THE VOICE OF THE DESERT 



220 



place in the American imagination and sparked the sense 

 that there was "somewhere else to go" rather than that the 

 solution of every problem, practical or spiritual, had to be 

 found within the limits to which the man \yho faced them 

 was confined. 



In the history of many other peoples the character of 

 their land, even the very look of the landscape itself, has 

 powerfully influenced how they felt and what they thought 

 about. They were woodsmen or plainsmen or mountaineers 

 not only economically but spiritually also. And nothing, 

 not even the sea, has seemed to affect men more pro- 

 foundly than the desert, or seemed to incline them so 

 powerfully toward great thoughts^ perhaps because the 

 desert itself seems to brood and to encourage brooding. 

 To the Hebrews the desert spoke of God, and one of the 

 most powerful of all religions was born. To the Arabs it 

 spoke of the stars, and astronomy came into being. 



Perhaps no fact about the American people is more im- 

 portant than the fact that the continent upon which they 

 live is large enough and varied enough to speak with many 

 different voices — of the mountains, of the plains, of the 

 valleys and of the seashore — all clear voices that are dis- 

 tinct and strong. Because Americans listened to all these 

 voices, the national character has had many aspects and 

 developed in many different directions. But the voice of 

 the desert is the one which has been least often heard. We 

 came to it last, and when we did come, we came prin- 

 cipally to exploit rather than to hsten. 



To those who do listen, the desert speaks of things with 

 an emphasis quite different from that of the shore, the 

 mountains, the valleys or the plains. Whereas they invite 

 action and suggest limitless opportunity, exliaustless re- 



