_The Nature Writers._--Professor Van Dyke’s “outdoor essays,” as they are sometimes called, carry us back to the earlier nature writers, for between him and Thoreau there is no wide hiatus. John Burroughs (born in 1837) has written a considerable number of books dealing with his observations out of doors, although he has by no means neglected the purely literary topic. The mention of his earlier works gives an adequate index of all his subject-matter. “Wake-Robin” appeared in 1870, “Birds and Poets” in 1875, and “Whitman, a Study” in 1896. To be closely associated with Mr. Burroughs is Bradford Torrey (born in 1843); his chief works are “Birds in the Bush” (1885), “The Footpath Way” (1892), and “A World of Green Hills” (1898). Nor can Olive Thorne Miller (born in 1831) be overlooked: she began to write studies of birds about 1880, and among other works, all of considerable interest, she has published “In Nesting Time” (1888), “A Bird-Lover in the West” (1894), and “Under the Tree-Tops” (1897). The writers just mentioned are not to be regarded, of course, as scientists or even as scientific writers in the commonly accepted sense of those terms. They look upon nature with the loving rather than the analytic eye, and register their appreciative feelings rather than their minute observations. They have much in common, therefore, with the purely literary essayists whose names are not far from legion. Although unable to mention all who have recently attracted attention, we must not forget William Winter (born in 1836), whose best prose works date back but a quarter of a century: he published “Shakespeare’s England” in 1888, “Gray Days and Gold” in 1891, and “The Life and Art of Edwin Booth” in 1894. Neither can we ignore Hamilton Wright Mabie (born in 1845), literary editor of _The Outlook_. His books are many and widely popular: probably the series of three volumes called “My Study Fire” (1890, 1894, and 1899) and “Shakespeare: Poet, Dramatist, and Man” (1900) are best known. Not less significant is Paul Elmer More (born in 1864) of the editorial staff of _The Nation_. In addition to translations from Sanskrit and from Greek, he has published five books all bearing the title “Shelburne Essays” (1904-1908).