In the neuter austerity of that terrain all phenomena were bequeathed a strange equality and no one thing nor spider nor stone nor blade of grass could put forth claim to precedence. The very clarity of these articles belied their familiarity, for the eye predicates the whole on some feature or part and here was nothing more luminous than another and nothing more enshadowed and in the optical democracy of such landscapes all preference is made whimsical and a man and a rock become endowed with unguessed kinship.
The terrain described possesses a stark and uniform quality where all elements, whether living or inanimate, exist in a state of equality. In this landscape, no single entity—be it a spider, a stone, or a blade of grass—can claim superiority over another. The vividly clear details of these surroundings challenge our usual perceptions, as they lack any singular characteristics that would ordinarily highlight one object above the rest.
This optical democracy transforms everything into an equal participant in the ecosystem, leading to a whimsical sense of connection between disparate beings, such as a man and a rock. In such a setting, the boundaries that typically define the relationships and hierarchies of nature become blurred, suggesting an intimate kinship that exists beneath the surface of perceived differences.