Literary values, and other papers - John Burroughs

Oh, the blessedness of work, of life-giving and life-sustaining work! The busy man is the happy man; the idle man is the unhappy. When you feel blue and empty and disconsolate, and life seems hardly worth living, go to work with your hands,—delve, hoe, chop, saw, churn, thrash, anything to quicken the pulse and dispel the fumes. The blue devils can be hoed under in less than half an hour; ennui cannot stand the bucksaw fifteen minutes; the whole outlook may be brightened in a brief time by turning your hands to something you can do with a will.

I speak from experience. A few years ago I found my life beginning to stagnate; I discovered that I was losing my interest in things. I was out of sorts both physically and mentally; sleep was poor, digestion was poor, and my days began to wear too sombre a tinge. There was no good reason for it that I could perceive except that I was not well and fully occupied. I had too much leisure.

What was to be done? Go to work. Get more land and become a farmer in earnest. Exchange the penholder for the crowbar and the hoe-handle. I already had a few acres of land and had been a fruitgrower in a small way; why should I not double my possessions and plant a vineyard that promised some returns? So I began to cast covetous eyes upon some land adjoining me that was for sale. I nibbled at it very shyly at first. I walked over it time after time and began to note its good points. Then I began to pace it off. I found pleasure and occupation even in this. Then I took a line and began to measure it. I measured off a pretty good slice and fancied it already my own. This tasted so good to me that I measured off a larger slice and then a still larger, till I found that nothing short of the whole field would satisfy me; I must go to the fence and take a clean strip one field broad from the road to the river.

This I did, thus doubling the nine acres I already possessed. It was winter; I could hardly wait till spring to commence operations upon the new purchase. Already I felt the tonic effect of those nine acres. They were a stimulus, an invitation, and a challenge. To subdue them and lick them into shape and plant them with choice grapes and currants and raspberries,—the mere thought of it toned me up and improved my sleep.

Before the snow was all off the ground in March we set to work under-draining the moist and springy places. My health and spirits improved daily. I seemed to be underdraining my own life and carrying off the stagnant water, as well as that of the land. Then a lot of ash stumps and brush, an old apple orchard, and a great many rocks and large stones were to be removed before the plough could be set going.

With what delight I saw this work go forward, and I bore my own part in it! I had not seen such electric April days for years; I had not sat down to dinner with such relish and satisfaction for the past decade; I had not seen the morning break with such anticipations since I was a boy. The clear, bright April days, the great river dimpling and shining there, the arriving birds, the robins laughing, the high-holes calling, the fox sparrows whistling, the blackbirds gurgling, and the hillside slope where we were at work,—what delight I had in it all, and what renewal of life it brought me! I found the best way to see the spring come was to be in the field at work. You are then in your proper place, and the genial influences steal in upon you and envelop you unawares. You glance up from your work, and the landscape is suddenly brimming with beauty. There is more joy and meaning in the voices of the birds than you ever before noticed. You do not have time to exhaust the prospect or to become sated with nature, but feel her constantly as a stimulating presence. Out of the corners of your eyes and by a kind of indirection you see the subtle and renewing spirits of the season at work.

Before April was finished, the plough had done its perfect work, and in early May the vines and plants were set. Then followed the care and cultivation of them during the summer, and the pruning and training of them the subsequent season, all of which has been a delight to me. Indeed the new vineyard has become almost a part of myself. I walk through it with the most intimate and personal regard for every vine. I know how they came there. I owe them a debt of gratitude. They have done more for me than a trip to Europe or to California could have done. If it brings me no other returns, the new lot already has proved one of the best investments I ever made in my life.

Oh, the blessedness of motion, of a spur to action, of a current in one’s days, of something to stimulate the will, to help reach a decision, to carry down stream the waste and débris of one’s life! Hardly a life anywhere so befouled or stagnant, but it would clear and renew itself, if the currents were set going by the proper kind and amount of honest work!

