The true scholar grudges every opportunity of action past by as a loss of power. It is the raw material out of which the intellect molds her splendid products. Emerson argues that the direct experience of Man Thinking is critical to genius, and that genius can emanate only from a Man Thinking, not from a mere thinker. Emerson says that immersion in the active world is essential to understanding what other Men Thinking have written about it. The reader who does not bring a base of action to his reading will understand little of what he reads.
Every sentence is doubly significant and the sense of our author is as broad as the world.
As Emerson says, action is essential. Without it, thought can never ripen into truth. Readers instantly know whose words are loaded with life, and whose are not. I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived, through the poverty or the splendor of his speech. Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made.