more or less the Vagabond generally, may be detected in Whitman, no less
than in Thoreau and Borrow. It would seem that the passion for the
earth, which made them--to use one of Mr. Watts-Dunton's happy
phrases--"Children of the Open Air," took the place of a passion for
human kind.

In the papers dealing with these writers these points are discussed at
greater length. For the present reference is made to them in order to
illustrate the characteristics of the Vagabond temperament, and to
vindicate my generic title.

The characteristics, then, which I find in the Vagabond temperament are
(1) Restlessness--the wandering instinct; this expresses itself mentally
as well as physically. (2) A passion for the Earth--shown not only in
the love of the open air, but in a delight in all manifestations of life.
(3) A constitutional reserve whereby the Vagabond, though rejoicing in
the company of a few kindred souls, is put out of touch with the majority
of men and women. This is a temperamental idiosyncrasy, and must not be
confounded with misanthropy.

These characteristics are not found in equal degree among the writers
treated of in these pages. Sometimes one predominates, sometimes
another. That is to be expected. But to some extent all these
characteristics prevail.

IV

There is a certain type of Vagabondage which may be covered by the term
"Bohemianism." But 'tis of a superficial character mostly, and is in the
nature of a town-made imitation. Graces and picturesqueness it may have
of a kind, but it lacks the rough virility, the sturdy grit, which is the
most attractive quality of the best Vagabond.

Bohemianism indeed is largely an attitude of dress; Vagabondage an
attitude of spirit. At heart the Bohemian is not really unconventional;
he is not nomadic by instinct as is the Vagabond.

Take the case of Charles Lamb. There was a man whose habits of life were
pleasantly Bohemian, and whose sympathy with the Vagabond temperament has
made some critics over-hastily class him temperamentally with writers
like Hazlitt and De Quincey. He was not a true Vagabond at all. He was
a Bohemian of the finer order, and his graces of character need no
encomium to-day. But he was certainly not a Vagabond. At heart he was
devoted to convention. When released from his drudgery of clerkship he
confessed frankly how potent an influence routine had been and still was
in his life. This is not the tone of the Vagabond