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Saturday, November 13, 2010 - Meramec State Park, Sullivan MO

Suspended Animation, Spider Egg Sac, Red Rock, East Chatham NY, July 20, 2010
Suspended Animation, Spider Egg Sac, Red Rock, East Chatham NY, July 20, 2010

Time for a break

Spending so many hours traveling and thinking about traveling gets old after a few days. St Louis and the Mississippi are behind me. This is a nice park. It's quiet here. The sun is shining. The river is running. I think I'll stay an extra night and settle some mud.

Night camp

Site 45C - Meramec State Park, Sullivan MO

Proficiency in Knowledge of the World

There are all degrees of proficiency in knowledge of the world. It is sufficient, to our present purpose, to indicate three. One class lives to the utility of the symbol; esteeming health and wealth a final good. Another class live above this mark to the beauty of the symbol; as the poet, and artist, and the naturalist, and man of science. A third class live above the beauty of the symbol to the beauty of the thing signified; these are the wise men. The first class have common sense; the second, taste; and the third, spiritual perception. Once in a long time, a man traverses the whole scale, and sees and enjoys the symbol solidly; then also has a clear eye for its beauty, and lastly, while he pitches his tent on this sacred volcanic isle of nature, does not offer to build houses and barns thereon, reverencing the splendor of the God which he sees bursting through each chink and cranny.

Essay VII, Prudence Ralph Waldo Emerson

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