Henry David Thoreau：Walden, Excerpt 74

There is a period in the history of the individual, as of the race, when the hunters are the “best men,” as the Algonquins called them. We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected. 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 which holds its life by the same tenure that he does. The hare in its extremity cries like a child. I warn you, mothers, that my sympathies do not always make the usual phil-_anthropic_ distinctions.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/205
Locator：Excerpt 74 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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