Thus we extract the pure gold; and thus the well-written
story of a noble life becomes, by its very omissions, more
thrilling to the reader. But to go beyond this, like
Thoreau, and to exaggerate directly, is to leave the saner
classical tradition, and to put the reader on his guard. And
when you write the whole for the half, you do not express
your thought more forcibly, but only express a different
thought which is not yours.
Thoreau's true subject was the pursuit of self-improvement
combined with an unfriendly criticism of life as it goes on
in our societies; it is there that he best displays the
freshness and surprising trenchancy of his intellect; it is
there that his style becomes plain and vigorous, and
therefore, according to his own formula, ornamental. Yet he
did not care to follow this vein singly, but must drop into
it by the way in books of a different purport. WALDEN, OR
LIFE IN THE WOODS, A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK
RIVERS, THE MAINE WOODS, - such are the titles he affects.
He was probably reminded by his delicate critical perception
that the true business of literature is with narrative; in
reasoned narrative, and there alone, that art enjoys all its
advantages, and suffers least from its defects. Dry precept
and disembodied disquisition, as they can only be read with
an effort of abstraction, can never convey a perfectly
complete or a perfectly natural impression.
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