He says that he finds that "that district produces the
greatest variety which is the most examined." The thoroughness
with which he examined his own locality is attested by his "Natural
History of Selborne." Thoreau was such a stay-at-home that he
refused to go to Paris lest he miss something of interest in
Concord. "I have traveled a good deal in Concord," he says in his
droll way. And one of the most delicious instances of provinciality
that I ever came across is Thoreau's remark on returning Dr. Kane's
"Arctic Explorations" to a friend who had lent him the book--"Most of
the phenomena therein recorded are to be observed about Concord."
In thinking of John Burroughs, however, the thought of the author's
mountain home as the material and heart of his books does not come
so readily to consciousness. For most of us who have felt the
charm, of his lyrical prose, both in his outdoor books and in his
"Indoor Studies," were familiar with him as an author long before we
knew there was a Slabsides--long before there was one, in fact, since
he has been leading his readers to nature for fifty years, while the
picturesque refuge we are now coming to associate with him has been
in existence only about fifteen years.
Our poet-naturalist seems to have appropriated all outdoors for
his stamping-ground.
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