林语堂的散文所涉领域极广，可谓宇宙诸事、无所不谈。他熟悉中西文化，常常于文中海阔天空地谈开去，所摘取的事例亦中亦西、或大或小，都饶有趣味，文化含量很高。他认为理想的散文"乃得语言自然节奏之散文，如在风雨之夕围炉谈天，善拉扯，带情感，亦庄亦谐，深入浅出，如与高僧谈禅。如与名士谈心，似连贯而未尝有痕迹，似散漫而未尝无伏线。欲罢不能，欲删不得，读其文如闻其声，昕其语如见其人。（Lin Yutang's proses involve very broad fields, including all things in the world. He was familiar with Chinese and western culture, and often talked about Chinese and western culture in an unrestrained and far-ranging way. The topics he talked about are from China and western countries, are big or small, with interesting and much cultural content. He believed that good proses should have natural rhythm of language, just like friends chat around a stove in an windy and rainy evening, they talk about issues sometime seriously and sometime humorously, explain the profound in simple terms, like they talk about Zen with eminent monk, or with a person with a literary reputation, the issues are coherent without trace and unrestrained but with foreshadowing; the proses are just perfect; reading the proses is like hearing the author's voice, and hearing the author's voice is like seeing this person. ）