How happens it that we reverence the stones which fall from another planet, and not the stones which belong to this?

"How happens it that we reverence the stones which fall from another planet, and not the stones which belong to this, - another globe, not this, - heaven, and not earth?  Are not the [earthly] stones as good as the aerolite [meteorite] at Mecca?  Is not our broad back-door-stone as good as any corner-stone in heaven?"

Henry David Thoreau, 1856

Photo: Vivid River Birch leaves shine against the backdrop of Vedauwoo Cliffs; Medicine Bow National Forest, WY; October 3, 2013

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