To Higher Sierras 



39 



nine years ago. He was then twenty-nine years old and had 

 just received a serious injury to one of his eyes. ''Dear John," 

 the writer says, "I have often wondered what God was training 

 you for. He gave you the eye within the eye, to see in all na- 

 tural objects the realized ideas of His mind. He gave you pure 

 tastes, and the steady preference of whatsoever is most lovely 

 and excellent. He has made you a more individualized exist- 

 ence than is common, and by your very nature and organiza- 

 tion removed you from common temptations. . . . Do not 

 be anxious about your calling. God will surely place you where 

 your work is." 



Thus early did his friends see in him those personal qualities 

 and those powers of insight which gave a rare distinction to his 

 person and his presence. Evil thoughts fled at the sound of his 

 voice. An innate nobility of character, an unstudied reverence 

 for all that is sublime in nature or in Hfe, unconsciously called 

 forth the best in his friends and acquaintances. In the spiritual 

 as in the physical realm flowers blossomed in his footsteps 

 where he went. After all it is to such men as John Muir that 

 we must look for the sustenance of those finer feelings that 

 keep men in touch with the spiritual meaning and beauty of the 

 universe, and make them capable of understanding those rare 

 souls whose insight has invested Ufe with imperishable hope 

 and charm. 



Not many years ago the Directors of the Sierra Club ar- 

 ranged for a quiet little dinner in honor of Sir James Bryce, 

 when he returned from his visit to Australia. To all intents 

 and purposes there were only two men at the dinner, Bryce and 

 Muir, for the rest were intent listeners — too intent, altogether, 

 to take more than mental notes. Both were enlarging upon the 

 value of the civilizing influences that arise from a deep and hu- 

 mane understanding of nature. Sir James ventured the remark 

 that the establishment of national parks, and the fostering of a 

 love of nature and out-door life among children, would do more 

 for the morals of the nation than libraries and law codes. Muir 

 welcomed this opinion, and added that children ought to be 

 trained to take a sympathetic interest in our wild birds and ani- 

 mals. "Under proper training," he said, "even the most savage 

 boy will rise above the bloody flesh and sport business, the wild 



