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Show 324. CHAPTER VIII: TOURISM AND THE PASTORAL LIFE THE MODEST PROPOSER If the American government could protect the resources of the West, it would require public approval. Americans would need some encouragement, would need to know not only what America possessed, but how and why it was worth protecting. So might have gone Muir's optimistic reasoning. The public required the service of a guide. Muir had been a tour guide for several seasons in Yosemite, yet he did not think of this activity as "real work." (Perhaps it isn't "real work," but until we all live in Nature again, someone must remind us what living in Nature means.) Before the completion of his glacial studies, he had been immersed in geological research, and after that in the most painful task, writing the Studies. When he was reminded of his duty to preserve the live part |