更高的食物

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. 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 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 faculties in the best condition has been particularly inclined to abstain from animal food, and from much food of any kind. It is a significant fact, stated by entomologists — 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. The voracious caterpillar when transformed into a butterfly ... and the gluttonous maggot when become a fly" content themselves with a drop or two of honey or some other sweet liquid. The abdomen under the wings of the butterfly still represents the larva. This is the tidbit which tempts his insectivorous fate. The gross feeder is a man in the larva state; and there are whole nations in that condition, nations without fancy or imagination, whose vast abdomens betray them.

臺灣人跟大多數的已開發國家的人民比較起來，最大的不同之處就是在吃的方面。每個週末，我的姐姐弟弟帶著孩子回到家裡，通常就是看看電視，然後以吃飯結束假期。而電視上的旅遊節目如果不提到美食，大概就沒有收視率；就連公共電視的一個頗受歡迎的節目，誰來晚餐，也還是要以吃東西來表示對來賓的款待之意。

梭羅在這段文字裡提到，昆蟲只有在幼蟲階段才會大吃大喝；蛻變為成蟲後，就只需吃一點點足可維生。這似乎表示臺灣人雖然在經濟上已然是世界上的成蟲，但在其他方面仍然處於幼蟲階段，還要繼續大吃大喝才能化為蟲蛹，繼而幻化為美麗的蝴蝶。大部份的奢侈品及生活上的許多享受，尤其是吃的享受，不但沒有必要，還會成為難以克服的障礙，使人無法提昇到較高的層次。印度聖雄甘地在齋戒時感覺到，血液漸漸變得稀薄時，心靈就變得清明了，不相干的瑣事消失了，而最基本的東西 －－ 有時竟是世界之靈魂的本身 －－ 從現象世界脫穎而出，像聖母峰從雲層上出現一樣。據說，完全戒絕肉食的人會養成一種非常敏銳的嗅覺，他們從一個人的氣息或皮膚的汗水能夠馬上說出那個人有沒有吃肉。