connect the quote to Thoreau because I ran out of time due to spending too much now on the passage part.)
Life is life, no matter the form or the possessor. Thoreau clearly understood this aspect for he believed that no mature, humane being would carelessly take the life of another creature. Despite the belief that hunting is a sport, when a caring and understanding individual views the taking of life, they will always see it as a negative matter. In youth, life is often seen as an object rather than a gift, and although other creatures work just as hard as humans to maintain life, ignorant youth who have yet to understand the concept of existence, often take it for granted. Though immature beings have yet to conceive the notion, all creatures on the earth have the same right to live. As Thoreau asserted, through time, the decision to reject the taking of life will come with experience.
Dover Edition p. 140. "I am glad to have drunk water so long [...] Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?"
Men intoxicated by substance ensured the demise of great civilizations. Men intoxicated by the beauty of nature created great works of art and literature. Thoreau asserts that intoxication is the root of many problems and that men should live in awe of nature's beauty. Thoreau's assertion is valid because of the dangerous effects of intoxicating substances. The deaths of many historical figures can be attributed to drugs and alcohol such as David Kennedy, Joseph McCarthy, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In contrast, the intoxication caused by nature has yielded the greatest contributors to art and literature such as Monet, Thoreau himself, and the artists of the Hudson River School.
In his reflections upon society, Henry David Thoreau reached the conclusion that our society lies split into two groups: those who succumb to sensuality and those who resist the indulgences. Thoreau found that one can not be both pure and sensual. In order to achieve purity and chastity, one must exert themselves and find wisdom, but if one becomes lazy in habit they become ignorant and indulgent. Thoreau felt it was our decision as to whether we be pure and virtuous or sensual and unclean. Thoreau's assertion that within our society we must choose whether to live by virtue or by vice is accurate. Our actions define us as individuals and each day we face the choice: should we choose the decision that will better us as a person or please us? The decision lies with us, as does the path we choose: pure or sensual.
PG 139 "It was insignificant and unecessary.. trouble and filth". He's saying that hunting and fishingis pointless because a lot of work is put into preparing it while very little is recieved from eating it. Intro: Do humans need meat, fish and poultry to survive? Or would fruit and vegetables be enough? Henry David Thoreau argues that we could survive on a herbivore diet. He complains that hunting and preparing meat gives little benefit to those who eat it. Thoreau was correct about the pointless work put into preparing meat in 1842. But technology has made it easier and beneficial to make and eat meat.
"It is hard to provide and cook so simple and clean a diet, as will not offend the imagination; but this, I think is to be fed when we feed the body; they should both sit down at the same table." " I believe that every man who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition has been particulary inclined to abstain from animal food, and from much food of any kind."
It is often said that the United States has become an overweight nation. Thoreau asserts that a clean and simple diet is imperative to feed both the body and the imagination. In other words Thoreau believes that what we eat should be from all natural sources, and of which is easy to obtain. When it comes to the topic of eating habits most of us will agree that we are not healthy eaters. However Thoreau's assertion of clean eating habits is in touch with our society today.
Dont have dover edition, but it is either on the 2nd or 3rd page into higher laws.
Are animals in nature our friends and neighbors, or are they brutal beasts whom's murder we can justify because of their viciousness? As the author of Walden, Henry David Thoreau puts it "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." Thoreau's philosophy regarding murdering creatures for food being wrong, is in fact correct - people should peacefully coincide with their animal neighbors.
My assertion came from the first paragraph of the chapter "Higher Laws," the quote about jumping on a life groundhog and eating it, as well as him two paragraphs later saying that he hates eating meat because it's dirty. ------------ A ravenous wolf tending toward a diet of no meat is the paradoxical image put forth in this section of Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau presents the duality of human nature; men have a primitive nature in them at the same time as a desire to be pure. Thoreau exemplifies this viewpoint by describing his various and conflicting viewpoints on food; he sometimes desires raw meat, he does not eat meat at all, he enjoys behaving as an animal, he enjoys the purity of not eating meat. This idea of remaining chaste while indulging ones inner animal is, in theory, acceptable, but in its practice in modern times, mankind has shown that a lack of moderation eliminates the balance of virtue and vice suggested by Thoreau.
"I have found repeatedly, of late years, that I cannot fish without falling a little in self respect. When I have done, I feel that it would have been better if I had not fished. There is essentially something unclean about this diet and flesh."
