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Show 416. a fragment, great though the fragment be. . . . America would need to preserve the whole to have any of the parts, because the life of Yosemite depended on the flow of living water through it. Living vision animated Muir's essay as he dramatized near views of Yosemite's waters. There are many narrated visions in the essay, but their progression can be indicated by a series of three. Muir's first near view was from a small ledge near the top of Yosemite Falls: Here the view is perfectly free down into the heart of the bright irised throng of comet-like streams into which the whole ponderous volume of the fall separates a little below the brow. So glorious a display of pure wildness, acting at close range while one is cut off from all the world beside, is terribly impressive. This airy view was only a beginning. Closer still, he ventured out onto Fern Ledge, at the base of Yosemite Falls, to observe what he called lunar rainbows, made up of "moonlight and spray, silent interpreters of the heart-peace of Nature in the stormy darkness." Here, he could clarify the relationship between his themes of light, water, and baptism. Muir ventured too close, and got a lesson in power which he had not come looking for. Risking such a "wild scene but lot a safe one," was part of his own price for vision, and the iabor as well as the risk involved seemed necessary everywhere Ln Nature. After climbing up to Fern Ledge in the night, |