Preview
Circa Date
1887
Transcription
79
Sweetened his dull voyages with sleep. Solaced himself. Lay in summery indolence
Had a slow calm mind full of comfortably haze glimmering notions. Lazy at times & somnolent, but only when nothing exciting going forward. Philosophic unfussiness.
History lost in labyrinth of relationship
# The wind ruffled his hair when it was at our backs so he looked shaggy but with nose windward he was smooth as silk
I never saw wilder eye Countless generations of wolfish ancestors in it
# Those who dwell in the wilderness are sure to learn their kinship with animals & gain some sympathy with them in spite of the blending instructions suffered in civilization & see the narrow selfishness of the attitude of man in dealing with animals selfish Even in religion [man is selfish] for after stretching his mean charity to the utmost he admits every vertical mammal white black & brown to his heaven he shuts it against all the rest of his fellow mortals. Indian dogs went to the happy hunting grounds with their masters.
The broad mudflat in front of the glacier was thrashed with the [dawn] rain & furrowed with hundreds of streams
80
Burns saw this when as he sympathized with the daisy & mouse & when he says
“its coming yet for a’ that
That man to man, the world o’er,
shall brothers be & a’ that”
He meant man to beast as well. Every [man] cowrin timorous beastie, earthborn companion & fellow mortals
Sparkling merry-eyed terrier
Imperturbable as a boulder
Held on our course like birds in a fog
We heard no warning voice at least I didn’t but we were guided nevertheless for it is not in man or beast to direct his steps in this crevassed & storm thrashed wilderness
# Stick a wee sleeker cowrin timorous beastie & we had a terrible adventure together one stormy day on a big glacier in Alaska
We had both been living half civilized lives for years & nature it seemed had to frighten us, drive us into the shadow of death & all but kill us to teach us a lesson. Anyhow we were nearly killed & we both learned a lesson never to be forgotten & are the better man & dog for it. Learned that human love & animal love hope & fears are essentially the same. Derived from same source & falls on all alike like sunshine
Then the danger began to dawn on his mind
Resource Identifier
MuirReel33 Notebook01 Img042.Jpeg
Contributing Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library
Rights Management
To view additional information on copyright and related rights of this item, such as to purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish them, click here to view the Holt-Atherton Special Collections policies.