INDEX

Addison, Joseph, [53], [69], [71].
Alcott, A. Bronson, [76].
American literature, art in, [16].
See also Literature.
Amiel, Henri Frédéric, on Renan, [65];
on Cherbuliez, [188];
his Journal, [229];
quotation from, [188].
Analogy, a frequent form of argument, [27];
between man and nature, [27], [28], [48-50];
metaphors, [28-31];
legitimate uses of, [31], [32];
accidental and essential, [32];
immortality in, [32-39];
in theology, [39];
false and true, [39-44];
between mind and body, [44], [45];
in the physical world, [45-47];
between art and nature, [50], [54];
rhetorical and scientific, [51].
Arnold, Matthew, [34], [50], [53], [59], [70], [78], [79];
as a critic, [90-92], [228]; [93], [96];
greatest as a literary critic, [97];
his Thyrsis, [103];
his aristocratic ideals, [112-114], [118]; [123], [124], [133], [184], [189], [206], [210];
his Literature and Dogma, [228], [229];
quotations from, [53], [93].
Art, disinterestedness of, [134], [135];
universality of, [135-142];
disinterestedness not indifferentism in, [142-148];
treatment of vice and sin in, [148-150].
Bacon, Francis, [205], [218].
Bagehot, Walter, [26];
quotation from, [26].
Barante, Baron de, [104].
Baudelaire, Charles, [20].
Birds, dusting and bathing, [174].
Books, the enduring, [3];
the re-reading of, [216-231].
See also Literature.
Boswell, James, his Life of Samuel Johnson, [225].
Brontë, Charlotte, [103].
Browne, Sir Thomas, his Religio Medici, [229];
on the past, [241];
quotation from, [241].
Browning, Robert, [2];
his How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix, [70], [166]; [114], [184].
Brunetière, Ferdinand, [71], [85];
his criticism, [87]; [90], [96], [104], [107], [109];
a critic of the aristocratic type, [112], [118].
Bunting, snow (Passerina nivalis), [174].
Burney, Fanny, [62].
Butler, Joseph, [33], [34].
Byron, Lord, [131], [141];
eloquent but not truly poetical, [165];
an example of his eloquence, [166];
quotation from, [166].
Campbell, Thomas, [166];
his To the Rainbow, [166]; [182].
Carlyle, Thomas, [2];
his definition of poetry, [10];
his criticism, [89], [90]; [119];
his vehemence and enthusiasm, [123], [124];
his French Revolution, [164]; [196];
his service to most readers more moral than intellectual, [223];
his Past and Present, [224];
his Latter-Day Pamphlets, [224];
his Life of Sterling, [224];
his essays on Scott, Burns, and Johnson, [224];
his Frederick, [224];
his Reminiscences, [224];
his Sartor Resartus, [224];
handicapped by his style, [224], [225];
to Emerson on the loss of his mother, [237];
his attitude toward the past, [238];
quotations from, [164], [165], [237].
Catholicism, [125].
Cats, [176].
Chateaubriand, [93].
Cherbuliez, Victor, [188].
Chickadee (Parus atricapillus), [173].
Cicero, quotations from, [240], [241].
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, [119].
Collins, Wilkie, [8].
Conversations with Goethe, [225].
Cowley, Abraham, his essays, [220].
Criticism, the scope, aims, and functions of, [80-84];
vital truth the important thing in, [84];
personality and impressionism in, [85-89];
inspiration more important than judgment in, [89-92];
diversity of critical judgments, [92-95];
the inner self of the critic a necessary element in, [95], [96];
importance of the power of expression in, [96-98];
relativity of truth in, [98-100];
subjective and objective, [100-104];
individual taste in, [104], [105];
catholicity in, [105-108];
democratic and aristocratic, [109-115];
good and bad taste in, [116-118];
the doctrinaire in, [118-126];
the most productive attitude in, [127-132];
professional, [127], [128], [130];
predilection in, [132];
antipathy in, [132], [133].
