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Show 34 Bears are made of the same dust as we, and breathe the same winds and drink of the same waters. A bear's days are warmed by the same sun, his dwellings are overdomed by the same blue sky, and his life turns and ebbs with heart-pulsings like ours . . . His life not long, not short, knows no beginnings, no ending. To him life unstinted, unplanned, is above the accidents of time, and his years, markless and boundless, equal Eternity- Muir could try to be like Saint Francis, in his acceptance of brotherhood with the beasts, and he could try to live a life like the bears, which was measured by eternal time. Yet he knew what a heresy this was to Christians, who killed bears with no pangs of conscience, who claimed that bears had no souls. It was not possible to be a Saint Francis while defending a flock of domestic sheep from a wild environment. And so Muir gave up his hopes for being a shepherd, if he ever seriously had any. In a larger sense though, all of men's works were created at the expense of Nature, and so Muir found himself in an uncomfortable dilemma. It was only a partial solution to his problem that he could sympathize with the wild beasts. He knew that siding with them was virtually impossible, if a man were to get his bread in a civilized way. There was always bread to be considered. He would never solve this problem in a satisfactory manner. |