OCR Text |
Show 12. by groups like the Grangers who acted upon the creed, "Love thy neighbor, help thy neighbor." Like her husband, she was a Christian and humanist, but she was not so tied to practical affairs as he was, and she was more literary minded. In fact she knew Ralph Waldo Emerson. Muir turned to her as an appreciative listener for his longings toward Nature. She was more likely to be congenial to his purely spiritual interest in botany. Further, Muir may have seen in the Carrs an admirable model of nineteenth century social relations between men and women. Men were expected to be practical and scientific; they used their reason and followed their duty. Women were allowed to dwell closer to Nature, perhaps because they did not have to manipulate her for society's benefit, or perhaps because they were themselves viewed as part of her. They learned to love, not harvest, the flowers. Perhaps this was not the way life needed to be, but there it was, two opposing postures toward Nature: the educator who followed a scientific and practical path toward a more profitable mode of agriculture, and his lovely wife who always called him "Dr. Carr," and for herself cared only to botanize because the study offered personal pleasure and spiritual wholeness. The professor, not surprisingly, tended to look upon Nature as a mechanical system which could be utilized, while his wife was pleased by the infinite diversity and beauty of the Creation. Perhaps I make this dichotomy too severe. Yet these two perspectives are real, not only as the opposite poles of the |