Cuckoo, European, [176], [178].
Dana, Richard Henry, Jr., his Two Years Before the Mast, [3], [226], [227].
Dante, [209].
Darwin, Charles, [211].
Defoe, Daniel, [3].
Democracy, in literature, [109-115];
modern growth of, [151], [152];
its effect upon literature, [152-156].
Democratic Criticism, [109].
Demosthenes, [162].
De Quincey, Thomas, [78], [163];
his Philosophy of Roman History, [163]; [210];
quotation from, [163], [164].
Dickens, Charles, [5], [7];
his Tale of Two Cities, [225], [226];
a matchless mimic with no deep seriousness, [225], [226].
Didacticism, [142].
Distinction, [113-115].
Dowden, Edward, [124].
Dryden, John, [92].
Earthworm, Gilbert White’s observations on, [178].
Eckermann, Johann Peter, his Conversations with Goethe, [225].
Eliot, George, [6], [119], [121].
Eloquence, its relation to poetry, [161-167].
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, [1], [19], [24], [27], [28];
on individuality, [53], [54]; [59], [76], [78], [105], [106], [119];
as a poet, [122];
as a critic, [122], [123]; [124], [132], [136];
his Nature, [164];
an example of poetic prose from, [164]; [181], [182], [184];
his appeal chiefly to youth and early manhood, [191];
never ceased to be a clergyman, [192];
no prosaic side, [192];
his sympathy for ideas rather than for men or things, [193], [194];
his inborn radicalism, [194], [195]:
abstract in his aim and concrete
in his methods, [196];
his suggestiveness, [205]; [223], [228-230], [237];
his attitude toward the past, [238];
quotations from, [24], [53], [54], [59], [164], [193-195].
English poetry, [165].
English writers, [7], [63].
Evans, Mary Ann (George Eliot), [6], [119], [121].
Everett, Edward, [5].
Family tree, the, [47], [48].
Fashions, [2].
Ferguson, Charles, his Religion of Democracy, quotations from, [210], [211].
Fern-owl, [175].
Fiction, values in, [6], [7];
a finer but not a greater art to-day than formerly, [60], [61].
Fieldfare, [174].
Flaubert, Gustave, [19].
France, Anatole, [112].
Franklin, Benjamin, his Autobiography, [226].
Freeman, Edward Augustus, [5].
French art, [146].
French criticism, [97].
French poetry, more eloquent than poetic, [165].
French writers, modern, [7], [63].
Froude, James Anthony, [5];
his style, [68].
George, Henry, as a writer, [9].
German writers, [7].
Gibbon, Edward, [78], [163].
Gladden, Rev. Washington, his Art and Morality, [143], [144];
quotation from, [143].
God, the old and the new ideas of, [152].
Goethe, Conversations with, [225].
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, [93], [123], [127];
his Sorrows of Young Werther, [138]; [141];
on poetical and unpoetical objects, [157];
on Byron, [165]; [184];
quotations from, [141], [157].
Gosse, Edmund, his Questions at Issue, [153], [154];
quotation from, [154].
Grant, Gen. Ulysses Simpson, his Memoirs, [5], [227];
an elemental man, [6];
his greatness of the democratic type, [113], [114];
his commonness, [115];
his lack of vanity, [227].
Gray, Thomas, [53], [103];
his Elegy in a Country Churchyard, [137].
Greeks, the, their view of Nature, [203].
Grimm, Hermann, [93].
Grouse, ruffed (Bonasa umbellus), [174].
Guizot, François Pierre Guillaume, [119].
Halleck, Fitz-Greene, his Marco Bozzaris, [166].
Happiness, negative happiness the most one ought to expect, [244];
one’s capacity for happiness not affected permanently by adventitious circumstances, [244-248];
congenial work essential to, [248-256].
Harrison, Frederic, [25], [61].