Thoreau asserts that killing an animal such as a fish should lower your self respect in one way or another. He also asserts that such killing is unclean. By this he means wrong. But what is wrong? What is Thoreau's definition of wrong? No one can justify what he means, only he can do that. We can only look at what he asserts and break them down into our definition of what is true and what is false.
“Is it not a reproach that man is carnivorous? 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 be snaring rabbits, or slaughtering lambs, may learn, - and he will be regarded as a benefactor of his race who shall teach him 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 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.” (pg. 171)
Introduction:
In Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden, the “Higher Laws” chapter, Thoreau maintains that eating animals is not all what it is believed to be. Thoreau believes that all men should take part in a healthier and natural diet. He acknowledges that learning how to hunt is part of a young boys’ education and is in fact an essential part of his life. The problem is, Thoreau believes, that the boy should enter a higher calling and realizes that it is time to leave the “gun and fish pole” behind. Before Thoreau realized that hunting was not for him, he tried it. “….when I caught, and cleaned, and cooked, and eaten my fish, they seemed not to have fed me essentially.” After spending all of his time preparing the hunted meal, he realized that a more natural meal, perhaps bread or a few potatoes would have done just as well. Thoreau wants to make it known that it is possible for people to stop eating animals because savages in the earlier times, did not eat each other when they did not have any food. This essay will further explain why Thoreau believes that animals should not be eaten and how what he is saying is true.
"Ah, how low I fall when I am tempted by them!", Thoreau writes. In making that statement, thoreau argues against the use of alcohol, coffee, and tea. thoreau acknowlegdes that society uses those liquids as a means of relaxing and socializing. Thoreau believes any liquid besides water is intoxicating to a mans mind andsoul. Although I agree with Thoreau on the assertion about alcohol, I do not agree with the asserition made about coffee and tea. Coffee and tea were considered "the drinks of knowlegde and clarity" throughout history. Although they are enjoyable, they do not harm the soul and mind of a man like alcohol will.
-Barnes & Noble edition [pg. 171, beginning of the second paragraph] “I am glad to have drunk water so long, for the same reason that I prefer the natural sky to an opium-eater’s heaven. . .I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor; . . . or of an evening with a dish of tea!”
Most people tend to believe drinking is a necessity and drugs are a way to relieve pain. I’ve always believed pure elements should be the only things that enter our bodies, not so much of things that aren’t pure to the body, such as wine and opium. According to Thoreau water is the only suitable drink for people. He sees wine, coffee, and tea as toxins. Even music is dangerous. Thoreau’s assertion is correct. Since water is pure and replenishes the body, common sense seems to dictate, only a wise man would drink it.
Americans today tend to see "eating dinner" as going to the nearest drive-thru. Long before that Taco Bell was established on every street corner, people had to actually work to acquire their food. Bringing home dinner for his famly, a man would use numerous food gathering techniques that involved mobility. Fruit picking, berry collecting, hunting (by "hunting" it's not a means of doing 85 down the service drive in hopes of hitting a deer). In today's society, there are so many health problems based on America's poor eating habits. "It is hard to provide and cook so simple and clean a diet as will not offend the imagination; but this, I think, is to be fed when we feed the body; they should both sit down a the same table." Thoreau duly notes that you should treat your body as though it's the most important thing in the world and what you put into it must be at the highest standard of health.
"Water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morning with a cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea" (Thoreau 173). Henry David Thoreau argues in Walden the ideal drink. Thoreau believes that water is neccessary because it keeps a person pure unlike alchol, tea, and coffee. I agree that water literally keeps a person pure but what a person drinks does not show how good or bad of a person they are.
"I carry less religion to the table, ask no blessing; not because I am wiser than I was, but, I am obliged to confess, because, however much it is regretted with years, I have grown more coarse and indifferent." (139). Henry David Thoreau is not only a ascetic extremist, but also a religilous man. Besides his insistance of physical purity, he resists the presence of religion when it comes to food as well. Why is this? Oddly enough, his ideology of purity goes against principles of religion and is why he, yet again, refutes another "mundane" aspect.
30 comments:
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WOOH first nerd to post. ;)
(Page 144, Paragraph one is where I got my assertion from.)
