[lbo-talk] Sensible violence?

[Carl Remick]

>From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu>
>
>Carl Remick wrote:
> >
> > >As Henry David Thoreau said of suspected
> > milk-watering: "Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you
> > find a trout in the milk."
>
>That's always been my favorite quote from Thoreau, but I can never
>remember where I got it from. Where in his writings does it occur?
>
>Did he apply it to circumstantial evidence or to anecdotal evidence?
>I've always used it for the latter.

I understand it's an entry from Thoreau's Journal of November 11, 1850.  As 
for its fuller meaning, a more complete quote goes:  "How is evidence to be 
gathered, evaluated, weighed? And even before we ask those questions, we 
must ask what is to count as evidence? Some circumstantial evidence is very 
strong, as when you find a trout in the milk."

Carl