" We may ask
ourselves, almost with dismay, whether such works exist at
all but in the imagination of the student. For the bulk of
the best of books is apt to be made up with ballast; and
those in which energy of thought is combined with any
stateliness of utterance may be almost counted on the
fingers. Looking round in English for a book that should
answer Thoreau's two demands of a style like poetry and sense
that shall be both original and inspiriting, I come to
Milton's AREOPAGITICA, and can name no other instance for the
moment. Two things at least are plain: that if a man will
condescend to nothing more commonplace in the way of reading,
he must not look to have a large library; and that if he
proposes himself to write in a similar vein, he will find his
work cut out for him.
Thoreau composed seemingly while he walked, or at least
exercise and composition were with him intimately connected;
for we are told that "the length of his walk uniformly made
the length of his writing." He speaks in one place of
"plainness and vigour, the ornaments of style," which is
rather too paradoxical to be comprehensively, true.
In another he remarks: "As for style of writing, if one has
anything to say it drops from him simply as a stone falls to
the ground." We must conjecture a very large sense indeed
for the phrase "if one has anything to say.
Pages:
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