John Muir Quotes
How terribly downright must be the utterances of storms and earthquakes to those accustomed to the soft hypocrisies of society.
Muir, John. John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir. Edited by Linnie Marsh Wolfe, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1938, p. 165.
Note that the learned men who wrote the Chronicle accepted the notion that “fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky”. In another 1000 years, who knows what we observe today that will be laughed at by our progeny. The quotation also demonstrates that historical primary sources are not necessarily reliable because they were sometimes written by men and women with primitive outlook who accepted certain things without critical analysis.
A massive earthquake struck Japan, destroying most of Tokyo and Yokohama. The deaths were so extensive that no official count was ever made. At the time, Japanese politics was polarized by two factions: One urged Japan to become democratic and modern like the West; the other, urged Japanese right wing militarism and expansionism. The shock of the Japanese population of such an enormous natural disaster, were seem by most Japanese as a punishment from God as Yasubumi and many other Japanese leaders stated. The reason for the punishment claimed by most was the recent adoption of Western ideas, lifestyles and particularly the trend away from traditional Japanese authoritarian government and toward Democracy. Japan then rejected democratic ideas and followed a militaristic, expansionistic, aggression leading directly to WWII.
John Muir also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American:42 naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States of America.
