48 BIRDS AND POETS 
The true poet knows more about Nature than the 
naturalist because he carries her open secrets in his 
heart. Eckermann could instruct Goethe in orni- 
thology, but could not Goethe instruct Eckermann 
in the meaning and mystery of the bird? It is my 
privilege to number among my friends a man who 
has passed his life in cities amid the throngs of 
men, who never goes to the woods or to the coun- 
try, or hunts or fishes, and yet he is the true natu- 
alist. JI think he studies the orbs. I think day 
and night and the stars, and the faces of men and 
women, have taught him all there is worth knowing, 
We run to Nature because we are afraid of man. 
Our artists paint the landscape because they cannot 
paint the human face. If we could look into the 
eyes of a man as coolly as we can into the eyes of 
an animal, the products of our pens and brushes 
would be quite different from what they are. 
Vv 
But I suspect after all it makes but little differ- 
ence to which school you go, whether to the woods 
or to the city. A sincere man learns pretty much 
the same things in both places. The differences are 
superficial, the resemblances deep and many. The 
hermit is a hermit, and the poet a poet, whether he 
grow up in the town or the country. I was forci- 
bly reminded of this fact recently on opening the 
works of Charles Lamb after I had been reading 
those of our Henry Thoreau. Lamb cared nothing 
for nature, Thoreau for little else. One was as at- 
