Journal of Henry D Thoreau Author:Henry David Thoreau Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 1859] DUCKS IN WALDEN 169 birches have not started. I could take up a thousand in two or three hours. I set ten in our yard. Channing saw ducks he thinks ... more »female sheldrakes! in Walden to-day. Julius Smith says he saw a little hawk kill a robin yesterday. MAY, 1859 OET. 41) May 1. Hear the ruby-crowned wren. We accuse savages of worshipping only the bad spirit, or devil, though they may distinguish both a good and a bad; but they regard only that one which they fear and worship the devil only. We too are savages in this, doing precisely the same thing. This occurred to me yesterday as I sat in the woods admiring the beauty of the blue butterfly. We are not chiefly interested in birds and insects, for example, as they are ornamental to the earth and cheering to man, but we spare the lives of the former only on condition that they eat more grubs than they do cherries, and the only account of the insects which the State encourages is of the " Insects Injurious to Vegetation." We too admit both a good and a bad spirit, but we worship chiefly the bad spirit, whom we fear. We do not think first of the good but of the harm things will do us. The catechism says that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, which of course is applicable mainly to God as seen in his works. Yet the only account of its beautiful insects butterflies, etc. which God has made and set before us which the State ever thinks of spending any money on is the account of those which are injurious to vegetation!1859] GLORIFYING GOD 171 This is the way we glorify God and enjoy him forever. Come out here and behold a thousand painted butterflies and other beautiful insects which people the air, then go to the libraries and see what kind of prayer and glorification of God ...« less