Year: 1869

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
deed most words in the English language
do not mean for me what they do for my
neighbOrS. | see that my neighbOrs look
with compassion on me, that they think it
is 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 as | find here the only
real elysium, / cannot hesitate in my
choice. My work is writing, and | do not
hesitate, though l know that no subject is
too trivial for me, tried by ordinary stand
ards; for, We fools, the theme is nothing,
the life is everything. All that interests
the reader is the depth and intensity OF
the life exerted We touch our subject
but by point which has no breadth, but
the pyramid of our experience, or our IN
terest in it, 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 homely themes.


1t is wise to write on many subjects, to





the right and 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; it is not i'll vain, that the mind
turns aside this way or that: follow its
leading, apply it whittier it inclines to go.
Probe the universe in myriad points.
Be avariciOus of these impulses. Nature
makes a thousand acres to get one oak.
He is a wise man and experienced who has
taken many views, to whom stones, and
plants, and animals, and a myriad objects
have each suggested something, con-
tributed something. We cannot write
well or truly, but what we write with
gustO. The body and senses must CON
spire with the mind: Experience is the act
OF the whole man-that our speech may
be vascular. The intellect is powerlesS tC
express thought without the aid Ofthe hear,
and liver and of every member. Often
[ feel that my head stands out too dry
when it should be immersed A writer, q
man writing, is the scribe of all nature, he
is the corn and the grass and the atmos
pherc writing. 1t is always essential thai
we live to do what we are doing, do il
with heart There are flowers of thought
and there are leaves of thought, and mos
of our thoughts are merely leaves, t.
which the thread of thought is the stem
Whatever things L perceive with my en-
tire man, those let me record, and it will
be poetry. The sounds which hear will
the consent and coincidence of all IN,
senses those are significant and musical
at least, they only are heard. / omit th
unusual, the hurricanes and earthquakes
and describe the common; this has TIL
greatest charm and is the true theme @
poetry. You may have the extraordinar,
for your province, if you will let me hav
the ordinary Give me the obscure life
the cottage of the poor and humble, TIL
work-days OF the world, the barren fields
the smallest share Of all things but poeti
cal perception. Give me but the eyes t
see the things which you posses. Ttorea1