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Show 484 As this and his Preface to Our National Parks indicated, Muir's message to the American public was essentially the same as the one he voiced to the Sierra Club before the Forestry Commission was formed. He could hardly be accused of elitism. If, as has sometimes been suggested, the Sierra Club came to see the wilderness as its own special reserve, Muir was not guilty of this kind of patronizing and exclusive attitude. Instead he suggested that all Americans learn in the wilderness, as he had, a right relation to Nature. In such essays as "Among the Animals of Yosemite," he subtly led his reader toward a right relation with wild animals. He recounted his first interview with a Sierra bear, and admitted that the bear's behavior was better than his own. He learned this lesson: "I was then put on my good behavior, and never afterward forgot the right manners of the wilderness." He could even approve of what he saw as the "rather trivial business" of fishing, since "In most cases it is the man who is caught." Muir had grown to have a gentle understanding of men, and had come to appreciate the needs they brought from the cities. By the turn of the century, he thought they needed only to be exposed to Nature. As a strategy for getting support for the already created hut still highly vulnerable Parks and Reserves, this optimistic kind of publicity seemed to be the right tactic. It represented a gradual shift in Muir's published writing from enlisting support and cooperation of the government, to enlisting support and cooperation of the people. This was still based on the |