How to comprehend hard books like Walden?

Nucleus
Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:02:26 +0000

I think that this quotation is meaningful but I don’t quite understand it:

“Why do precisely these objects which we behold make a world? Why has man just these species of animals for his neighbors; as if nothing but a mouse could have filled this crevice? I suspect that Pilpay & Co. have put animals to their best use, for they are all beasts of burden, in a sense, made to carry some portion of our thoughts.”

What is Pilpay & Co. ?? A company that slaughters animals or makes food products? And I don’t really get where he is going here. These animals are not simply our neighbors but our food, our way of living. Is he just trying to create irony?