Most people have heard the common cliché that "your body is a temple." This old adage is one that people typically accept as true--even Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau doesn't just adhere to the old saying, but instead puts his own spin on it. He does not simply say that people should take care of their bodies, but that people are "sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man's features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them." What he means is that people should take care of themselves because everything they do and everything they say will affect them, whether it's physically or psychologically. Thoreau's statement about people treating their bodies as temples is just as true as the old common belief that it mirrors.
(I don't have the dover copy for Walden)
A person would do well to only drink water, rather than beverages that have side affects like coffee and alcohol such as giving a big boost of energy or make the body unable to perform to its best. Thoreau feels strongly about this and he proves it when he says, "I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morning with a cp of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea!” What he is basically saying is that things like coffee, wine, and tea only harm a person, while water would be the only smart choice to consume. Water is the only drink that is best because it refreshes but doesn’t make the body feel different, other than being refreshed. Thoreau is correct because water is pure and it only restores the body to give it what it needs to perform, while other drinks just bring down the body and are not worth the trouble.
(I dont have the Dover Edition)
Quote: pg.162
In Walden, Thearou observes that "the greatest gains and values are the farthest from being appreciated." I concur to his assertion. With all of the materialistic things that are worried, complained about and "needed", when somthing meaningfuk and significant is gained from the whole experience it is not even noticed because we are blinded by the bling.
(Pg.158-borders edition). Men in life mistakenly see themselves pure and saintly, but truth is, no men are.To be pure is to obey the God that you chose to follow and abide by all laws,according to Thoreau. "If I knew so wise a man as could teach me purity I would go to seek him forthwith". In full agreement, Thoreau, in other words, is saying that there is no man on this world that has not sin, that is not pure.If he is mistaken, he would love to encounter that person. In modern time, you will almost never come across a pure body.
Dover Edition p. 140. "I am glad to have drunk water so long [...] Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?"
Most people do not find a direct connection between music and beverages. In Walden, however, Henry David Thoreau highlights the similarities between music, coffee, tea, and alcohol--all taint and intoxicate man. Coffee and tea are stimulants--they cause the mind to be unnaturally alert--while alcohol is a depressant, diminishing the body's functions and being potentially dangerous. Thoreau's assertion about coffee, tea, and alcohol is therefore correct and water is a healthier, purer alternative. Music, however, is misunderstood in Walden. Thoreau idolizes the intoxication of a breath of fresh air, showing his reverence for nature; likewise, music is a part of nature. It is present in birdsong, in the splatter of rain, in the ripple of the brook. While Thoreau’s assertion about coffee, tea, and alcohol is accurate, his view of music is inconsistent with the rest of his beliefs.
assertion page 139 "i believe that every ... much food of any kind"
Omnivore is a useless word. To be an omnivore is excessive and unnecessary. Humans are perfectly able to sustain themselves without eating meat. It has become accepted by most that an opponents characteristics are not gained when they are consumed. Nor does eating meat drastically improve health or character. The purpose of consuming animal flesh is purely luxury. Not only does meat not provide any substantial benefits, it perhaps damages the clarity and innocence of the mind. As put by Thoreau, “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.”
(dont have dover, in my book pg. 171)
"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 any one 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 more innocent and whole some diet"
Henry David Thoreau makes a valid asserstion basically stating todays society is full of carnivorous people who are choosing to make their lives miserable with their eating habits that kill many animals, instead of the innocent and healthy diet that many who have seen killings before understand and teach.
pg 139 "The fruits eaten temperately need not make us ashamed of our appetites, nor interrupt the worthiest pursuits. But put an extra condiment into your dish, and it will poison you. It is not worth the while to live by rich cookery"
I love food. Watching people make food, eating or even just cooking food myself makes me happy.Many people have this love affair with food but Henry David Thoreau doesn't. Thoreau asserts that peoples dealings with food should be restrained and that we shouldn't over indulge our senses in a meal. Thoreau is right in saying that we should partake in a meal with less greed, it ist the gluttony of our society today that has caused us to become overweight. My love affair with food, the taste and smells , the beauty of it, it has all caused me to overlook the fact that food is only for nutrients and not taste. It is not here to make me feel better but to help my body perform its activities better.
"I am glad to have drunk water so long, for the same reason that i prefer the natural sky(...) who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?" (pg. 140, para. 3)
Buddha insisted that "To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear." In other words, Buddha believed that in order to maintain a stable mind one must maintain a pure and healthy body.
