About John Muir naturalists - those with the heart and mind of John Muir - the Saunterer has written:
John Muir naturalists believe that nature should be kept whole in its composition, the cast of species complete. Only at Nature’s hands ought species come and go.
Nature’s preciousness is spun of interrelated variety. Explaining this in another context, Charles Lamb wrote: “The going away of friends does not make the remainder more precious. It takes so much from them as there was a common link. A. B. and C. make a party. A. dies. B. not only loses A. but all A.’s part in C. C. loses A.’s part in B., and so the alphabet sickens by subtraction. . . .” Substitute “the going away of species” for “the going away of friends,” and the truth remains. The sickening is more than ecological. It is spiritual.
Look at those passing sailors who clubbed the dodo out of existence for a short change of diet. The self-seeking impulses of these vandals destroyed more than the value of the dodo: they damaged a good deal of the value of the species linked with the dodo, including our species. A sensible tradeoff? For a while, a few have convenient meals; forevermore, billions and billions have nature’s splendor taken a peg lower.
(Quoted from page 153 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg.)
For a brief biography of John Muir, click here. For images of and relating to John Muir, click here.
John Muir naturalists believe that nature should be kept whole in its composition, the cast of species complete. Only at Nature’s hands ought species come and go.
Nature’s preciousness is spun of interrelated variety. Explaining this in another context, Charles Lamb wrote: “The going away of friends does not make the remainder more precious. It takes so much from them as there was a common link. A. B. and C. make a party. A. dies. B. not only loses A. but all A.’s part in C. C. loses A.’s part in B., and so the alphabet sickens by subtraction. . . .” Substitute “the going away of species” for “the going away of friends,” and the truth remains. The sickening is more than ecological. It is spiritual.
Look at those passing sailors who clubbed the dodo out of existence for a short change of diet. The self-seeking impulses of these vandals destroyed more than the value of the dodo: they damaged a good deal of the value of the species linked with the dodo, including our species. A sensible tradeoff? For a while, a few have convenient meals; forevermore, billions and billions have nature’s splendor taken a peg lower.
(Quoted from page 153 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg.)
For a brief biography of John Muir, click here. For images of and relating to John Muir, click here.
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