• Main
  • Catatlog
  • For Authors
  • Contacts




    BREATH OF LIFE
    BY JOHN BURROUGHS



    THE

    BREATH OF LIFE


    BY

    JOHN BURROUGHS

    [Illustration]

    BOSTON AND NEW YORK
    HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
    The Riverside Press Cambridge


    _Published May 1915_




    PREFACE


    As life nears its end with me, I find myself meditating more and more
    upon the mystery of its nature and origin, yet without the least hope
    that I can find out the ways of the Eternal in this or in any other
    world. In these studies I fancy I am about as far from mastering the
    mystery as the ant which I saw this morning industriously exploring a
    small section of the garden walk is from getting a clear idea of the
    geography of the North American Continent. But the ant was occupied and
    was apparently happy, and she must have learned something about a small
    fraction of that part of the earth's surface.

    I have passed many pleasant summer days in my hay-barn study, or under
    the apple trees, exploring these questions, and though I have not solved
    them, I am satisfied with the clearer view I have given myself of the
    mystery that envelops them. I have set down in these pages all the
    thoughts that have come to me on this subject. I have not aimed so much
    at consistency as at clearness and definiteness of statement, letting my
    mind drift as upon a shoreless sea. Indeed, what are such questions, and
    all other ultimate questions, but shoreless seas whereon the chief
    reward of the navigator is the joy of the adventure?

    Sir Thomas Browne said, over two hundred years ago, that in philosophy
    truth seemed double-faced, by which I fancy he meant that there was
    always more than one point of view of all great problems, often
    contradictory points of view, from which truth is revealed. In the
    following pages I am aware that two ideas, or principles, struggle in my
    mind for mastery. One is the idea of the super-mechanical and the
    super-chemical character of living things; the other is the idea of the
    supremacy and universality of

    [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131][132][133][134][135][136][137][138][139][140][141][142][143][144][145][146][147][148][149][150][151][152][153][154][155][156][157][158][159][160][161][162][163][164][165][166][167][168][169][170][171][172][173][174][175][176][177][178][179][180][181][182][183][184][185][186][187][188][189][190][191][192][193][194][195][196][197][198][199][200][201][202][203][204][205][206][207][208][209][210][211][212][213][214][Next]