Birds and Poets : with Other PapersBurroughs, John
History
Birds and Poets : with Other Papers
Burroughs, John
American essays -- 19th century; Birds; Natural history -- Outdoor books; Nature
Still I must go on sounding and exploring him, reporting where I touch
bottom and where I do not. He reaps great advantage from his want of
sympathy. The world makes no inroads upon him through this channel. He
is not distracted by the throng or maybe the mob of emotions that find
entrance here. He shines like a star undimmed by current events. He
speaks as from out the interstellar spaces. 'T is vulgar sympathy makes
mortals of us all, and I think Emerson's poetry finally lacks just that
human coloring and tone, that flesh tint of the heart, which vulgar
sympathy with human life as such imparts.
But after we have made all possible deductions from Emerson, there
remains the fact that he is a living force, and, tried by home
standards, a master. Wherein does the secret of his power lie? He is
the prophet and philosopher of young men. The old man and the man of the
world make little of him, but of the youth who is ripe for him he takes
almost an unfair advantage. One secret of his charm I take to be the
instant success with which he transfers our interest in the romantic,
the chivalrous, the heroic, to the sphere of morals and the intellect.
We are let into another realm unlooked for, where daring and imagination
also lead. The secret and suppressed heart finds a champion. To the
young man fed upon the penny precepts and staple Johnsonianism of
English literature, and upon what is generally doled out in the schools
and colleges, it is a surprise; it is a revelation. A new world opens
before him. The nebulae of his spirit are resolved or shown to be
irresolvable. The fixed stars of his inner firmament are brought
immeasurably near. He drops all other books. He will gaze and wonder.
From Locke or Johnson or Wayland to Emerson is like a change from the
school history to the Arabian Nights. There may be extravagances and
some jugglery, but for all that the lesson is a genuine one, and to us
of this generation immense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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