Appreciations of Mr. Long and his Work 
life in sympathy and love, realizing the ties that bound 
him to these humble, elder folk of God; a fellow feeling 
has made him wondrous kind. Hence he has fallen 
into the habit of speaking of his “little brothers of 
the air and field,” and, led both by the instinct for 
knowledge — the true scientific curiosity 
—and the impulse of interested affection, 
he has studied his animals as they were 
never studied before; and so has come 
to be familiar not alone with their man- 
ner of life, their nature, habits, and mean- 
ing in a universe of sentient things, but 
has even tried, with some success, to put himself in 
their place, to look at life — their precious birthright 
along with ours — through their own eyes. This is the 
head mark of the modern and most recent interpreta- 
tion of animal nature at the hands of the group of 
writers who have done so much to make popular this 
fascinating field of letters. 
A great impulse toward this study in literary interpre- 
tation indubitably came from Kipling by his famous 
Jungle books and later studies of animal life. He set 
the seal of his genius upon this endeavor, carrying 
on the older idea of the beast epic with this striking 
shift in view point: the beast speaks for his own side 
and treats man critically, just as man has so long been 
treating the beasts. There is thus added an immense 
ethical meaning in the Jungle tales. If allegories, they 
are allegorical in a new, deeper, and finer sense than 
ever was Afsop. Various writers 
have, each according to his partic- 
ular interest, taking the cue from 
Kipling, made their contributions 
to this most stimulating theme. 
Thompson Seton has delighted 
thousands by his combination of 
picture and text. Birdlore has been 
brought into our homes by Burroughs and a vigorous 
band of followers. And later, poet naturalists like 
Charles G. D. Roberts have added their quota to 
the wholesome whole. In verse, Bliss Carman’s lyric 
appeal is largely that of nature conceived as responsive 
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