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Show 310. "majestic living temples, the grandest of Gothic cathedrals." He passed a lumber mill which moaned "like a bad ghost," and observed the natural death of Sequoias. Struck by lightening, "being very brash," a tree "breaks up like blasted granite." Felled by men, the Sequoia broke like glass. The most enduring of Nature's living creations was too fragile to withstand Man. Pausing from his botanical studies, Muir thought of "the weary in soul and limb, toilers in town and plain, dying for what these grand old woods can give." Our crude civilization engenders a multitude of wants, and lawgivers are ever at their wits' end devising. The hall and the theater and the church have been invented, and compulsory education. Why not add compulsory recreation? . . . Our forefathers forged chains of duty and habit, which bind us notwithstanding our boasted freedom, and we ourselves in desperation add link to link, groaning and making medicinal laws for relief. Yet few think of pure rest or of the healing power of Nature. Compulsory recreation was a way to save the trees and men as well. "Of all the upness accessible to mortals, there is no upness comparable to the mountains." He regained his vision and was ready to write his argument. |
