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Show 458. the context of the work of the Forestry Commission. And his review of Sargent's Silva, published in 1903, continued to illustrate his own sympathies. He knew that policy-making in conservation would require a special kind of men, men who realized that the first and best use of forests and flora in general would always be spiritual. The measure of a great conservationist would be that same criterion. For Linnaeus, the creator of botanical classification who "found botany a chaos and left it a cosmos," Muir's highest praise was that he "loved every living thing as his friend and brother." Further, Muir was willing to judge the character of Linnaeus from evidence of the plant which he loved enough to give his name, the plant which he married. Linnaea Borealis, "the wildest and gentlest, the most beautiful and loveful of all the inhabitants of the wilderness," was the living proof of the botanist's own soul. Muir knew that the world in which Linnaea grew was the world where he would always "feel willing to encamp forever and forgo even heaven." The message was simple and eloquent: a man could be judged by the natural environment he loved, not by his love for science, or his love for other men. Muir's review of Sargent's Silva made essentially the same point. The weakness of Sargent's fourteen-volume work was that it was too technical, that Sargent too frequently hid his heart: Had the bright lines outside the technical parts been doubled or trebled, they could have done no harm any |
