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Show 505. not a mediator; he did not l i k e to work out compromises. He was not a j o i n e r . But neither was he a "man without politics" as Mather t r i e d to be. Muir's i n t e r e s t s were not so much a p o l i t i c a l as t r a n s - p o l i t i c a l , and the kinds of a l l i es he made suggested h i s a b i l i t y to appeal to a wide range of people, his a b i l i t y to make himself a c a t a l y s t , not a leader. Bill Devall suggests that Muir's p o l i t i c s could be glossed with a passage from the Tao Te Ching: If the sage would guide the people, he must serve with humility. If he would lead them, he must follow behind. In this way when the sage r u l e s , the people will not feel oppressed; When he stands before them, they will not be harmed. The whole world w i l l support him and will not t i r e of him. Because he does not compete, He does not meet the competition. Like a sage, Muir appealed to his a l l i e s in the l a s t two decades of his l i f e , not as a leader, but as a fellow traveller of the Way. Even while he spoke to men l i k e Taft and Roosevelt as equals, so he was spoken to by his correspondents, Johnson, Colby, and o t h e r s , as a fellow. He did not wish to be held in awe, and r e s i s t e d for years the appeals by Harriman, Johnson, and Page t h a t he write an autobiography- For a man whose fellow c i t i z e n s in Martinez considered him a strange and dislikeable fellow, Muir made a remarkable number of friends, |