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Show 188. system, and continue to supply the water for it. By focusing on the trunk of this broadleaf evergreen Tree of Life, Muir reminded himself and his reader, not of the obfuscating strife of branches, but of the sturdy life which they fed; the trunk was only a concentrated part of a wonderful system. The trunk, being the result of the long development of the branches, reminds us of the integrity of the system. Muir's image is very much like Coleridge's theory of natural organic form: . . . a living body is of necessity an organized one - and what is organization but the connection of parts to the whole, so that each part is at once end and means . . . [in Nature] each exterior is the physiognomy of the being within, its true image reflected and thrown out from the concave mirror. Like Coleridge, Muir was intrigued by the law within which reflected a harmonious law. Every branch was important to Muir's craggy oak. Darwin may indeed have missed the organic implications of his own theory when he thought in terms of the struggle within: the very vitality of the Tree of Life was a result of the diverse limbs, as modern Darwinists see. In Muir's tree, there were no extinct branches; everything in natural history was both means and end. When Muir turned Darwin's image on its head, reminding us that the branches keep the trunk alive, then "strife" becomes a consequence of a limited point of view. Just as Muir's craggy Yosemite oak is not a symbol of struggle, strife is part of an observer's limited perspective. |