Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1869-09-17
How to write Well

MEN commonly exaggerate the theme.
Some themes they think are significant
and others insignificant. | feel that my
life Is very homely, my pleasures very
cheap Joy and sorrow, success and
failure, grandeur and meanness, and in.
decd most words in the English language
do not mean for me what they do for my
nCighbors. | see that my neighbors look
with compassion on me, that they think IL
Is a mean and unfortunate destiny which
makes me to walk in these fields and
woods SO much and sail on this river
alone. But so long rs find here the only
real clysium, | cannot hesitate in my
choice. My work Is writing, and do not
hesitate, though know that no subject is
too trivial for me- tried by ordinary stand
ards; for, ye fools, the theme is nothing,
the life Is everything. All that interests
the reader Is the depth and intensity of
the life cXerted. We touch our subject
but by point which has no breadth, but
the pyramid of our experience, or our in
tercst in IL, rests on us by broader or
narrower base. What Is man is all in all,
Nature nothing but as she draws him out
and reflects him. Give me simple, cheap
and homcly themes.
II is wise TO write on many subjects, to
try many themes, that so you may find
the right aud inspiring one. BE greedy Of
| occasions to express your thoughts; inn
prove the opportunities to draw analogies;
there are innumerable avenues to the per-
ception of the truth. Improve the sug-
gestion of each object, however humble,
however slight and transient the provoca-
ton; what else Is there to be improved ?
Who knows what opportunities he may
neglect; II Is not in vain, that the mind
turns aside this way or that: follow its
leading, apply it whittier it inclincs to go.
Probe the universe in II myriad points.
BE avaricious of these impulses. Nature
makes thousand acres to get one oak.
He is n wise man and experienced who has
taken many views, to whom stones, and
plants, and animals, and myriad objects
have each suggested something, con
tributcd something. We cannot write
well or truly, but what we write with
gusto. The body and senses must con
spirc with the mind: Experience is the act
OF the whole man-that our speech may
be vascular The intellect is powCrlCSs to
express thought without the aid ofthe heart
and liver and of every member. Often
| feel that my head stands out too dry,
when II should be immersed A writer Y
man writing, Is the scribe of all nature, he
Is the corn and the grass and the atlnos-
phere writing. 1t is always essential that
we live to do what we are doing, do it
with heart, There are flowers of thought,
and there arc leaves of thought, and most
of our thoughts are merely leaves, to
which the thread of thought is the STEM
| Whatever things perceive with my en-
tire man, those let me record, and il will
he poetry. The sounds which / hear with
the consent and coincidence of all my
senses those are significant and musical,
at least, they only are heard. omit the
unusual, the hurricanes and earthquakes,
| and describe the common; this has the
! greatest charm and is the true theme of
! poetry, You may have the extraordinary
for your province, ii you will let me have
the ordinary Give me the obscure life,
the cottage OF the poor and humble, the
work days OF the world, the barren fields
the smallest share of all things but poeti-
cal perception Give me but the eyes to
see the things which you posses. Ih0wdu