Evening star., 1925-02-11
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates
to that iron string"
On re-reading Emerson's essay on
Self-Reliance the other day I was
struck with the thought that here
was a man saying unforg ettable
things in an unforgettahle way.
Yet how many read Emerson to-
day? 1 mean, compared with how
many read the latest popular novel
or magazines? A friend growls
around about lack Of punch" in
writing, bat he never reads the dar-
ing things tossed of by the sage of
Concord
The reason for this Is that Ralph
waldo Emerson is hard to read. 1t
will not do to say one must be
highbrow to read him. He is not
hard TO read because it takes brains
to read him, but mainly because he
is printed In such huge paragraphs
and because his connection Of ideas
Is difficult to follow.
Some enterprising publisher would
| render great service to the spirit
or Emerson and to the American peo-
pie by printing his works in a new
form, with short paragraphs of a SEN
tence or two taking the place of the
! half page and page paragraphs in
which the man wrote
There is something stiiing to one
or those monstrous paragraphs Old
Plutarch had such paragraphs. nav.
sentences hundreds of words long
me Bible, In Its original form, was
Just one tremendous sentence.
The mind finds it difficult to follow
a mass of type. The long paragraph
is mechanical hurdle, much as small
type is setback to the average
reader. We had better write less.
and have what we do write printed
! in larger type.
The other reason why Emerson is
hard reading Is because he did not
sprinkle his pages with connectiyes.
sometimes, between the ending of
one sentence and the beginning of
the next, there will be perhaps as
much as two whole paragraphs of
| thought. But the reader has to sup
ply 1t himself. II he cannot, or does
not, then Emerson strikes him as
jerky. He is bewildered by the pro-
fusion of ideas.
Reading Emerson's essays clear
through. first and second series. is
like reading the dictionary for fun
there is not much fun or profit in
the proceeding. Read an essay Mt a
time, however, one finds point and
pleasure In it.
To believe your own thought, to
believe that what is true for you In
your private heart is true for all
| men-that is genius"
80 says Emersin, on the first page
or MS 3O-page essay on Self ReIi-
| ance. The sage did not say so, but
ne also meant, undoubtedly, that to
believe what is true for you in your
private heart also is true for all
men, is the very beginning and end
of writing
GiVen certain amount Of common
| sense, imagination, experience and
freshness of view, a writer can at
tract and hold others because he
| echoes for them their own thoughts
| He puts their own private ideas into
| words, sometimes even thoughts
which at first they refuse.
Emerson wrote in a grand manner
perhaps just little bit too grand
for ordinary, everyday use. That is
why we have to take him in small
! doses. There is food for days
| meditation in just few lines Of his
For instance:
There is time In every mans
education when he arrives at the con-
victfon that envy is ignorance; that
imitation is suicide: that he must
take himself for better, for worse, as
! his portion: that though the wide
universe is full of good, no kernel
| of nourishing corn can come to him
| but through his toll bestowed on that
plot of ground which is given him to
{ till"
There is scarcely one of US who
does not need that admonition, that
| stimulating thought, as from time to
time We become dissatisfied with
| life, and imagine that new fields