  Learning From the Laws of Nature Nature as Salvation in the
Early Works of John Muir  by Apple Gifford  Note: This article
was written for the Yale American Studies Seminar "Wilderness
and the American Imagination" , Fall, 1995.  Everything is
governed by laws. I used to imagine that our Sabbath days were
recognized by Nature, and that, apart from the moods and
feelings in which we learn to move, there was a more or less
clearly defined correspondence between the laws of Nature and
our own. But out here in the free unplanted fields there is no
rectilineal sectioning of times and seasons. All things flow
here in indivisible, measureless currents. 1  Americans best
remember John Muir for his commitment to the preservation of the
nation's wilderness. He pioneered the movement to set aside
sections of untouched land, and yet he could not know how
important these pockets of wilderness would be, only a few
generations later, to a society struggling to manage its
dwindling natural resources. His success derived fr