Objects arrange themselves in our memory, not according to the
will, or any real quality in themselves, but as they affect our
lives and stand to us in our unconscious moments. The hills we
have dwelt among, the rocks and trees we have looked upon in all
moods and feelings, that stood to us as the shore to the sea, and
received a thousand impresses of what we lived and suffered, have
significance to us that is not accounted for by anything we can
see or feel in them.
Here we see the youth of twenty-three setting forth a truth which
he has sedulously followed in his own writing about nature, the
following of which accounts so largely for the wide appeal his
works have made.
Some time in 1860, Mr. Burroughs began to send essays to the New
York "Leader," a weekly paper, the organ of Tammany Hall at that
time. His first article was made up of three short essays--"World
Growth," "New Ideas," and "Theory and Practice." Here beyond
question is the writer we know:
The ideas that indicate the approach of a new era in history come
like bluebirds in the spring, if you have ever noticed how that is.
The bird at first seems a mere wandering voice in the air; you hear
its carol on some bright morning in March, but are uncertain of
its course or origin; it seems to come from some source you cannot
divine; it falls like a drop of rain when no cloud is visible; you
look and listen, but to no purpose.
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