(I didn't get to connect the quote to Thoreau because I ran out of time due to spending too much now on the passage part.)
(Page 138)
Life is life, no matter the form or the possessor. Thoreau clearly understood this aspect for he believed that no mature, humane being would carelessly take the life of another creature. Despite the belief that hunting is a sport, when a caring and understanding individual views the taking of life, they will always see it as a negative matter. In youth, life is often seen as an object rather than a gift, and although other creatures work just as hard as humans to maintain life, ignorant youth who have yet to understand the concept of existence, often take it for granted. Though immature beings have yet to conceive the notion, all creatures on the earth have the same right to live. As Thoreau asserted, through time, the decision to reject the taking of life will come with experience.
Dover Edition p. 140. "I am glad to have drunk water so long [...] Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes?"
Men intoxicated by substance ensured the demise of great civilizations. Men intoxicated by the beauty of nature created great works of art and literature. Thoreau asserts that intoxication is the root of many problems and that men should live in awe of nature's beauty. Thoreau's assertion is valid because of the dangerous effects of intoxicating substances. The deaths of many historical figures can be attributed to drugs and alcohol such as David Kennedy, Joseph McCarthy, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In contrast, the intoxication caused by nature has yielded the greatest contributors to art and literature such as Monet, Thoreau himself, and the artists of the Hudson River School.
Page 143, paragraph 1
In his reflections upon society, Henry David Thoreau reached the conclusion that our society lies split into two groups: those who succumb to sensuality and those who resist the indulgences. Thoreau found that one can not be both pure and sensual. In order to achieve purity and chastity, one must exert themselves and find wisdom, but if one becomes lazy in habit they become ignorant and indulgent. Thoreau felt it was our decision as to whether we be pure and virtuous or sensual and unclean. Thoreau's assertion that within our society we must choose whether to live by virtue or by vice is accurate. Our actions define us as individuals and each day we face the choice: should we choose the decision that will better us as a person or please us? The decision lies with us, as does the path we choose: pure or sensual.
PG 139 "It was insignificant and unecessary.. trouble and filth". He's saying that hunting and fishingis pointless because a lot of work is put into preparing it while very little is recieved from eating it.
Intro:
Do humans need meat, fish and poultry to survive? Or would fruit and vegetables be enough? Henry David Thoreau argues that we could survive on a herbivore diet. He complains that hunting and preparing meat gives little benefit to those who eat it. Thoreau was correct about the pointless work put into preparing meat in 1842. But technology has made it easier and beneficial to make and eat meat.
"It is hard to provide and cook so simple and clean a diet, as will not offend the imagination; but this, I think is to be fed when we feed the body; they should both sit down at the same table." " I believe that every man who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition has been particulary inclined to abstain from animal food, and from much food of any kind."
It is often said that the United States has become an overweight nation. Thoreau asserts that a clean and simple diet is imperative to feed both the body and the imagination. In other words Thoreau believes that what we eat should be from all natural sources, and of which is easy to obtain. When it comes to the topic of eating habits most of us will agree that we are not healthy eaters. However Thoreau's assertion of clean eating habits is in touch with our society today.
Dont have dover edition, but it is either on the 2nd or 3rd page into higher laws.
Are animals in nature our friends and neighbors, or are they brutal beasts whom's murder we can justify because of their viciousness? As the author of Walden, Henry David Thoreau puts it "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." Thoreau's philosophy regarding murdering creatures for food being wrong, is in fact correct - people should peacefully coincide with their animal neighbors.
My assertion came from the first paragraph of the chapter "Higher Laws," the quote about jumping on a life groundhog and eating it, as well as him two paragraphs later saying that he hates eating meat because it's dirty.
------------
A ravenous wolf tending toward a diet of no meat is the paradoxical image put forth in this section of Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau presents the duality of human nature; men have a primitive nature in them at the same time as a desire to be pure. Thoreau exemplifies this viewpoint by describing his various and conflicting viewpoints on food; he sometimes desires raw meat, he does not eat meat at all, he enjoys behaving as an animal, he enjoys the purity of not eating meat. This idea of remaining chaste while indulging ones inner animal is, in theory, acceptable, but in its practice in modern times, mankind has shown that a lack of moderation eliminates the balance of virtue and vice suggested by Thoreau.
I do not have the dover edition.