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, [7];
the most suggestive of our romancers, [205].
Heine, Heinrich, [80].
Hennequin, his Scientific Criticism, [109].
Heronry, [177].
Hewlett, Maurice, [25], [26];
quotation from, [25].
Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, [72].
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, [47], [79];
his Old Ironsides, [166];
his Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, [219];
his real ideas and sham ideas, [219];
his lack of deep seriousness, [220].
Honey dew, [178].
Howells, William Dean, [5], [7], [72], [81];
his Criticism and Fiction, [82], [83], [109]; [206];
quotation from, [83].
Hugo, Victor, [103], [119];
his moral earnestness, [189].
Hume, David, elegance of his style, [77];
on the eloquence of Demosthenes, [162];
on Cowley and Parnell, [220];
quotations from, [77], [162].
Hunt, Leigh, [131].
Huxley, Thomas Henry, [51], [78], [119].
Ibsen, Henrik, [149].
Immorality in art and literature, [148-150].
Immortality, false analogies of, [32-39].
Indian, the, Thoreau on, [198], [199].
Indifferentism, [142], [143], [146-148].
Individualism, [125], [126].
Individuality in literature, [53-60].
Institutionalism, [125], [126].
Irvine, J. P., quotation from his poem The Lightning Express, [159].
James, Henry, on Whitman’s letters, [4]; [5], [69], [121];
style of his later works, [206].
Jeffrey, Francis, Lord, [131].
Jesse’s Gleanings in Natural History, [179].
Joan of Arc, [73].
Johnson, Charles Frederick, his Elements of Literary Criticism, [109].
Johnson, Samuel, [76];
his Rambler, [76];
his criticism, [90];
on Dryden, [92]; [96], [103], [112], [172], [205];
Boswell’s Life of, [225].
Jonson, Ben, a bit of his prose, [26].
Keats, John, [11];
his Ode to a Nightingale, [75].
Kidd, Benjamin, his Social Evolution, [9].
Landor, Walter Savage, [93];
lacking in moral stress and fervor, [124]; [132], [184].
Lemaître, Jules, [87].
Life, the earlier years of one’s, [231-243].
Lincoln, Abraham, his Gettysburg speech, [5];
an elemental man, [6];
his greatness of the democratic type, [113], [114];
his commonness, [115], [116].
Literature, the enduring in, [1-3], [216-231];
values in, [4-9];
definitions of, [9-13];
style in, [14], [52-79];
truth in, [14], [15];
morality and art in, [16];
art in, [17-20];
the teaching of, [20-25];
good and bad taste in, [26], [116-118];
democracy in, [109-115];
the doctrinaire in, [118-126];
art vs. didacticism in, [135-142], [144-150];
an end in and of itself, [140];
immorality in, [148-150];
effect of democracy upon, [152-156];
humanitarianism in, [156];
the mechanical and industrial age in, [157-160];
lucidity in, [180-182];
appreciation in the reading of, [182-185];
necessity of something more than style in, [186-190];
Nature in, [202-204];
suggestiveness in, [205-215].
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, [137], [185], [230];
his sonnet on Sumner, [230].
Lowell, James Russell, [105], [108], [122], [124];
on scholarship, [186];
quotation from, [186].
Lucidity, [180-182].
Macaulay, Thomas Babington, Lord, on Miss Burney, [62]; [65], [79], [96], [131], [166];
quotation from, [62].
Maeterlinck, Maurice, his Life of the Bee, [211].
Martineau, Harriet, [103].
Meredith, George, [69];
his obscurity of expression, [180-182];
quotations from, [180], [181].
Metaphors, [28-31].
Mill, John Stuart, a suggestive sentence of, [210].
Milton, John, [13], [74];
his Lycidas, [103];
his Paradise Lost, [105];
begotten of the classical tradition, [111]; [115];
makes no personal appeal, [183], [184].
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de, [16], [58], [59], [217], [218];
quotation from, [59].
