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Show 384 ice and water without a single leaf. He was literally entering his own string of pictures as he proceeded to climb the mountain and survey the scene, and as he discovered far-reaching harmonies which were not available to the artist's distant perspective. He described them quadrant by quadrant. The whole narrative, in fact, was structured in order to allow the reader to appreciate some of the significance of his climb: The lessons and enjoyments of even a single day would probably weary most readers, however consumingly interested they might be if brought into actual contact with them. Therefore, I am only going to offer some characteristic pictures, drawn from the wildest places, and strung together on a strip of narrative. The lessons and enjoyments were not really discrete, as his characteristic pictures make them appear. The picturing itself, which stopped movement and put the experiences into frames, was an artifice which Muir knew distorted the true nature of his revelation. Even though he tried to break such a rigid structure with the flowing rhythm of his prose, that was the price he would have to pay, if he were to turn his intense mountaineering insights into a vehicle for public participation in wilderness. Though his essay defended mountaineering and the near view as a way to vision, it also provided the kind of word-pictures the audience could enjoy at home. Thus Muir really sent out two messages, one for those who really wanted to know, and the other for those who wanted to sympathize, |