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Show 18 desire to eat from the trees and worship them. If it was woman's sin, so be it. He suspected that this doctrine which men had invented came from a fear of women, of Nature, and finally of death. An acceptance of Nature on her own terms involved the acceptance of Man's rightful place in Nature. THE BLACKSMITH AND THE BOTANIST Early in his walk through the South, Muir began to notice "Nature's grandeur in . . . abrupt contrast with paltry artificial gardens." At Mammoth Caves he was disappointed with the "parlor taste" of "fashionable hotel grounds" when compared to the divine beauty of Nature. The gardens included "many a beautiful plant cultivated to deformity, and arranged in strict geometrical beds, the whole pretty affair a laborious failure." So much for Man's work. The gardens were like plowed fields, which was not surprising. When Muir conversed with a typical man who lived in the region, he found him to be "one of the useful, practical men - too wise to waste precious time with weeds, caves, fossils, or anything else he could not eat." Men who thought in these terms failed to distinguish between Nature and culture, he realized. What was happening to the Muir who had been so proud of the straight furrows he plowed in his father's fields, who knew the secret was a sharp, well designed and forged plowshare? He was alienating himself from society, its aesthetic taste and its values. Still, he continued to carry within himself a |
