Creator
John Muir
Recipient
[Clinton L.] Merriam
Preview
Transcription
7.Oh! Grandly do my two logs give back their light slow gleaned from a hundred summers, garnered away in dotted cells, and in beads of amber gam. As if to witness this perfect and beautiful death their living companions look down and together with this outgush of light seems to flow all of the other riches of their life, and sweet it is, to lie thus alone in full exposure to their spirit beauty.Why is night so intensely impressive, is it because of an indefinite bodyless something nothing that we call wildness, wierdness, etc., or is it because of the activity of our own spiritual affinities concentered by the darkness, and made to act with more force upon the spiritual beings about us, and made more susceptible of their influences. To be lonely must be to lose for the time being our spiritual strength. In this civilization of ours most of our spiritual powers are undeveloped like eyes that are never allowed to fill with light. As creatures with veritable carnal bodies dwell by myriads in a drop of water, so the whole earth and every pore and chink of the sky is filled by spiritual creatures, and do they never come to us, have they no human sympathy.It is midnight, and I must rest. Goodnight. Goodnight also to my two logs, and two lakes, and to my two domes high and black on the sky with a cluster of stars between.--------JOHN MUIRYosemith, cal.--
Location
…8 miles north of Yosemite Falls
Date Original
1871 Sep 19
Source
Original letter dimensions unknown.
Resource Identifier
muir02_0539-trans.tif
File Identifier
Reel 02, Image 0539
Copyright Status
Copyrighted
Copyright Statement
The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish or exhibit them, see http://www.pacific.edu/Library/Find/Holt-Atherton-Special-Collections/Fees-and-Forms-.html
Owning Institution
University of the Pacific Library Holt-Atherton Special Collections. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Copyright Holder
Muir-Hanna Trust
Copyright Date
1984
Page Number
Page 7
Keywords
John Muir, correspondence, letters, author, writing, naturalist, California, correspondent, mail, message, post, exchange of letters, missive, notes, epistle
