Most of the papers garnered here were written after fourscore
years--after the heat and urge of the day--and are the fruit of a long
life of observation and meditation.
The author's abiding interest in Emerson is shown in his close and
eager study of the Journals during these later years. He hungered for
everything that concerned the Concord Sage, who had been one of the
most potent influences in his life. Although he could discern flies in
the Emersonian amber, he could not brook slight or indifference toward
Emerson in the youth of to-day. Whatever flaws he himself detected, he
well knew that Emerson would always rest secure on the pedestal where
long ago he placed him. Likewise with Thoreau: If shortcomings were to
be pointed out in this favorite, he wished to be the one to do it. And
so, before taking Thoreau to task for certain inaccuracies, he takes
Lowell to task for criticizing Thoreau. He then proceeds, not without
evident satisfaction, to call attention to Thoreau's "slips" as an
observer and reporter of nature; yet in no carping spirit, but, as he
himself has said: "Not that I love Thoreau less, but that I love truth
more."
The "Short Studies in Contrasts," the "Day by Day" notes,
"Gleanings," and the "Sundown Papers" which comprise the latter part
of this, the last, posthumous volume by John Burroughs, were written
during the closing months of his life. Contrary to his custom, he
wrote these usually in the evening, or, less frequently, in the early
morning hours, when, homesick and far from well, with the ceaseless
pounding of the Pacific in his ears, and though incapable of the
sustained attention necessary for his best work, he was nevertheless
impelled by an unwonted mental activity to seek expression.
If the reader misses here some of the charm and power of his usual
writing, still may he welcome this glimpse into what John Burroughs
was doing and thinking during those last weeks before the illness came
which forced him to lay aside his pen.