John had left and I was alone on the summit. Thinking about my trip and all I thought I had learned, I realized that my early disappointment at not being able to identify the plants and birds was merely a sign that, like John, I comprehended the natural world from only one perspective out of many possible viewpoints. I was concerned with the relationship between People and Mountains. I could get interested in certain details of the natural world, but of even greater interest to me was how people viewed that world. Muir also devoted his deepest speculations to the proper relationship between people and mountains, and to the multitudinous intertwinings of their sometimes-separate lives.
Morning comes again, hallowed with all the deeds of night.
Here it is six or seven thousand feet above the sea, yet in all this tranquil scene we feel no remoteness, no rest from care and chafing duties because here they have no existence. Every sense is satisfied. For us there is no past, no future. We live in the present and are full. Another universal outpouring of lava, or the coming of a glacial period, could scarce wipe out the flowers and shrubs more effectually than do the sheep.