Mr. Brown admitted that
his mind had been fertilized by the Emersonian pollen, and declared
he could write in no other way.
Concerning his own imitation of Emerson, Mr. Burroughs says:--
It was by no means a conscious imitation. Had I tried to imitate
him, probably the spurious character of my essay would have
deceived no one. It was one of those unconscious imitations that
so often give an impression of genuineness. . . . When I began to
realize how deeply Emerson had set his stamp upon me, I said to
myself: "This will never do. I must resist this influence. If
I would be a true disciple of Emerson, I must be myself and not
another. I must brace myself by his spirit, and not go tricked
out in his manner, and his spirit was /'Never imitate.'/"
It was this resolution, as he has before told us, that turned
him to writing on outdoor subjects.
In rereading "Expression" recently, I was struck, not so much by
its Emersonian manner, as by its Bergsonian ideas. I had heard Mr.
Burroughs, when he came under the spell of Bergson in the summer of
1911, say that the reason he was so moved by the French philosopher
was doubtless because he found in him so many of his own ideas; and
it was with keen pleasure that I came upon these forerunners of
Bergson written before Bergson was born.
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