繆爾的荒野沉思

Meditation on Wilderness

在主流的拓荒思潮下，十九世紀的美國西部向來被稱為最後的疆界。但少數精英集結成社，力圖保護日漸消失的荒野。其中之一是被尊稱為「國家公園之父」的約翰繆爾（John Muir，1838-1914）。這位傳奇性的思想家與行動者，若以世俗的社會眼光來看，前半生可說頗不順遂。然而，在長期經濟拮据的情況下，他的足跡幾乎遍及全美荒野。他的荒野沉思與自然書寫，深刻地鼓舞許多美國民眾對荒野的嚮往與熱愛。本文將分析繆爾的荒野沉思並指出，繆爾自然書寫的終極形上學基礎，是他的基督教信念。

Under the mainstream thought of land cultivation, the west of America was called the last frontier in the nineteenth century. But there were a few elites who assembled together in clubs and urged to protect the wilderness. One of them is John Muir (1838-1914), so-called father of national park. This legendary thinker and activist's early half of life was rather hard from the secular view. In spite of poverty for a very long time, Muir traveled to almost all of wilderness of America. His meditation on wilderness and nature writings inspired many American's longing for and passion to the wilderness profoundly. In this paper, I will analyze Muir's meditation on wilderness and point out that Muir's ultimate metaphysical ground of nature writing is his Christian belief.