Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/125

 shut up in the house two whole months together, they say.

Thursday, October 12.

It is hard to read a contemporary poet critically; for we go within the shallowest verse and inform it with all the life and promise of this day. We are such a near and kind and knowing audience as he will never have again. We go within the fane of the temple and hear the faint music of the worshippers; but posterity will have to stand without and consider the vast proportions and grandeur of the building. It will be solidly and conspicuously great and beautiful, for the multitudes who pass at a distance, as well as for the few pilgrims who enter in to its shrine.

The poet will prevail and be popular inspite of his faults, and in spite of his beauties too; he will be careful only that you feel the hammer hit, without regarding the form of its head. No man is enough his own overseer to take cognizance of all the particulars which impress men in his actions. The impression will always proceed from a [77]