PREFACE 
I HAVE deliberated a long time about coupling 
some of my sketches of outdoor nature with a few 
chapters of a more purely literary character; and as 
I have confided to my reader what pleased and en- 
gaged me beyond my four walls, to show him what 
absorbs and delights me inside those walls; especially 
as I have aimed to bring my outdoor spirit and 
method within and still look upon my subject with 
the best naturalist’s eye I could command, 
I hope, therefore, he will not be scared away when 
I boldly confront him in the latter portions of my 
book with this name of strange portent, Walt Whit- 
man, for I assure him that in this misjudged man he 
may press the strongest poetic pulse that has yet beat 
in America, or perhaps in modern times. 
Then these chapters are a proper supplement or 
continuation of my themes, and their analogy in liter- 
ature, because in them we shall “follow out these 
lessons of the earth and air,” and behold their appli- 
cation to higher matters. 
It is not an artificially graded path strewn with 
roses that invites us in this part, but let me hope 
something better, a rugged trail through the woods 
