...GLEN
CANYON...
The trap of overspecialization
"Is man at heart any different from the spider, I wonder: man thoughts, as limited as spider thoughts, contemplating now the nearest star with the threat of bringing with him the fungus rot from earth, wars, violence, the burden of a population he refuses to control, cherishing again his dream of the Adamic Eden he had pursued and lost in the green forests of America...
"...We are too content with our sensory extensions, with the fulfillment of that ice age mind that began its journey amidst the cold of vast tundras and that pauses only briefly before its leap into space.
"It is no longer enough to see as a man sees—even to the ends of the universe.
It is not enough to hold nuclear energy in one's hand like a spear, as
a man would hold it, or to see the lightning, or times past, or time to
come, as a man would see it. If we continue to do this, the great
brain—the human brain—will be only a new version of the old trap, and nature
is full of traps for the beast that cannot learn."
Remember these things lost . . . And under the vaulting . . . cathedral
burn a candle . . . to the memory.