Man is at the top, in his own estimation, and thinks the sun and the moon are for him; but he is no more an end than a frog is; and is not so much atop as the birds are. He appeared in the plan, and he will disappear in the plan, and Nature values him only as manure - squanders him as recklessly as autumn leaves.

The Heart of Burroughs's Journals, Jan. 17, 1866 (p. 46), Houghton Mifflin Co. 1928