acier-formed hills, valleys
and glades. Not by any means do all lovers of nature, however faithful
their purpose, come to its study with the endowment of John Muir. In him
we see the trained faculties of the close and accurate observer, joined
to the temperament of the poet--the capacity to think, to see and to
feel--and by the power of sustained and strong emotion to make us the
sharers of his joy. The beauty and the majesty of the forest to him
confer the same exaltation of mind, the same intellectual transport,
which the trained musician feels when listening to the celestial
harmonies of a great orchestra. In proportion as one conceives, or can
imagine, the fineness of the musical endowment of a Bach or Beethoven,
and in proportion as he can realize in his own mind the infinity of
training and preparation which has contributed to the development of
such a master musician--in such proportion may he comprehend and
appreciate the unusual qualities and achievements of a man like Muir. He
will realize to some degree--indistinctly to be sure, "seeing men as
trees walking"--the infinity of nice and accurate observation, the
discriminating choice of illustration, the infallible tact and unvarying
sureness with which he holds our interest, and the dominant poetic
insight into the nature of things, which are spread before the reader in
lavish abundance, in Muir's two books, "The Mountains of California" and
"Our National Parks." No other books, in this province, by living
author offer to the reader so rich a feast. Recognizing the fine
endowments of Thoreau, and how greatly all are his debtors, still we of
this generation are lucky in having one greater than he among us, if
wisdom of life and joyousness be the criterion of a sound and of a sane
philosophy. The time will come when this will be generally recognized.
The verdict of posterity is the right one, and the love of mankind is
given throughout the centuries to the men of insight, who possess the
rare mental endowment of sustained pleasure. Call it perpetual youth, or
joyousness, or what you like, the fact remains that the power of
sustained enthusiasm, lightness of heart and gaiety, with the faculty of
communicating to others that state of mind, is not one of the commonest
endowments of the human brain. It is one that confers great happiness to
others, and one to whose possessor we are under great obligation.
Compare the career of Thoreau, lonely, sad, and wedded to death