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Show 389, Perhaps Muir devalued Vernal because i t was "a general favorite among the v i s i t o r s , " or perhaps he preferred Nevada Fall, because i t was so impetuous. Later, in "Treasures," he complained that Vernal was "proper and exact . . . with scarce a hint of the passionate enthusiasm of the Yosemite or the Nevada." Such anthropocentric comparisons, then, were becoming stock in trade despite Muir's desire to avoid the conventional picturesque. Even when he a s s e r t e d himself against the stereotyped a e s t h e t i c c a t e g o r i e s , he had to make his judgments using i t s unconscious assumptions. This was a hard habit to break, once he had begun. While praising I l l i l o u e t t e , he found himself embroiled in the kind of a b s t r a c t i o n s which such comparisons brought on. It is not nearly so grand a f a l l as the Upper Yosemite, so symmetrical as the Vernal, or so nobly simple as the Bridal Veil; nor does i t present so overwhelming an outgush of snowy magnificience as the Nevada, but in the richness and e x q u i s i t e fineness of texture of i ts flowing folds i t surpasses them a l l. As if Yosemite Valley were a t h e a t e r or convention stadium, in which the f a l l s competed in some kind of beauty contest! Once Muir had been elected judge, he had to make his decisions in terms which the audience could understand. One must grant that he was trying to make his reader see the wealth of beauty in Yosemite, trying to speak for neglected r i g h t s , but such a strategy became a t r a p. As his comparisons s t r e t c h e d out, he found himself |
