John Muir on density

John Muir advised city dwellers in California to "go east" to the Sierras to find the "cure for all care." Good advice. Because of Muir, there is something left of that wilderness to be enjoyed. But Muir was also ambivalent about the hordes of tourists who later invaded his beloved hills and groves. The fact that today in Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks the ozone pollution levels are tracked along with the daily temperature readings is a testament to the continuing human impact despite "protection" and would likely confirm his skepticism about the impact of urbanization on all of us. The following is taken from John Muir In His Own Words: A Book of Quotations compiled by Peter Browning:

Tell me what you will of the benefactions of city civilization, of the sweet security of the streets--all as part of the natural upgrowth of man towards the high destiny we hear so much of. I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found. If the death exhalations that brood the broad towns in which we so fondly compact ourselves were made visible, we should flee as from a plague. All are more or less sick; there is not a perfectly sane man in San Francisco. –1874