By John Hay, Christopher Merrill

"In universal issues are higher extensions of ourselves than we ever conceived of.""Life in the world springs from a collateral magic that we hardly consult," observes John Hay, naturalist, essayist, sage, and inveterate walker of byways. This assortment from the 50-year lengthy profession of America's preeminent nature author illustrates the total diversity of Hay's paintings. a sublime and lyrical stylist, he's, in Merrill's phrases, "the nature writer's author, an illustrator of the Emersonian idea that 'the international is emblematic.'"And so Hay unearths the ever-present yet frequently neglected logos throughout us. The mad, very unlikely rush of alewives flinging themselves upstream to mate, for instance, represents "the force to be, a standard and negative sending out, to which males also are sure in helplessness." within the migratory events of the terns and the golf green turtles previous his cherished Cape Cod Hay sees the secret and style of homing: "To understand your path and go back via outer indicators, is as new because it is historic. we're nonetheless humans of the planet, with all its unique instructions ready in our being." no matter if describing the rugosa or bayberry of a sand dune, the plight of stranded pilot whales, or a spider swinging on its gossamer, Hay encourages us to amplify our internal universe by means of gazing, appreciating, and keeping the outer one we so frequently forget about. for that reason, he says, "we may well locate that we're being led onto traveled ways in which have been as soon as invisible to us," and through spotting our "deep alliance with ordinary forces we discover a brand new intensity in ourselves. this can be the typical floor for all dwelling things."

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Page v Contents Introduction vii From The Run (1959) 1 The Drive to Be 3 The Power of Fragility 8 Going Out 13 From Nature's Year (1961) 17 A Wild Home Land 19 Colors of the Season 25 An Old Place, an Old Man 31 Deeper News 37 From The Great Beach (1964) 41 An Unimagined Frontier 43 Who Owns the Beach? 52 From The Congressional Record 63 John Burroughs Medal Address 65 From In Defense of Nature (1969) 69 A Dependable Endurance 71 The Eye of the Heart 84 Page vi From The Undiscovered Country (1981) 95 The New World 97 Homing 102 The Prodigal Style 114 Listening 125 From The Immortal Wilderness (1987) 133 The White Pelican 135 Open to the Sun 146 Sacred Places 153 Natural Architecture: Poems 165 From The Bird of Light (1991) 171 Migrants in Winter 173 Ritual 184 The Speech of Terns 196 From a Beginner's Faith In Things Unseen (1995) 203 Stranded 205 A Faire Bay 216 Fire in the Plants 227 From In the Company of Light (1998) 239 The Way to the Salt Marsh 241 Life in Space 248 Page vii Introduction "You have to stand still and listen for a while," said John Hay.

Then my attention is cut, as it abruptly darts off, swinging in an arc, perhaps to catch a housefly a hundred feet away. In the buzz, the running light, the stir of summer, I feel as if each motion, each event had its own pressing concern. This homeland, no longer graced with the name of wilderness, is full of wild, unparalleled desire. Everyone knows that the month of August is loaded with insects, although they come under the heading of "bugs," a menace to human society. Their fibrous trills are incessant in the grass.

The result is that many are left stranded and wildly skittering in the rivulets that thread the sandy flats at extreme low tide. From the time the outgoing waters of Paine's Creek begin to get low, they are also subject to attack by crowds of herons and gullsbut supposing they survive that and still have a chance in a matter of an hour or an hour and a half to reach deeper water? It is very often the case that because of their habit of heading back against the current they delay too tong and lose their chance of escape.

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