HOMES NEAR TO NATURE. 



347 



revelry that explains the naturalist let 

 loose from the formal work oi the 

 scholar. Conditions here, while writ- 

 ing his books, are like the primitive- 

 ness and abandon of his camp in the 

 wilderness, and work seems a play, 

 not a profession. Though his literary 

 and scientific playings, like the inves- 

 tigations that preceded them, have 

 been so extensive as to seem profes- 

 sional, they still retain the playful 

 point of view. It is this spirit, and the 

 sharp contrast in his work, that have 

 sometimes made Dr. Long's natural 

 history misunderstood. 



In his literary work, as in his pro- 

 fessional and philosophic studies, he 

 has been a thorough, painstaking 

 student of facts, and it has been his 

 aim to make these facts interesting 



bv showing their direct bearim 



A: 



upon 



numan me. .\s lie says m the preface 

 to his "English Literature," "From 

 beginning to end, this book is written 

 upon the assumption that the first 

 virtue oi such a work is to be accurate, 

 and the second to be interesting." It 

 seems probable that these lines were 

 written in the home study. 



lint his nature writings have been, 

 like the observations upon which they 

 are based, his play and recreation. To 

 an outsider it may seem as if he had 

 unconsciously transposed his basic 

 principle of literature and said, "The 

 first object of such work is to be inter- 

 esting and the second to be accurate." 



When I suggested this theory to the 

 naturalist he shook his head doubt- 

 fully. 'Truth is always the first in- 



WILLIAM 1. LONG, THE NATURALIST WRITER. 



