JOHN MUIR 

 By Robert B. Marshall 



I have put my brain to the test to find if it could choose words 

 expressive of the grand old man Muir. It does not respond at 

 all fittingly. My appreciation, feelings, respect and love for my 

 friend Muir are all of the heart, and so intense and sacred that 

 I cannot tell them even to my friends. Most of us have suf- 

 fered the loss of those dear to us, and each one who has so suf- 

 fered surely appreciates the force of my reluctance in attempt- 

 ing to put down in words my soul's sorrow in the loss of a 

 friend so big, so powerful — and yet he was the plainest and 

 simplest person I ever knew. His simplicity was his power. He 

 knew nature as no one else did, and with his God, he wor- 

 shipped it. It was so much a part of him that the little children 

 could understand him and knew what he said, and loved him 

 even more than the older children, such as we all became in his 

 presence. 



His affection for the commonplace little pine-needle was as 

 genuine as that for the most beautiful flower or the grandest 

 tree, and the little flakes of snow and the little crumbs of gran- 

 ite were each to him real life, and each had a personality worthy 

 of his wonderful mind's attention; and he talked and wrote of 

 them as he did of the ouzel or the Douglas squirrel — made real 

 persons of them, and they talked and lived with him and were 

 a part of his life as is our own flesh and blood. 



I knew Mr. Muir long and intimately, and each day I learned 

 something new and beautiful of life and of his wonderful mind. 

 He did not enjoy answering questions, and in fact it was rarely 

 necessary to ask one. Only allow him to be with a person for 

 a short time and some sort of conversation would start ; then by 

 sheer force of intellect his mind would take the lead and his 

 companion would drink in the purest of English, charmingly 

 phrased, until soon a sermon of life was given that would re- 

 main one of the most wonderful experiences of a lifetime. 



I cannot write a line worthy of the man we wish to honor. 



