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Show 250. mysteries of the hen coop with simian fingers. Let us accept on f a i t h and simply say - I want you to join with me in saying - What shall we say brother?" He pointed the drumstick at me and went on. "Let me t e l l you. We w i l l say, and I for one am proud to say - and I want you to say with me, on your knees brother. Let no man be ashamed to kneel here in the great out-of- doors. Remember the woods were God's f i r s t temples." The reference to the great out-of-doors and God's f i r s t temples may allude to Muir's f i r s t c a l l for the preservation of the forests. One wonders about poor B i l l . Even drunk in the mountains of Spain, with only his close friend Jake to hear, he is embarrassed to admit t h a t he loves Nature. We may f i n a l l y have to accept B i l l ' s out-of-doors gospel, though i t cannot be j u s t i f i e d by the terms we learned at school. Doing so, we may reveal romantic and primitive selves, and may be vulnerable to our s o u l l e s s b r o t h e r s . Have we constructed an elaborate fiction which hides us from the void? If so, i t is because we wish to be more human and whole. The great paradox of humanity - "the expression of love projected beyond the species boundary by a c r e a t u r e born of Darwinian struggle" - this is the unexpected yet overwhelming r e s p o n s i b i l i t y that Muir, and l a t e r Loren Eisley, accepted and chose to champion. One can c a l l i t a b i o c e n t r i c outlook, but i t is r e a l l y a f a i t h. |