TO HIGHER SIERRAS 

 By William Frederic Bade 



''Longest is the life that contains the largest amount of time- 

 effacing enjoyment — of work that is a steady delight. Such a 

 life may really comprise an eternity upon earth." These words 

 of John Muir I noted down after one of our last conversations. 

 To few men was it given to reaHze so completely the element 

 of eternity — of time-effacing enjoyment in work — as it was to 

 John Muir. The secret of it all was in his soul, the soul of a 

 child, of a poet, and of a strong man, all blended into one. 

 Only such a one would have mounted the top of a pine tree in 

 a gale-swept forest in order to enjoy the better the passionate 

 music of the storm, and then tell how ''we all travel the milky 

 way together, trees and men ; but it never occurred to me until 

 this storm-day that trees are travelers in the ordinary sense. 

 They make many journeys, not extensive ones it is true; but 

 our own little journeys, away and back again, are only little more 

 than tree-wavings — many of them not so much." When the 

 storm had abated, he wrote, he "dismounted and sauntered 

 down through the calming woods. The storm-tones died away, 

 and turning toward the East, I beheld the countless hosts of the 

 forests hushed and tranquil, towering above one another on the 

 slopes of the hills like a devout audience. The setting sun filled 

 them with amber light, and seemed to say while they listened, 

 'My peace I give unto you.' " 



These quotations illustrate the irresistible charm of simplic- 

 ity, the directness of poetical feeling and perception, that were 

 a part of everything which Mr. Muir wrote, said, and did. 

 When he struck out upon the long trail he was not only fore- 

 most among the nature writers of America, but in many re- 

 spects the most distinguished figure among contemporary men 

 of letters. It will take more than this hasteful, fretful genera- 

 tion to take the measure of his greatness, and to explore the 

 sources of his power. 



Before me lies a letter written to Mr. Muir by a friend forty- 



