Goodness is the only investment that never
characteristic.html">characteristic that he shared in common with the great authors of the New
He thought life too earnest a quest to tolerate the frivolous or the
without injuring eternity." His aim in studying nature was not so much
the spiritual life of man. He may have been unable to distinguish between
important fact was that the thrush is a rare poet, singing of "the immortal
in his _Journal_, "to make men take higher and truer views of things."
The sterling honesty and directness of Thoreau's character are reflected in
professor of rhetoric I should insist on this--is to _speak the truth_."
as well as of his senses. If he exaggerated the importance of a certain way
necessary to secure attention for that particular truth, which would even
difficult to describe. Lowell's characterization of Thoreau's style has
master. There are sentences of his as perfect as anything in the language,
fresh from the soil."
Thoreau's style shows remarkable power of description. No American has
procession of all the seasons. We shall find frequent illustrations of this
apple tree behind me.... He is just touching the strings of his theorbo,
and fall in liquid bubbles from his teeming throat. It is as if he
out, the notes fell like bubbles from the trembling string ... the meadow
in the orchard."
Even more characteristic is an entry in his _Journal_ for June 11, 1840,
whole of her secret from Nature yet? It has looked out from its dull eye
silence and dark, and now what a rich experience is its! What says it.
On
wordlookup.net
All is still licensed under the GNU FDL.
It uses material from the wikipedia.
