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Show 292. sees at the root of American attitudes toward wilderness. Muir's spiritual approach resulted in incomplete vision, despite the fact that his perspective was more healthy than the pseudo-primitive viewpoint of the nineteenth century. Muir's lack of insight into violence is, according to one commentator, simply a Victorian trait. Perhaps it was this lack of insight which kept Muir from ascending to the "tower beyond tragedy," as did Jeffers. Part of Muir's blindness resulted from his lack of interest in hunting. Perhaps that was the fact which made Aldo Leopold on the other hand aware of the role of predators in ecological communities. Also Muir lacked any anthropological training or interest until he went to Alaska in 1879. In the 1880's he began to show more interest in the Indian's view of Nature, but not much. His first encounters suggested that "the wild Indian power of escaping observation, even where there is little or no cover to hide in, was probably slowly acquired in hard hunting and fighting lessons while trying to approach game. . . . " He admired this art of the primitive, which was "vaguely called instinct," but he did not cultivate it himself by using the means of the Indians. WILD MEN AND TAME One would suppose that Muir's essential philosophical differences from speakers for civilization like Marsh and LeConte would have sharpened his attitude toward Indians. |