JOHN BURROUGHS 



OHN BURROUGHS began his literary 

 career (and may he so end it!) 

 by writing an essay for the " At- 

 lantic Monthly," as good an intro- 

 duction (and conclusion), speak- 

 ing by the rhetoric, as a lifelong composition 

 need have. That first essay entitled " Expression," 

 " a somewhat Emersonian Expression," says its 

 author, was printed in the "Atlantic" for Novem- 

 ber, 1860, which was fifty years ago. Fifty years 

 are not threescore and ten ; many men have lived 

 past threescore and ten, but not many men have 

 written continuously for the " Atlantic " for fifty 

 years with eye undimmed and natural force un- 

 abated. Mr. Burroughs's eye for the truth of na- 

 ture has grown clearer during these fifty years, 

 and the vigor of his youth has steadied into a 

 maturity of strength which in some of his latest 

 essays " The Long Road," for instance lifts 

 one and bears one down the unmeasured reaches 

 of geologic time, compassing the timelessness of 



