| | 1 | Author: | Muir, John | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | American Forests  | | | | Published: | 1995 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | THE forests of America, however slighted by man, must have
been a great delight to God; for they were the best he ever
planted. The whole continent was a garden, and from the beginning
it seemed to be favored above all the other wild parks and gardens
of the globe. To prepare the ground, it was rolled and sifted in
seas with infinite loving deliberation and forethought, lifted into
the light, submerged and warmed over and over again, pressed and
crumpled into folds and ridges, mountains and hills, subsoiled with
heaving volcanic fires, ploughed and ground and sculptured into
scenery and soil with glaciers and rivers,—every feature growing
and changing from beauty to beauty, higher and higher. And in the
fullness of time it was planted in groves, and belts, and broad,
exuberant, mantling forests, with the largest, most varied, most
fruitful, and most beautiful trees in the world. Bright seas made
its border with wave embroidery and icebergs; gray deserts were
outspread in the middle of it, mossy tundras on the north, savannas
on the south, and blooming prairies and plains; while lakes and
rivers shone through all the vast forests and openings, and happy
birds and beasts gave delightful animation. Everywhere, everywhere
over all the blessed continent, there were beauty, and melody, and
kindly, wholesome, foodful abundance. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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