Health Is The Capacity Of The Land

The Last Word In Ignorance Is The Man Who Says Of An Animal Or Plant, "what Good Is It?" If The Land Mechanism As A Whole Is Good, Then Every Part Is Good, Whether We Understand It Or Not. If The Biota, In The Course Of Aeons, Has Built Something We Like But Do Not Understand, Then Who But A Fool Would Discard Seemingly Useless Parts? To Keep Every Cog And Wheel Is The First Precaution Of Intelligent Tinkering.

Harmony With Land Is Like Harmony With A Friend; You Cannot Cherish His Right Hand And Chop Off His Left. That Is To Say, You Cannot Love Game And Hate Predators; You Cannot Conserve The Waters And Waste The Ranges; You Cannot Build The Forest And Mine The Farm. The Land Is One Organism.

I Do Not Imply That This Philosophy Of Land Was Always Clear To Me. It Is Rather The End Result Of A Life Journey.

Nonconformity Is The Highest Evolutionary Attainment Of Social Animals.

There Is Yet No Ethic Dealing With Man's Relation To Land And To The Animals And Plants Which Grow Upon It. Land, Like Odysseus' Slave-girls, Is Still Property. The Land-relation Is Still Strictly Economic, Entailing Privileges But Not Obligations.