DEDICATOKY EPISTLE. 



To DANIEL RICKETSON, ESQ., 



AUTHOR OF " THE AUTUMN SHEAF," etc. 



MY DEAR RICKETSON : 



Soon after my " Studies in Field and Forest " appeared, you 

 mentioned, as one of the faults of the book, that the author is 

 not sufficiently identified with it, and so rarely alludes to him- 

 self or his adventures that it wants the interest which a little 

 egotism would impart to it. I observe also that Thoreau, 

 in one of his " Letters,"' complains of my lack of enthusiasm. 

 As Thoreau and I never met, he must have formed this 

 opinion from my writings ; but those who know me and my 

 habits would say that my life has been too retired for that 

 sort of personal adventure which inspires enthusiasm, or cre- 

 ates a necessity for making self one of the subjects of dis- 

 course. My life has been passed with my family in almost 

 entire seclusion, hardly interrupted by a small circle of friends 

 and kinsmen, who, being engaged in trade, have not been 

 my companions ; for men of letters and commercial men, how 

 much so ever they may hold each other in mutual esteem, are 

 seldom intimates. And as I have had no social intercourse 

 with any person who is distinguished in science, literature, the 

 fine arts, or by wealth, politics, or civil position, I have lived 

 almost alone in the world. I have devoted my social hours 

 exclusively to my own family, and having had access, until 

 my late domiciliation in Cambridge, to but few books, I have 

 studied Nature more than the library, employing my time in 

 observing her aspects and interpreting her problems, more than 

 in reading or hearing the observations of others. 



