John Muir Quotes
Of
all the mountain ranges I have climbed, I like the Sierra Nevada the
best. Though extremely rugged, with its main features on the grandest
scale in height and depth, it is nevertheless easy of access and
hospitable; and its marvelous beauty, displayed in striking and
alluring forms, woos the admiring wanderer on and on, higher and
higher, charmed and enchanted. Benevolent, solemn, fateful, pervaded
with divine light, every landscape glows like a countenance hallowed in
eternal repose; and every one of its living creatures, clad in flesh
and leaves, and every crystal of its rocks, whether on the surface
shining in the sun or buried miles deep in what we call darkness, is
throbbing and pulsing with the heartbeats of God. All the world lies
warm in one heart, yet the Sierra seems to get more light than other
mountains. The weather is mostly sunshine embellished with magnificent
storms, and nearly everything shines from base to summit — the
rocks, streams, lakes, glaciers, irised falls, and the forests of
silver fir and silver pine. And how bright is the shining after summer
showers and dewy nights, and after frosty nights in spring and autumn,
when the morning sunbeams are pouring through the crystals on the
bushes and grass, and in winter through the snow-laden trees! The
average cloudiness for the whole year is perhaps less than ten
hundredths. Scarcely a day of all the summer is dark, though there is
no lack of magnificent thundering cumuli. They rise in the warm midday
hours, mostly over the middle region, in June and July, like new
mountain ranges, higher Sierras, mightily augmenting the grandeur of
the scenery while giving rain to the forests and gardens and bringing
forth their fragrance. The wonderful weather and beauty inspire
everybody to be up and doing. Every summer day is a workday to be
confidently counted on, the short dashes of rain forming, not
interruptions, but rests. The big blessed storm days of winter, when
the whole range stands white, are not a whit less inspiring and kind.
Well may the Sierra be called the Range of Light, not the Snowy Range;
for only in winter is it white, while all the year it is bright. John
Muir, Our National Parks, 1901
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