Introduction 
power is sufficient to overmaster all impedi- 
ments, and to accomplish the full measure of its 
demands. For many a year I have been im- 
pelled toward the Lord’s tropic gardens of the 
South. Many influences have tended to blunt 
or bury this constant longing, but it has out- 
lived and overpowered them all.” 
Muir’s love of nature was so largely a part 
of his religion that he naturally chose Biblical 
phraseology when he sought a vehicle for his 
feelings. No prophet of old could have taken 
his call more seriously, or have entered upon 
his mission more frevently. During the long 
days of his confinement in a dark room he had 
opportunity for much reflection. He concluded 
that life was too brief and uncertain, and time 
too precious, to waste upon belts and saws ; that 
while he was pottering in a wagon factory, God 
was making a world; and he determined that, 
if his eyesight was spared, he would devote the 
remainder of his life to a study of the process. 
Thus the previous bent of his habits and studies, 
and the sobering thoughts induced by one of the 
[ xv ] 
