STEEP TRAILS 



seems to form so insuperable an obstacle in 

 the way of a right understanding of the rela 

 tions which culture sustains to wildness as 

 that which regards the world as made especially 

 for the uses of man. Every animal, plant, and 

 crystal controverts it in the plainest terms. 

 Yet it is taught from century to century as 

 something ever new and precious, and in the 

 resulting darkness the enormous conceit is 

 allowed to go unchallenged. 



I have never yet happened upon a trace of 

 evidence that seemed to show that any one 

 animal was ever made for another as much as 

 it was made for itself. Not that Nature mani 

 fests any such thing as selfish isolation. In the 

 making of every animal the presence of every 

 other animal has been recognized. Indeed, 

 every atom in creation may be said to be ac 

 quainted with and married to every other, but 

 with universal union there is a division suffi 

 cient in degree for the purposes of the most 

 intense individuality; no matter, therefore, 

 what may be the note which any creature forms 

 in the song of existence, it is made first for 

 itself, then more and more remotely for all the 

 world and worlds. 



Were it not for the exercise of individualizing 

 cares on the part of Nature, the universe would 

 be felted together like a fleece of tame wool. 



12 



