JOHN BURROUGHS 157 



provided us with a true country idyl, fresh and 

 racy from the soil, not consciously constructed by 

 the most skillful artistic hand." 



Now the skillful artistic hand is everywhere 

 seen in Mr. Burroughs. What writer in these 

 days could expect happy combinations of cir- 

 cumstances in sufficient numbers for eleven vol- 

 umes? Albeit a stone house, in a vineyard by 

 the Hudson, seems a very happy combination, 

 indeed ! 



But being an idyl, when you come to think 

 of it, is not the result of a happy combination of 

 circumstances, but rather of stars of horoscope. 

 You are born an idyl or you are not, and where 

 and when you live has nothing to do with it. 



\Vho would look for a true country idyl to- 

 day in the city of Philadelphia ? Yet one came 

 out of there yesterday, and lies here open before 

 me, on the table. It is a slender volume, called 

 " With the Birds, An Affectionate Study," by 

 Caroline Eliza Hyde. The author is discussing the 

 general subject of nomenclature and animal dis- 

 tribution, and says : 



"When the Deluge covered the then known 

 face of the earth, the birds were drowned with 



