Letter from John Muir to Jeanne C. Carr, 1865 Sep 13

[1] possibly \u2766. Trouts Mills Near Meaford Sept \u2713th [1865] _______ Mrs Carr Your precious letter with its burden of cheer and good wishes has come to our hollow, and has done for me that work of sympathy and encouragement which I know you kindly wished it to do. It came at a time when much needed, for I am subject to lonesomeness at times. Accept then my heartfelt gratitude - would that I could make a better return. E# I am sorry over the loss of Prof Sterlings letter, for I waited and wearied for it a long time. I have been keeping up an ir- regular course of study since leaving Madison, but with no great success. I do not believe that study, especially of the natural sciences, is incompatable with ordinary attention to business, still I seem to be able to do but one thing at a time. Since undertaking a month or two ago to invent new machinery for our mill, my mind seems to so bury itself in the work that I am fit for but little else, and then a lifetime is so little a time that we die ere we get ready to live. I would like to go to college, but then I have to say to myself You will die ere you ccan do anything else . I should like to invent useful machinery, but it comes, You do not wish to spend your lifetime among machines and you will die ere you can do anything else , I should like to study medicine that I might do my part in lessening human misery, but again it comes, You will die ere you are ready or able to do so, how intensely I desire to be a Humboldthttps://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmcl/42961/thumbnail.jp