If Ever Twain And Muir Had Met
Sunday past, a special literary date passed by, as it does annually, once again as unnoticed by most people as a wildflower in the woods. John Muir was born in 1838 on April 21 and 72 years to the day later, in 1910, Mark Twain died.
Except for a story believed to be apocryphal of the two famous writers attending a dinner party hosted by Robert Underwood Johnson, a New York editor, there is no account of Twain and Muir having met. Below, using their own written words, is how I imagine the conversation might have gone had they shared a campfire in Yosemite.
*
Muir: “Another glorious day, the air as delicious to the lungs as nectar to the tongue.”
Twain: “Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of your life.”
Muir: “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”
Twain: “The laws of Nature take precedence of all human laws. The purpose of all human laws is one – to defeat the laws of Nature.”
Muir: “God never made an ugly landscape. All that the sun shines on is beautiful, so long as it is wild.”
Twain: “Architects cannot teach nature anything.”
Muir: “Compared with the intense purity and cordiality and beauty of Nature, the most delicate refinements and cultures of civilization are gross barbarisms.”
Twain: “Nature knows no indecencies; man invents them.”
Muir: “No synonym for God is so perfect as Beauty. Whether as seen carving the lines of the mountains with glaciers, or gathering matter into stars, or planning the movements of water, or gardening – still all is Beauty!”
Twain: “One frequently only finds out how really beautiful a really beautiful woman is after considerable acquaintance with her; and the rule applies to Niagara Falls, to majestic mountains.”
Muir: “Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.”
Twain: “There is probably no pleasure equal to the pleasure of climbing a dangerous Alp; but it is a pleasure which is confined strictly to people who can find pleasure in it.”
Muir: “One day’s exposure to mountains is better than a cartload of books. See how willingly Nature poses herself upon photographers’ plates. No earthly chemicals are so sensitive as those of the human soul.”
Twain: “Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”
Muir: “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.”
Twain, bombastically: “When I am king they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books, for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved.”
Muir: “Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.”
Twain: “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”
Muir: “The power of imagination makes us infinite.”
Twain: “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”
Muir: “The snow is melting into music.”
Twain: “Ah, that shows you the power of music.”
Muir: “I had nothing to do but look and listen and join the trees in their hymns and prayers. In our best times everything turns into religion, all the world seems a church and the mountains altars.”
Twain: “I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s.”
The two wordsmiths’ conversation concludes next week in this space.
* * *
Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.
Check out my memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and my essay collection “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” …
- Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com