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Show 147. while those invented to c o n t a i n s p i r i t u a l matter are doubtful and unfixed in c a p a c i t y and form, as wind-ridden m i s t - r a g s ." His insistence t h a t matter and s p i r i t were i n d i s s o l u b l y united was at the root of t h i s problem, and when Muir took what might by called a " v i t a l i s t " p o i n t of view toward Nature, he was not applying i t , as Thoreau or e a r l i e r B r i t i s h n a t u r a l i s t s had, toward plants and a n i m a l s . He was applying i t to the more obdurate aspects of Nature, to the r o c k s , the g l a c i e r s , the weather i t s e l f. He began, while he was w r i t i n g , to r e c o n s i d e r h i s idea that the S i e r r a could be understood as a s c u l p t u r e . He did not wish to say t h a t i t was a l r e a d y completed in i t s e n t i r e t y, but he had a l r e a d y committed himself h e a v i l y to t h i s view. As a r e s u l t , the Studies i t s e l f c o n t a i n s the h i s t o r y of Muir's changing conception of the C r e a t i o n . Just as t h e r e was a tension in the o r i g i n a l conception of h i s book, so t h e r e was a tension between the metaphors he chose. He began with the t r a d i t i o n a l comparison of Nature to a Book, but turned to more organic comparisons to Path, Flow, and Cycle. F i n a l l y he began to describe Yosemite as the trunk of a t r e e which had both roots and branches. THE LIVING ROCK He v i s u a l i z e d the p r e - g l a c i a l S i e r r a as "one v a s t undulated wave, in which a thousand s e p a r a t e mountains, with t h e i r domes and s p i r e s , t h e i r innumerable canons and lake b a s i n s , lay |
