XI 
THE LITERARY TREATMENT OF 
NATURE 
HE literary treatment of natural history themes 
is, of course, quite different from the scientific 
treatment, and should be so. The former, compared 
with the latter, is like free-hand drawing compared 
with mechanical drawing. Literature aims to give 
us the truth in a way to touch our emotions, and in 
some degree to satisfy the enjoyment we have in the 
living reality. The literary artist is just as much in 
love with the fact as is his scientific brother, only he 
makes a different use of the fact, and his interest in 
it is often of a non-scientific character. His method 
is synthetic rather than analytic. He deals in gen- 
eral, and not in technical truths, — truths that he 
arrives at in the fields and woods, and not in the 
laboratory. 
The essay-naturalist observes and admires; the 
scientific naturalist collects. One brings home a 
bouquet from the woods; the other, specimens for 
his herbarium. The former would enlist your sym- 
pathies and arouse your enthusiasm; the latter 
would add to your store of exact knowledge. The 
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