Moody, William Vaughn, [156];
his poem on the steam engine, [158], [159];
quotation from, [158], [159].
Morley, John, his definition of literature, [10].
Nature, Thoreau’s interest in, [201], [202];
in literature, [203], [204].
Newman, John Henry, [119].
Nisard, Jean Marie Napoléon Désiré, [104].
Obscurity of expression, [180-182].
Occupation, essential to happiness, [249-256].
Oriole, [174].
Owl, white, [175].
Parkman, Francis, his Oregon Trail, [226].
Parnell, Thomas, [220].
Past, the, our feeling for, [232-243], [246].
Pater, Walter, [69], [70];
a mere stylist, [189].
Peacock, [176].
Poe, Edgar Allan, [7], [11];
his art, [17-19];
his Raven, [17], [19], [138];
his Bells, [19], [138];
the universality of his art, [138];
his Annabel Lee, [138];
his appeal only to the sense of artistic forms and verbal melody, [184], [185];
quotation from, [11].
Poetry, relation of eloquence to, [161-167];
the elusive in, [204];
more suggestive than prose, [213].
See also Literature.
Pope, Alexander, [80], [203];
on friends, [240];
quotation from, [240].
Protestantism, [125], [126].
Quintilian, [43].
Rabelais, François, [132].
Raleigh, Prof. Walter, on the business of letters, [62];
his style, [63], [64]; [65];
quotations from, [62-65].
Rat, water, [177].
Reading, understanding and appreciation in, [182-185];
the re-reading of books, [216-231].
Renan, Ernest, [32], [50];
his object as a writer, [65]; [119];
his Future of Science, [161];
on eloquence and poetry, [161]; [190];
quotations from, [50], [161], [190].
Robertson, John M., his Essays toward a Critical Method, [109].
Rousseau, Jean Jacques, [55], [56].
Ruskin, John, [5], [79], [90], [119], [123], [144], [145], [147], [163];
quotations from, [144], [147].
Sainte-Beuve, Charles Augustin, [6];
on Montaigne’s metaphors, [16];
on Rousseau’s Confessions, [55]; [73], [92-96];
as a critic, [97], [112], [115], [118], [132], [145], [146]; [102], [104], [128], [132];
on moral censure in criticism, [145], [146];
quotations from, [16], [55], [145], [146].
Saturday Review, The, [4].
Schérer, Edmond Henri Adolphe, [80], [94], [96], [105], [132].
Schiller, his Robbers, [138].
Schopenhauer, Arthur, his use of analogy, [42], [43];
his definition of style, [60]; 73, [234], [243];
quotations from, [60], [73], [234].
Science, democracy of, [110];
disinterestedness of, [134], [135];
rarely suggestive, [211].
Scott, Sir Walter, the literary value of his novels, [5], [6], [60], [61];
the eloquence of his poetry, [166];
his lack of understanding of Wordsworth, [182], [183].
Sears, Lorenzo, his Methods and Principles of Literary Criticism, [109].
Shairp, Principal John Campbell, [91].
Shakespeare, William, [74];
Voltaire’s verdict upon, [103];
democracy of his art, [111]; [136];
the highest type of the disinterested artist, [144]; [189];
his Sonnets, [208], [209], [211];
quotations from, [136], [212].
Shakespeareana, [24].
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, [114], [124].
Smith, Sydney, [26].
Sparrow, house (Passer domesticus), [175].
Sparrow, song (Melospiza melodia), [174].
Sparrow, vesper (Poœcetes gramineus), [174].
Spencer, Herbert, [32], [59];
on the philosophy of style, [71];
his style, [206];
quotations from, [32], [71].
Staël, Madame de, [104].
Steam engine in recent poetry, the, [158], [159].
Stevenson, Robert Louis, [3];
his Inland Voyage, [227];
his Travels with a Donkey, [227].