"I have found repeatedly, of late years, that I cannot fish without falling a little in self respect. When I have done, I feel that it would have been better if I had not fished. There is essentially something unclean about this diet and flesh."
Thoreau asserts that killing an animal such as a fish should lower your self respect in one way or another. He also asserts that such killing is unclean. By this he means wrong. But what is wrong? What is Thoreau's definition of wrong? No one can justify what he means, only he can do that. We can only look at what he asserts and break them down into our definition of what is true and what is false.
“Is it not a reproach that man is carnivorous? 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 be snaring rabbits, or slaughtering lambs, may learn, - and he will be regarded as a benefactor of his race who shall teach him 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 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.” (pg. 171)
Introduction:
In Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden, the “Higher Laws” chapter, Thoreau maintains that eating animals is not all what it is believed to be. Thoreau believes that all men should take part in a healthier and natural diet. He acknowledges that learning how to hunt is part of a young boys’ education and is in fact an essential part of his life. The problem is, Thoreau believes, that the boy should enter a higher calling and realizes that it is time to leave the “gun and fish pole” behind. Before Thoreau realized that hunting was not for him, he tried it. “….when I caught, and cleaned, and cooked, and eaten my fish, they seemed not to have fed me essentially.” After spending all of his time preparing the hunted meal, he realized that a more natural meal, perhaps bread or a few potatoes would have done just as well. Thoreau wants to make it known that it is possible for people to stop eating animals because savages in the earlier times, did not eat each other when they did not have any food. This essay will further explain why Thoreau believes that animals should not be eaten and how what he is saying is true.
"Ah, how low I fall when I am tempted by them!", Thoreau writes. In making that statement, thoreau argues against the use of alcohol, coffee, and tea. thoreau acknowlegdes that society uses those liquids as a means of relaxing and socializing. Thoreau believes any liquid besides water is intoxicating to a mans mind andsoul. Although I agree with Thoreau on the assertion about alcohol, I do not agree with the asserition made about coffee and tea. Coffee and tea were considered "the drinks of knowlegde and clarity" throughout history. Although they are enjoyable, they do not harm the soul and mind of a man like alcohol will.
pg. 236-237 (my non-dover version)
-Barnes & Noble edition [pg. 171, beginning of the second paragraph]
“I am glad to have drunk water so long, for the same reason that I prefer the natural sky to an opium-eater’s heaven. . .I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor; . . . or of an evening with a dish of tea!”
Most people tend to believe drinking is a necessity and drugs are a way to relieve pain. I’ve always believed pure elements should be the only things that enter our bodies, not so much of things that aren’t pure to the body, such as wine and opium. According to Thoreau water is the only suitable drink for people. He sees wine, coffee, and tea as toxins. Even music is dangerous. Thoreau’s assertion is correct. Since water is pure and replenishes the body, common sense seems to dictate, only a wise man would drink it.
non-dover user.
Americans today tend to see "eating dinner" as going to the nearest drive-thru. Long before that Taco Bell was established on every street corner, people had to actually work to acquire their food. Bringing home dinner for his famly, a man would use numerous food gathering techniques that involved mobility. Fruit picking, berry collecting, hunting (by "hunting" it's not a means of doing 85 down the service drive in hopes of hitting a deer). In today's society, there are so many health problems based on America's poor eating habits. "It is hard to provide and cook so simple and clean a diet as will not offend the imagination; but this, I think, is to be fed when we feed the body; they should both sit down a the same table." Thoreau duly notes that you should treat your body as though it's the most important thing in the world and what you put into it must be at the highest standard of health.
"Water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morning with a cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea" (Thoreau 173). Henry David Thoreau argues in Walden the ideal drink. Thoreau believes that water is neccessary because it keeps a person pure unlike alchol, tea, and coffee. I agree that water literally keeps a person pure but what a person drinks does not show how good or bad of a person they are.
"I carry less religion to the table, ask no blessing; not because I am wiser than I was, but, I am obliged to confess, because, however much it is regretted with years, I have grown more coarse and indifferent." (139). Henry David Thoreau is not only a ascetic extremist, but also a religilous man. Besides his insistance of physical purity, he resists the presence of religion when it comes to food as well. Why is this? Oddly enough, his ideology of purity goes against principles of religion and is why he, yet again, refutes another "mundane" aspect.
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