JOHN BURROUGHS 149 



in some part of His perfection. " I cannot tell 

 what the simple apparition of the earth and sky 

 mean to me ; I think that at rare intervals one 

 sees that they have an immense spiritual mean- 

 ing, altogether unspeakable, and that they are the 

 great helps, after all." How the world was made 

 — its geology, its biology — is the great ques- 

 tion, for its answer is poetry and religion and 

 life itself. Mr. Burroughs is serenely sure as to 

 who made the world ; the theological speculation 

 as to why it was made, he answers by growing 

 small fruits on it, living upon it, writing about it. 

 Temperamentally Mr. Burroughs is an opti- 

 mist, as vocationally he is a writer, and avoca- 

 tionally a vine-dresser. He plants and expects 

 to gather — grapes from his grape-vines, books 

 from his book-vines, years, satisfactions, sorrows, 

 joys, all that is due him. 



The waters know their own and draw 



The brook that springs in yonder heights ; 



So flows the good with equal law 

 Unto the soul of pure delights. 



And what is it that is due him? Everything; 

 everything essential; as everything essential is 

 due the pine tree, the prairie, the very planet. Is 



