Creator

John Muir

Recipient

Sarah [Muir Galloway]

Preview

image preview

Transcription

[3]I receive intense delight from the study nature and would not sell my knowledge of plants for all the wealth in the worldwandering star and move in as crooked an orbit as any star in the sky, but I believe that you will admit the soundness of my advice never- theless. You will have a fine flower garden Sarah at your new home, and your town carpets and furniture will be easily removed, and if your children will thus loose the advantages of a town, they will also avoid its evils. [deleted and]I wish Sarah with more than ordinary emphasis that I could make you that long visit you speak of but fear that it is very far distant yet I never before felt as utterly homeless as now, I do not feel sad, but I cannot find a good boarding place to say nothing of a homeI have not heard from Dan very lately. He is boring easily among a lot of slow unspeculative Dutch men His boarding place is worse than mine but he does not care a bit -[4]and so I have not yet unpacked my trunk, and am at any mom- ent as ready to leave this house for a march as were the Israelites while eating the Passover, but much as I love the peace & quiet of retirement I feel some- thing within - some restless fires that urge me on in a way very different from my real wishes and I suppose that I am doomed to live in some of these noisy commercial centres.Circumstances over which I have had no control almost compel me to abandon the profession of my choice and to take up the business of an inventor, and now that I am among machines I begin to feel that I have some talent that way and so I almost think unless things change soon I shall turn my whole mind into that channelRemember me to all my friends Tell Anna & George to make a little garden w/uncle John The forest here is almost in full leaf I have found wild flowers for more than a month nowI gathered a handful about a mile & a half from town this morning before breakfast When I first entered the woods and stood among the beautiful flowers & trees of Gods own garden so pure & chaste & lovely I could not help shedding tears of joy

Location

Indianapolis, Ind

Date Original

1866 May

Source

Original letter dimensions: 20.5 x 25.5 cm

Resource Identifier

muir01_0840-let.tif

File Identifier

Reel 01, Image 0840

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The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust.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 2

Keywords

John Muir, correspondence, letters, author, writing, naturalist, California, correspondent, mail, message, post, exchange of letters, missive, notes, epistle

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