If the reader misses here some of the charm and power of his usual writing, still may he welcome this glimpse into what John Burroughs was doing and thinking during those last weeks before the illness came which forced him to lay aside his pen. CLARA BARRUS WOODCHUCK LODGE ROXBURY-IN-THE-CATSKILLS CONTENTS I. EMERSON AND HIS JOURNALS II. FLIES IN AMBER III. ANOTHER WORD ON THOREAU IV. A CRITICAL GLANCE INTO DARWIN V. WHAT MAKES A POEM? VI. SHORT STUDIES IN CONTRASTS: The Transient and the Permanent Positive and Negative Palm and Fist Praise and Flattery Genius and Talent Invention and Discovery Town and Country VII. DAY BY DAY VIII. GLEANINGS IX. SUNDOWN PAPERS: Re-reading Bergson Revisions Bergson and Telepathy Meteoric Men and Planetary Men The Daily Papers The Alphabet The Reds of Literature The Evolution of Evolution Following One's Bent Notes on the Psychology of Old Age Facing the Mystery INDEX The frontispiece portrait is from a photograph by Miss Mabel Watson taken at Pasadena, California, shortly before Mr. Burroughs's death. THE LAST HARVEST I EMERSON AND HIS JOURNALS I Emerson's fame as a writer and thinker was firmly established during his lifetime by the books he gave to the world. His Journals, published over a quarter of a century after his death, nearly or quite double the bulk of his writing, and while they do not rank in literary worth with his earlier works, they yet throw much light upon his life and character and it is a pleasure to me, in these dark and troublesome times,[1] and near the sun-down of my life, to go over them and point out in some detail their value and significance. [Footnote 1: Written during the World War.--C.B.] Emerson was such an important figure in our literary history, and in the moral and religious development of our people, that attention cannot be directed to him too often. He could be entirely reconstructed from the unpublished matter which he left. Moreover, just to come in contact with him in times like ours is stimulating and refreshing. The younger generation will find that he can do them good if they will pause long enough in their mad skirting over the surface of things to study him.