THE EARLY SUMMER FLOWERS. 187 
copy of this work the more highly because it is of the 
rare third edition of 1808, in two volumes, a copy of 
which Francis George Heath, a writer on kindred topics 
and editor of Gilpin’s book, says he could not find in 
the British Museum. 
In the adjacent county of Wiltshire was the home 
of Richard Jefferies, the best word-painter of rural life 
in England that this century has seen. His books hold 
a unique place in the literature of Nature. For a sam- 
ple of his skill the story of the trout in ‘Nature near 
London” and ‘‘The Pageant of Summer” in “The Life 
of the Fields” will suffice; but every one of the dozen 
volumes is filled with a charm which perhaps no other 
man could give to them. 
But we do not need to go so far from home to find 
genuine lovers of Nature skilled in the art of expressing 
their love. What White did for Selborne and Jefferies 
for Coate was done as effectually, but entirely in his own 
way, by Thoreau. As Aias stood preéminent among 
the Argives by the measure of his head and broad 
shoulders, so stands Thoreau among men who have 
loved Nature. He stands alone, not to be compared 
with others, for he is incomparable. It does not help 
us to appreciate him, to call him the American Gilbert 
White or Richard Jefferies, any more than it helps us 
to appreciate Jefferies to call him the English Thoreau. 
Concord and Walden and the Maine Woods have had 
