Burroughs outlined
several years ago in his essay "An Outlook upon Life":--
I am bound to praise the simple life, because I have lived it and
found it good. . . . I love a small house, plain clothes, simple
living. Many persons know the luxury of a skin bath--a plunge in
the pool or the wave unhampered by clothing. That is the simple
life--direct and immediate contact with things, life with the
false wrappings torn away--the fine house, the fine equipage,
the expensive habits, all cut off. How free one feels, how good
the elements taste, how close one gets to them, how they fit
one's body and one's soul! To see the fire that warms you, or
better yet, to cut the wood that feeds the fire that warms you;
to see the spring where the water bubbles up that slakes your
thirst, and to dip your pail into it; to see the beams that are
the stay of your four walls, and the timbers that uphold the roof
that shelters you; to be in direct and personal contact with the
sources of your material life; to want no extras, no shields; to
find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water
exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening
saunter; to find a quest of wild berries more satisfying than a gift
of tropic fruit; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated
over a bird's nest, or over a wild flower in spring--these are some
of the rewards of the simple life.
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