have the freshness, lucidity, and charm that Mr. Burroughs's later
books have. A critic in 1876 speaks of his "quiet, believing style,
free from passion or the glitter of rhetoric, and giving one the
sense of simple eyesight"; and now, concerning one of his later
books, "Time and Change," Mr. Brander Matthews writes: "In these
pellucid pages--so easy to read because they are the result of hard
thinking--he brings home to us what is the real meaning of the
discoveries and the theories of the scientists. . . . He brings
to bear his searching scientific curiosity and his sympathetic
interpreting imagination. . . . All of them models of the essay
at its best--easy, unpedantic, and unfailingly interesting."

From school-children all over the United States, from nearly every
civilized country on the globe, from homes of the humble and of the
wealthy, from the scholar in his study, from the clergyman, the
lawyer, the physician, the business man, the farmer, the raftsman,
the sportsman, from the invalid shut in from the great outdoors
(but, thanks to our friend, not shut /out/ from outdoor blessings),
have come for many years heartfelt letters attesting the wholesome
and widespread influence of his works.

President Roosevelt a few years ago, in dedicating one of his books
to "Dear Oom John," voiced the popular feeling: "It is a good thing
for our people that you have lived, and surely no man can wish to
have more said of him."

Some years ago, the New York "Globe," on announcing a new book
by Mr. Burroughs, said, "It has been the lot of few writers of
this country or of any country to gain such good will and personal
esteem as for many years have been freely given to John Burroughs."