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Show 298. than the member of European c u l t u r e which chased him off the continent. Thoreau thought t h a t c i v i l i z e d Man might become a "more experienced and wiser savage," unless he foolishly "employed the greater part of his l i f e in obtaining gross necessaries and comforts merely." Man might become more philosophical to the extent that he simplified his l i f e. Yet Marsh had argued a p o s i t i o n diametrically opposed to Thoreau1 s, that the moral weakness of natives in the southern climes was the r e s u l t of the ease by which they got their living. Muir was not sure whether a man was b e t t e r off if he was underdeveloped or overdeveloped. He observed the Europeans who came to the Sierra for the Gold Rush and compared them with the Indians who had long wandered in the mountains. Patrick Delaney, Muir's employer during the F i r s t Summer, had come to California for gold, but had been worn down by that harsh period. His character had come out, but at the same time the overtaxing and f r e n e t i c industry had f i n a l l y eroded his character and caused him "to become a gentle shepherd, and to l i t e r a l l y l i e down with the lamb." This man had been overdeveloped to exhaustion. Muir contrasted his character and countenance with t h a t of the Mono Indians he saw during the same summer. Their faces seemed "mostly ugly, and some altogether hideous," but the problem was s u p e r f i c i a l and might he remedied by washing. Unlike the abraded character of his employer, the Monos seemed "as if they had l a i d castaway on the mountains for ages." They were underdeveloped men. Upon his f i r s t encounter, Muir thought of them as "dirt-specks in |