mercredi 15 décembre 2010

Does he really mean "in a forest"?

How big is it?

If we were on a walk in a forest and found ourselves on the wrong path, then the last things we would do is carry on walking in the wrong direction. We would instead retrace our steps, go back to where we took the wrong turn, and follow the right path.


Prince Charles : Harmony, et c., p. 5 close to bottom.

If one has already lost all clear path, and it is difficult to retrace one's steps, and the forest is known to be small, one can as well carry on. Whereever one is walking straight, one is closer to one edge of the forest, even if it be the further one. And if the forest is small, it does not matter that it is the further.

But a man trying to pick up a trace he lost is ... a bit likely to walk in circles.

On a mountain, before a precipice, it is another matter. One does not walk on into thin air or into other clearcut versions of death. Or captivity. Or slavery.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Mouffetard/Paris V
15/XII/2010