Letters to a Friend 



what he calls dead unorganized matter. How 

 cordially I disbelieve him to-night! and were 

 he to dwell awhile among the powers of these 

 mountains, he would forget all dictionary dif 

 ferences between the clean and the unclean and 

 he would lose all memory and meaning of the 

 diabolical, sin-begotten term, foulness. 



Well, I must go down. I am disregarding all 

 of the Doctor's physiology in sitting here in 

 this universal moisture. 



Farewell to you and to all the beings about 

 us ! I shall have a glorious walk down the moun 

 tains in this thin white light, over the open 

 brows grayed with Selaginella and through the 

 thick black shadow caves in the live oaks all 

 stuck full of snowy lances of moonlight. 



New Sentinel Hotel, Yosemite Valley, 

 July 6th, 1872. 



Yours of Tuesday evening telling of our Dog- 



getts and Ned and Merrill Moores has come, 



and so has the lamp and book. I have not yet 



tried the lamp, but it is splendid in shape and 



[ 123] 



