LITERARY NOTICES 
XI 
attention to the John Burroughs who sees 
things, and has said practically nothing 
about the John Burroughs who philoso- 
phizes about things. What Mr. Burroughs 
writes as a naturalist is excellent reading 
for boys and girls, but for them his useful- 
ness ends when he becomes a philosopher. 
In highest personal appreciation of Mr. 
Burroughs, after many years’ acquaintance 
with him, the reviewer feels in duty bound 
to say to younger people that although Mr. 
Burroughs in the main may be safely fol- 
lowed as an observer of nature, although 
like all other naturalists he is guilty of some 
errors of observation, not all of us will 
agree with all his deductions regarding na- 
ture. But he has been so fearless a critic 
of what he calls “nature fakers” and has 
even ventured to criticize the classic work 
of Henry David Thoreau, that naturally he 
must expect to have his own writings rigidly 
inspected. 
He probably does not expect any more 
than any other naturalist expects to have 
everybody agree with him, but when he 
ventures into theology, when he does not 
follow his own teaching in his “Accepting 
the Universe,” then he is getting in a re- 
gion dangerous for him and not agreeable 
to us. We like to know that he accepts 
the universe, but we do not like him when 
he attacks our best and holiest aspirations 
regarding that universe and its Maker. 
One reads in vain Dr. Barrus’s book to 
find where Mr. Burroughs got sw'tched off 
from his highest and best work into these 
regions of speculation and philosophical 
statements which we believe to be errone- 
ous and pernicious. Though we say “reads 
in vain,” yet we are glad that Dr. Barrus did 
not take up this phase of the subject. It is 
one over which a majority of his readers 
would like to draw a curtain. 
Let us think of this grand old man as a 
naturalist to be loved and followed for his 
kindly regard for everything in God’s crea- 
tion, and his profound respect for the real 
searcher after Truth. We admire his cour- 
age in faithfully following the path as he 
sees it but regret the misfortune that has 
led him into a marsh where we must leave 
him floundering beyond his depth. 
Accepting the Universe. By John Bur- 
roughs. Boston: Houghton - Mifflin 
Company. 
Whether one agrees with the author’s 
philosophy or not, it is of interest as show- 
ing the conclusions as to the conditions of 
the universe at which this veteran naturalist, 
now nearly ninety years of age, has arrived. 
One who has read his writings in recent 
years can but note that he has turned more 
and more from observation to the signifi- 
cance of what he has seen. He is becom- 
ing in later years more of a philosopher 
than a naturalist. His main thesis, on 
which he seems never tired of dilating, is 
that God is synonymous with nature and 
not the producer of nature. Those of us 
who believe in the motto of The Agassiz 
Association, “Per Naturam ad Deum,” can- 
not agree with his conclusions nor can we 
believe that religion is wholly a matter of 
one’s personal crutch as he expresses it, or 
the adopting of a belief according to one’s 
own idiosyncrasy. 
It is beyond the scope of this magazine 
to enter into religious discussion. It is 
enough for us to state that Mr. Burroughs 
asserts that he has found his conclusions 
personally helpful, but he admits that all 
the good things that civilization stands for 
are the outcome of the commonly accepted 
creeds, and thinks that these creeds may be 
an ideal and personal inspiration to those 
who find them helpful. In that situation one 
wonders if after all Mr. Burroughs’s de- 
cisions in regard to the universe are not 
really his personal creed as well as that of 
a few others that have arrived at similar 
conclusions. His book comes, to use a title 
of one of his previous publications, at “The 
Summit of the Years”; it is interesting only 
as expressing his personal opinions. Its 
value is only as great as that of those who 
disagree with him and have arrived by what 
he calls “the theological road.” The title 
is good for practically we can do nothing 
else. This is our universe in which God 
and nature have placed us. 
Aside from the theological discussion Mr. 
Burroughs takes an optimistic view of this 
wonderful, beautiful world. While one can 
but respect the honesty of opinion ex- 
pressed by this elderly student of nature 
so far as he expresses his personal opinion, 
we still think his title, “The Faith of a Nat- 
uralist,” is too broad if he means all nat- 
urab’sts. Many of us do not accept his con- 
clusions. 
The intent of the book may be summed 
up in the statement that the veteran nat- 
uralist decries all creeds and rejects all theo- 
logical dogmas as suggestive of the child- 
hood of the world, yet he admits that these 
creeds and doctrines have had their value. 
He considers Christianity as a mythical and 
irrational thing, yet he says that for nine- 
teen centuries it has been the salvation of 
the world. “In fact, it is the bed-rock upon 
which our civilization is founded. It has 
saved men in this world by inspiring them 
with the desire to be worthy of a better and 
future world.” Yet he teaches that the time 
has now come when mankind should think 
of all nature as their God. 
There was a time when some of us re- 
ceived the impression from Mr. Burroughs’s 
works that he was either denying the exist- 
ence of God or closely verging upon athe- 
ism. Now it appears that his danger is in 
having too much God or too many gods. 
He is deifying everything. He says that he 
does not need the ceremonies and rituals of 
any church. He regards every day as a 
sahbath day. All pure water is holy water 
and this earth is a celestial abode. He as- 
serts that it has not entered into the mind 
of any man to see and feel the wonders, 
the mysteries and the heavenly character of 
this world. He thinks that any one can here 
find heaven for himself, and that such a 
heaven is preferable to that of any religion 
which looks away from earth to some fairer 
and better abode. That kind of religion will 
fail with most persons. In spite of the care- 
ful observation and thinking by Mr. Bur- 
roughs, in spite of his devotion to philoso- 
