Transcriber’s Note:
Inconsistencies in punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling—such as “Snelling” and “Snellings”, hardworking and hard-drinking—were left as printed in the original text. The inconsistent use of italics—as in “Linnæa” and “Linnæa”—was retained as printed in the original.
Letters to a Friend
Written to Mrs. Ezra S. Carr
1866—1879
By
John Muir
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1915
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY WANDA MUIR HANNA
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
THIS EDITION CONSISTS OF 300 COPIES
Prefatory Note
When John Muir was a student in theUniversity of Wisconsin he was a frequentcaller at the house of Dr. Ezra S. Carr.The kindness shown him there, and especiallythe sympathy which Mrs. Carr, as a botanistand a lover of nature, felt in the young man’s interestsand aims, led to the formation of a lastingfriendship. He regarded Mrs. Carr, indeed, ashis “spiritual mother,” and his letters to her inlater years are the outpourings of a sensitivespirit to one who he felt thoroughly understoodand sympathized with him. These letters aretherefore peculiarly revealing of their writer’spersonality. Most of them were written fromthe Yosemite Valley, and they give a good notionof the life Muir led there, sheep-herding,guiding, and tending a sawmill at intervals toearn his daily bread, but devoting his real selfto an ardent scientific study of glacial geologyand a joyous and reverent communion withNature.
LETTERS TO A FRIEND
“The Hollow,” January 21, 1866.
Your last, written in the delicious quiet of aSabbath in the country, has been received andread a good many times. I was interested withthe description you draw of your sermon. Youspeak of such services like one who appreciatedand relished them. But although the page ofNature is so replete with divine truth, it issilent concerning the fall of man and the wondersof Redeeming Love. Might she not havebeen made to speak as clearly and eloquentlyof these things as she now does of the characterand attributes of God? It may be a bad symptom,but I will confess that I take more intensedelight from reading the power and goodness ofGod from “the things which are made” thanfrom the Bible. The two books, however, harmonizebeautifully, and contain enough of divinetruth for the study of all eternity. It is somuch easier for us to employ our faculties uponthese beautiful tangible forms than to exercisea simple, humble living faith such as you so welldescribe as enabling us to reach out joyfullyinto the future to expect what is promised asa thing of to-morrow.
I wish, Mrs. Carr, that I could see yourmosses and ferns and lichens. I am sure thatyou must be happier than anybody else. Youhave so much less of winter than others; yourparlor garden is verdant and in bloom all theyear.
I took your hint and procured ten or twelvespecies of moss all in fruit, also a club-moss, afern, and some liverworts and lichens. I havealso a box of thyme. I would go a long way tosee your herbarium, more especially your fernsand