Letters to a Friend, Written to Mrs. Ezra S. Carr, 1866-1879Muir, John
History
Letters to a Friend, Written to Mrs. Ezra S. Carr, 1866-1879
Muir, John
Natural history -- California; Naturalists -- United States -- Correspondence; Yosemite National Park (Calif.) -- Description and travel
I miss the Moores because they were so cordial and kind to me. Mrs. Moore
believes in ice and can preach it too. I wish you could bring Whitney
and her together and tell me the fight. Mrs. M. made the most sensible
visit to our mountains of all the comers I have known. Mr. Moore is a
man who thinks, and he took to this mountain structure like a pointer
to partridges.
I am glad your Ned is growing strong; then we will yet meet this summer
in Yosemite places. Talk to Mrs. Moore about Hetch Hetchy, etc. She
knows it all from Hog Ranch to highest sea-wave cascades, and higher,
yet higher.
I ought not to fun away letter space in speaking to you. I am weary and
impractical and fit for nothing serious until I am tuned and toned by
a few weeks of calm.
Farewell. I will see you and we will plan work and ease and days of holy
mountain rest. Remember me to Ned and all the boys and to the Doctor,
who ought to come hither with you.
Ever your friend,
JOHN MUIR.
Yosemite Valley,
July 27th, 1872.
I want to see you. I want to speak about my studies, which are growing
broader and broader and spreading away to all countries without any
clear horizon anywhere.
I will go over all this Yosemite region this fall and write it up in some
form or other. Will you be here to accompany me in my easier excursions?
I have a good horse for you and will get a tub and plenty of meal and
tea, and you will keep house in very old style and you can bring whom
you please.
I’ve had a very noble time with Gray, who, though brooded and breaded by
Hutchings, gave most of his time to me. I was sorry that his time was
so meanly measured and bounded. He is a most cordial lover of purity
and truth, but the angular factiness of his pursuits has kept him at
too cold a distance from the spirit world.
I know that Mrs. Moore has given you ice in abundance, though even
Yosemite glaciers might melt in the warmth of her laughter and sunshine.
She handles glacier periods like an Agassiz and has discovered a Hetch
Hetchy period that is her own. Don’t you believe all she tells you about
the walk and the dark and the dust of Indian Cañon.
I want to get Doggett’s address.
I will begin my long mountain excursion soon, for the snow is mostly
gone from the high meadows.
I have been guiding a few parties and will take a few more if they are
of the right kind, but I want my mind kept free and sensitive to all
influences excepting human business.
I need a talk with you more than ever before. Mrs. Hutchings is always
kind to me, and the clearness of her views on all spiritual things is
very extraordinary. She appreciates your friendship very keenly, and I
am glad to think you will soon know each other better. Her little Casie
(Gertrude) is as pure a piece of sunbeam as ever was condensed to human
form.
Hoping that Ned will be able to come here to the mountain waters for
perfect healing and that you will also find leisure for the satisfying
of your thirst for beauty, I remain ever
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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