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Show 68 mind wandered in the wilderness. And so he sometimes wondered if he were not two separate beings, as Agassiz suggested, on two separate errands. I think of a contemporary parallel - George Shaller and Peter Mattheissen walking together in the Himalaya, one on a spiritual quest and the other faithfully following his science. Muir felt the need to write both journals, and hoped they would cohere. His early attempts were clumsy. "Explorations in the Great Tuolumne Canon" was a perfect example of his problem. The essay was divided into two halves, the first one devoted to geographical observations, and the second half to observations of self. He wanted to report a unity of the two enterprises, but found he had to split his vision in order to explain it. Further, he ended up portraying himself in dualistic terms; the body acquired daytime knowledge, while the mind and memory became active at night. He knew that physical exercise, climbing the canyon walls, was an important part of his method of study, and he knew that his austere method of mountain travel had something to do with the remarkable sense of health he attained. After a climb of 5,000 vertical feet, when he ate his "craggy bowlder of bread" and drank his cup of tea, he could argue, "No healthy man who delivers himself into the hands of Nature can possibly doubt the doubleness of his life." Soul and body receive separate nourishment and separate exercise, and speedily reach a stage of development wherein each is easily known apart from the other. Living artificially in towns, we are sickly.- and never |