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Show 205. later. "The Valley is full of people, but they do not annoy me. I revolve in pathless places and in higher rocks than the world and his ribbony wife can reach." if he wanted to escape, then why write for the public at all? He was not at all sure that he did want to produce what he called "book-sellers' bricks." Even two years later, he was still protesting about public taste and language. . . . I can proclaim to you that moonshine is glorious, and sunshine more glorious, that winds rage, and waters roar, and that in "terrible times" glaciers guttered the mountains with their hard cold snouts. This is about the limit of what I feel capable of doing for the public - the moiling, squirming, fog-breathing public. But for my few friends I can do more because they already know the mountain harmonies and can catch the tones I gather for them, though written in a few harsh and gravelly sentences. This assertion indicated once again that Muir was unsure of the power of his writing but feared worse the results of its possible success. He doubted that he could save a vulgar public, and feared that these unenlightened people would invade his realm. Not only did he distrust his audience, but he was afraid to tell his own sentimental, transcendental dreams, and did not want to include too much of his "special self" in his essays. Yet he could not account for his mystical experiences by showing only the unity and flow of the mountains, as he had in the |