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Show 145. Norman Clyde, who taught me when he was in his eighties that Nature is only new and original if the observer goes to her each time with a desire to explore once again from the beginning her mystery and wonder. When we read the standard text by Matthes on Yosemite"s geology, we find that he does what Muir did in the Studies, taking the reader on an "imaginary" traverse of the range, in preparation for seeing the Yosemite as part of the whole Sierra. Further, Matthes' Sierra is imbued with value as is Muir's, and much of his book's metaphorical structure is indebted to Muir, despite his hesitance to announce his themes in Muir's exuberant, enthusiastic terms. He corrects some of the details of Muir's analysis, yet his perspective is largely the same, suggesting that Muir's very way of seeing has become, if not a part of the tradition of geology as a discipline, then a part of Yosemite and a part of our cultural heritage. Muir struggled to create the language of Yosemite. As he wrote, he was encouraged by Jeanne Carr to "curtail his poetic exuberance in them to gain the attention of the scientists." But his choice, when he began to compose, was not between metaphored and unmetaphored prose; rather he tried to find metaphors which were true to science and to his own vision. As a result he had to ask some basic questions about the cosmos. Cosmos is not a word he ever used, just as he only gradually became comfortable with the term wilderness, yet they became synonymous. He realized that in writing the Studies he was |