Creator
Joanna [Muir]
Recipient
John Muir
Transcription
00886
[4]
have rejoiced in. Yes my health is more improved than I can tell, and I am very very grateful. Mother and I are all alone now Annie having gone to Phillips with Mary after her Christmas visit, but we get along nicely. Mother is well and she reads for me great deal, and so with our little work and walking out every day, time passes very pleasantly. The rest of the family are just about as usual though Dan has not been quite well lately. He hopes to go to Neb. in the spring and will [illegible] us a visit before going. Poor Sarah is recovering herself as bravely as she can.
With much love Joanna.
[1]
[in margin: [illegible] sends much love, is happy to [illegible] of you [illegible] and will write soon. J]
Portage, Feb. 12, ’80.
Dear brother John; -
You cannot know how those letters from your own dear hand, after so long a silence, have gladdened all our hearts, as the three months slipped away bringing no tidings from your “Cool white solitudes” we were becoming quite uneasy, and although we tried to think that God would guard you from all harm, as in the past, yet unpleasant pictures would at times present themselves, and make us long and long to see you seated at our own fireside.
[Page 2]
[2]
But it is all past now, your life has been enriched, and you are still our own good kind, happy brother John, so it is all right. I can readily see how with God’s great glorious book of nature, which has become so intelligible to you, continually spread out before you and continually yielding you some grand, fresh truth, that religious denominationalism with all it comes in its train, must seem insignificant and useless; any yet, you naughty, bad boys! What could the world in general do without churches and Sunday schools?
[3]
you know that they who are not pure in heart cannot see God in his works! They see only sheep pastures and firewood, and unless the truths of God be shouted into their ears will never know Him at all until perhaps when they have slunk away into the Spirit world there to find that they have never learned to live. So you must be good and not talk like that anymore. I do hope to spend more time under the blue sky than I have ever yet done and as you say — maybe my eyes may yet feast on some of the scenes which you
Location
Portage, [Wisc]
Date Original
1880 Feb 12
Source
Original letter dimensions: 20.5 x 25.5 cm.
Recommended Citation
Muir, Joanna, "Letter from Joanna [Muir] to John Muir, 1880 Feb 12." (1880). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 516.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/516
Resource Identifier
muir04_0032-md-1.pdf
File Identifier
Reel 04, Image 0031
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
Copyright Status
Copyright status unknown
Copyright Statement
Some letters written to John Muir may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Owning Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Pages
2 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
