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Show 36. (2) Forget the workings of machines and start considering the way plants, flowers, beasts - and his own soul - grew. (3) Reject the false and abstract doctrines of Christianity and learn his philosophy directly from Nature. (4) Liberate himself from the social expectations of manliness, and accept himself as an equal though humble member of Nature's community. (5) Leave Man's arbitrary time, and enter Nature's eternal realm. (6) Cease to believe that Man was the Lord of Creation, or was providentially given dominion, and accept the limitations of human aspirations. (7) Cease to see Nature as commodity, and accept her true responsibility to herself. (8) Cease to believe that philanthropy was the highest good. He would pledge his allegiance to Nature. These were not entirely new aspirations. He had been approaching many of these attitudes over several years, but had never attempted to frame his life upon them as principles. In 1867 he decided it was time to test them. What made his later life so remarkable was that he realized how fruitless his past had been and how meaningless it would be to keep up with the times. He tried to step out of history. He realized that the education he sought wasn't available at any university, on any farm, or in any machine shop. He had to seek reality outside any social realm. It was not easy to retire from society, though Muir himself would later suggest |