THE VOICE OF THE DESERT 214 



what?" Since neither music, nor poetry, nor pure theory 

 has practical usefulness, and since the mystique of all three 

 eludes him, his comment-question is perfectly proper. And 

 the only — usually impossible — -answer to him lies in the 

 mystique itself. 



Though in this book I have presented facts and, at mo- 

 ments, permitted myself metabiological speculations, nei- 

 ther the one nor the other really says all that I would like 

 to be able to say. If Dipodomys never drinks; if the moth 

 desires the candle; if the seed has learned to disregard the 

 wetness of summer while waiting for the wetness. of spring; 

 if the cactus has learned to be at home where its ancestors 

 would have perished; who cares? Why, having learned 

 these things, did I not say, "So what" and pass on? The 

 ultimate answer, I think, is to be found only by admitting 

 the mystical element. The reason for my deepest caring 

 does not lie within the scope of biology or even meta- 

 biology. One cannot recognize it without being to that ex- 

 tent a mystic. 



Of the oflBcial mystical v^iters I am no great reader. The 

 clarity of their visions, the overwhelming certainty of their 

 conviction that ultimate truth has been revealed to them, 

 is foreign to my own experience. At most I have "intima- 

 tions," not assurances, and I doubt that I could ever go 

 further in recommendation of the complete mystics than 

 William James goes when he bids the ordinary mortal rec- 

 ognize the reality, in some realm, of the phenomena to 

 which the mystics testify, no matter what interpretation 

 we ordinary mortals put upon them. Yet I, and many whose 

 temperaments are no more mystical than mine, do know 

 moments when we draw courage and joy from experiences 



