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Sierra Club Bulletin 



The causes for this change are not far to seek. His later trav- 

 els were no more by untrodden ways and in unexplored realms. 

 The powerful stimulus of discovery became therefore less and 

 less an element in his inward prompting to write. Coincident 

 with this was the absence henceforth of financial necessity. He 

 no longer needed to write that he might have the means to con- 

 tinue his travels and studies. He was now free to address him- 

 self directly to putting into final and enduring shape the price- 

 less results already won through long years of toil and hard- 

 ship. But more potent probably than all these causes was the in- 

 ward ripening of the man himself in heart and mind, not unlike 

 that of Wordsworth when he exchanged the ecstasies — the 

 ''aching joys" and ''giddy raptures" — of his youthful passion 

 for Nature and of his pursuit of her, for a more thoughtful and 

 more manly devotion. In Mr. Muir's case the change was no 

 doubt less pronounced, but it was there, and it found significant 

 and noble expression thenceforth in his ceaseless efforts on the 

 one hand to rescue the glory and charm of Nature from selfish 

 spoliation and wanton destruction ; and on the other, so to in- 

 terpret Nature that all men might worthily love and enjoy her. 



"4* ^ ^ -i* ^ 



The newspaper articles here listed are the ones which ap- 

 peared in my Reference List of 1897, which again was based 

 chiefly upon Mr. Muir's printed List of the Published Writings 

 of John Muir (Martinez, 1891), supplemented by entries in his 

 own handwriting which brought it down to 1897. No serious 

 attempt has been made to extend that list, both because after 

 that date Mr. Muir very rarely wrote for the newspapers, and 

 because no clue has been found to what he did write. 



His list was chronological — was apparently a transcript from 

 a memorandum book in which he was in the habit of jotting 

 down the general topic or topics of the article, the publication 

 to which it was sent, and the date of writing or of sending — 

 month and year only, or sometimes only the month. The date of 

 publication never appeared at all. Since this last was absolutely 

 indispensable, if only for verification, a systematic search was 

 made through the newspaper files of those years to recover it. 

 The task was rendered the more laborious and perplexing by 



