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Show 176, branching tree. SACRED BOOKS In January of 1866, Muir had confessed to Jeanne Carr that he took "more intense delight from reading the power and goodness of God from 'the things which are made' than from the Bible. The two books, however, harmonize beautifully, and contain enough of divine truth for the study of all eternity." Since 1866, he had left completely his dependence on the Book of Books, and would never again accept the Bible as a final authority. And if he wanted to articulate truly the vision he received, he would also have to rid himself of the limiting idea that Nature was a Book. But writing the Studies, he immersed himself in the divine truth of the Book of Nature, and read it largely as an early nineteenth century scientist might, with the assurance that it was a sacred book. Great danger lay in using or disposing of this working hypothesis, as I am reminded by the humanistic perspective of Murray Krieger, one of my teachers. In a defense of poetry as the highest human activity, Professor Krieger summarizes the history of the two great Books, their claims to sacredness, and their final loss of authority. The story spans the entire history of western civilization, and ends with the modern viewpoint that both Books turn out to be "monumental fictional contexts" rather that "metaphysically referential texts." Consequently, "once they are revealed as fictions only, their |