coeval with him. Among current writers on nature he is variously regarded and interpreted; yet all acknowledge debts of inspiration, if not of education, gained from this pioneer teacher. Two American naturalists who have recently died, possessed, in marked measure, the poetic observation and the patient habit-study which characterized Thoreau. These were Rowland Robinson and Maurice Thompson. The former rustic writer, student of simple humanity as well as botanist, in his quiet, primeval life and his lofty, tenacious ideals, suggested kinship to Thoreau in temperament, though he lacked the earnest, studious impulses of the Concord naturalist. Maurice Thompson, cut off in his years of promise, as was Thoreau, was a rhapsodic yet a practical nature-student. His poetry surpasses that of Thoreau in structure and cadence but such a poem as "The Blue Heron" is singularly suggestive of Thoreau in spirit and habit of mind. Both men had practical occupations amid the wild and rank of nature's growths, for Mr. Thompson served many years as surveyor and geologist; both became sympathetic comrades with all forms and moods of life which environed them.
Mr. Burroughs and some of his school of nature-authors have emphasized the literary mission and
