Genre:

Novel, Serial

Relevant illustrations:

eng. [4]

Subjects:

Natural History, Ornithology, Materialism, Vitalism, Natural Imperialism, Hunting, Horticulture, Natural Economy, Nomenclature, Anti-Scientism, Naturalists

People mentioned:

John Burroughs

    When Webb Clifford and Amy Winfield discuss the 'migratory tide of robins, song-sparrows, phœbe and other early birds' that are flying northwards in the spring (924), Webb recognises that a 'new element' is 'entering into his life'. He comes to feel that 'Amy's presence [...] arrested a tendency [in him] to become materialistic and narrow', and 'like the awakening forces in the soil around them, a vital force was developing in two human hearts equally unconscious'. (926) Describes how, in the smallholding of the Clifford family, the 'fertilizers of the barn-yard were carted to the designated places, whereon, by nature's alchemy, they would be transmuted into forms of use and beauty' (930), while also noting that 'Managing a country place is like sailing a ship. One's labors are, or should be, much modified by the weather'. When Webb comments in 'mock-gravity' on the peeping sound made by 'Hylodes pickeringii', Amy retorts angrily, 'I have known people to cover up their ignorance by big words before. Indeed, I think it is a way you scientists have'. (931)

Reprinted:

Roe 1885