52 WHERE ROLLS THE OREGON 



are sagebrush and sand, respectively. Nor do they 

 function there as here in the East, determining, 

 according to the metaphysicians, the sequence 

 of conditions, and positions of objects toward each 

 other ; for the desert will not admit of it. The 

 Vedanta well describes " the-thing-in-itself " be- 

 tween Bend and Burns in what it says of Brah- 

 man : that " it is not split by time and space and 

 is free from all change." 



That, however, does not describe the journey; 

 there was plenty of change in that, at the rate we 

 went, and according to the exceeding great num- 

 ber of sagebushes we passed. It was all change ; 

 though all sage. We never really tarried by the 

 side of any sagebush. It was impossible to do 

 that and keep the car shying rhythmically — now 

 on its two right wheels, now on its two left wheels 

 — past the sagebush next ahead. Not the journey, 

 I say ; it is only the concept, the impression of the 

 journey, that can be likened to Brahman. But that 

 single, unmitigated impression of sage and sand, 

 of nowhereness, was so entirely unlike all former 

 impressions that I am glad I made the journey 

 from Boston in order to go from Bend to Burns. 



You lose no time getting at the impression. It 