Style, value of, [6-8];
a quality of mind, [14];
nature of, [52], [53];
personality an element of, [54-60];
of the stylist, [61-67];
unconsciousness of good, [68], [69];
simplicity of good, [69-74];
in conversation, [75-77];
aristocracy and democracy in, [77];
variety of, [78], [79].
Stylist, the, [62-67].
Suggestiveness in literature, [205-215].
Swallow, barn (Hirundo erythrogastra), [173], [174].
Swallow, cliff (Petrochelidon lunifrons), [173], [174].
Swallow, white-bellied, or tree (Tachycineta bicolor), [174].
Swallows, supposed hibernation of, [171-173];
feeding young on the wing, [175].
Swift, chimney (Chœtura pelagica), [174].
Swinburne, Algernon Charles, [19];
his style, [66], [70], [71].
Tacitus, his eloquence, [165].
Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe, [104], [105], [119];
a stimulating but not disinterested critic, [121], [122]; [142], [143].
Taste, lapses of, [25], [26];
good and bad, [116-118].
Taylor, Edward Thompson (“Father”), [163].
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, [19], [114], [121];
universality of his art, [138], [139];
begotten of the feudal spirit, [154];
his Maud, [161];
an example of his eloquence, [166]; [181], [184];
his Crossing the Bar, [227];
quotation from, [166].
Thackeray, William Makepeace, the title of his Vanity Fair, [10], [11]; [103].
Thiers, Louis Adolphe, [119].
Thoreau, Henry David, [30], [56], [119];
his wildness, [197-202];
his enthusiasm for the Indian, [198], [199];
the Indian in, [199], [200];
his search for the transcendental in nature, [201], [202];
quotations from, [197-202].
Titlark, [176].
To the Rainbow, [166].
Tolstoi, Leo, [39], [90], [119], [121], [134], [149], [155].
Triggs, Oscar Lovell, [110].
Universe, the, [35-38].
Villemain, Abel François, [104].
Vineyard, preparing a new, [254-256].
Voltaire, François Marie Arouet, his style, [69];
his verdict upon Shakespeare, [103], [111]; [144];
quotation from, [69].
Waldstein, Dr. Louis, his The Subconscious Self, [130], [141];
quotations from, [141].
Ward, Mrs. Humphry, [119], [121].
Water-rat, [177].
Weather, Gilbert White’s observations on the, [177], [178].
White, Gilbert, the longevity of his book, [168];
homeliness of his book, [169];
its human interest, [169], [170];
his genuineness, [170], [171];
his personality, [171];
a type of the true observer, [171];
his observations as to the supposed hibernation of swallows, [171-173];
examples of his truly scientific observations, [174-178];
his alertness and enthusiasm, [175-177];
a magnet for the natural lore of his neighborhood, [176];
his observations on the weather, [178];
his imitators, [179]; [218];
quotations from, [170], [173-178].
Whitman, Walt, his published letters, [4]; [24], [27];
on style, [66]; [67], [75], [78], [99], [110];
his responsibility to æsthetic principles, [117], [118], [119];
his Leaves of Grass, [129], [214]; [155], [181], [183], [184];
his faith and optimism, [185];
his view of Nature, [204];
his Two Rivulets, [204];
on the elusive in poetry, [204];
his suggestiveness, [205], [206], [214]; [223], [227];
quotations from, [24], [27], [66], [75], [99], [204]; [214].
Whittier, John Greenleaf, [1];
his poetry, [18], [19]; [137].
Wilson, Woodrow, [186].
Woodpecker, [174].
Wordsfold, William B., his Principles of Criticism, [109].
Wordsworth, William, [19], [23], [74], [115], [119], [124];
his poetry more personal and less universal than Tennyson’s, [138], [139];
never eloquent, [165]; [181];
his attitude toward nature compared with Scott’s, [182], [183]; [184], [204], [223], [228];
quotations from, [24], [141].
Work, essential to happiness, [249-256].
Zola, Emile, [112];
his exaggeration of certain things, [149], [150].