1765),
a renegade preacher. Doubtless most of my own intellectual impetus
comes from this side of the family. There are also cousins and
second cousins on this side who became preachers, and some who
became physicians, but I recall none on the Kelly side.
In size and physical make-up I am much like my father. I have my
father's foot, and I detect many of his ways in my own. My loud and
harmless barking, when I am angered, I get from him. The Kellys are
more apt to bite. I see myself, too, in my brothers, in their looks
and especially in their weaknesses. Take from me my special
intellectual equipment, and I am in all else one of them.
[Speaking of their characteristics as a family, Mr. Burroughs says
that they have absolute inability to harbor resentment (a Celtic
trait); that they never have "cheek" to ask enough for what they
have to sell, lack decision, and are easily turned from their
purpose. Commenting on this, he has often said: "We are weak as
men--do not make ourselves felt in the community. But this very
weakness is a help to me as a writer upon Nature. I don't stand in
my own light. I get very close to bird and beast. My thin skin
lets the shy and delicate influences pass. I can surrender myself
to Nature without effort. I am like her.
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