THE NATURE-WRITER 131 



mount is the demand for honesty in the matter 

 of mere fact, to say nothing of the greater matter 

 of expression. 



Only yesterday, in a review in the "Nation" 

 of an animal-man book, I read : " The best thing 

 in the volume is the description of a fight be- 

 tween a mink and a raccoon — or so it seems. 

 Can this be because the reader does not know the 

 difference between a mink and a raccoon, and 

 does know the difference between a human being 

 and the story-teller's manikin ? " 



This is the wandering wood, this Errour's den, 



is the feeling of the average reader — of even the 

 "Nation's" book reviewer — nowadays, toward 

 nature-writing, a state of mind due to the recent 

 revelations of a propensity in wild-animal litera- 

 ture to stand up rather than to go on all fours. 



Whatever of the Urim and of the Thummim 

 you put into your style, whatever of the literary 

 lights and the perfections, see to it that you make 

 the facts "after their pattern, which hath been 

 shewed thee in the mount." 



Thou shalt not bear false witness as to the 

 facts. 



