In the mid- to late-nineteenth century, the Romantics altered
the inherent definition of wilderness, challenging a centuries’ old image of
wilderness as a corrupting force. The
Adirondack Park played a role in this sea change: its convenient location and
ease of access allowed it to become the breeding ground for this fundamental
re-evaluation of wilderness. The park witnessed
a complete role reversal in this period, from a savage and corrupting
wilderness, full of what the Jesuits called “Iroquois demons,” to a holy and rejuvenating
temple whose prophets (for a small fee; i.e. the Adirondack guides) could help
cleanse one’s soul from the trappings of civilized life.
As with most intellectual revolutions, the primary thinkers came
from money and education on the bustling east coast. During this period of industrialization, urban
life became rank with pollution and overcrowding, so those who could afford to
escape on extended vacations fled to the Adirondacks where they made a
surprising discovery: Nature is sublime.
The early Romantics struggled to reconcile the new awesome power of
nature with traditional savage imagery.
For example, from the top of a pass, Alfred Billings Street proclaimed, “What
a sight! Horrible and yet sublimely beautiful—no, not beautiful; scarce an
element of beauty there—all grandeur and terror.” The Romantics saw a raw, powerful God and
strove to capture in words the new associations this placed on the perception
of wilderness—often settling with wildly conflicting adjectives. They faced an inner tug-of-war between the
ingrained conception of a savage wild and the new pure and holy power they now encountered.
Romantic painter Thomas Cole’s The Course of Empire best encapsulates this shift in philosophy. The first frame depicts an unruly and
dangerous wild that, in the second and third frames, humans transform into a
beautiful metropolis only to see it fall to barbarians in frame four. The final frame is absent of human activity,
with the ruins of the city retaken by nature.
This series captures the Romantics’ simultaneous appreciation of
progress with a respect for nature’s power to re-absorb civilization after its
decent into corruption. In an urbanizing
world, the Romantics must have anticipated that the corruption of the city had
reached dangerously high levels, and the only way to prevent nature from
overtaking what man had wrought was to seek out reconciliation. By cleansing their souls in the wilderness,
they were able to attain an equilibrium, an existence between the safety of
society and the raw power of the wilds.
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