I flipped to the last page in Catlin’s Breath of Life, the final paragraph he’d ever publish in his long life of research. “And if I were to endeavor to bequeath to posterity the most important Motto which human language can convey, it should be in three words—SHUT-YOUR-MOUTH* . . . . Where I would paint and engrave it, in every Nursery, and on every Bed-post in the Universe, its meaning could not be mistaken. “And if obeyed,” he continued, “its importance would soon be realized.”
