on the desert...

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Chase, in his introduction to ' Desert Trails ', shares with us a characterization
of the desert, unsurpassed, with this evocation below being only a snippet,
where, ' justice is the word, not mercy. '


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" The merely objective things of the desert are another and transitory

matter: I am speaking of its underlying undying charm. It is a 

somewhat awful attribute, with more of subjugation in it than of charm.
It disembodies us, takes away what hides us from ourselves. The aged
earth speaks now in solemn tone to its child, and he must listen. No
friendly tree or buoyancy of wave meets the daunted eye with
encouragement or excuse for levity. Here justice is the word, not mercy.
The universe seems listening for your word, and appraising you by your silence.
If there comes a sound it is so momentary as only to startle, swallowed
up instantly in the waiting void --- the thin, single note of the cactus
wren, one of the lonesomest of sounds, more lost and eerie than the midnight
bleet of sheep on Cumberland fells. "

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