Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/363

Rh the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge treats its cattle."

Coexistent with this extravagance of expression in humor or in arraignment, which gives to Thoreau's style its vital magnetism, was an unswerving sincerity of form, no less than of purpose. The exaggeration was always bold and self-confessed, a mark of his ideality and his earnest aim to emphasize the pivot of his thought. At the basis, as the motive-principle in his life, was the deep sincerity without which his character and his writings would be nullified. His motto was,—"The best you can write will be the best you are. The author's character is read from title-page to end. Of this he never corrects the proofs." Well do these words apply to his journals and letters. The earlier volumes, which seemed to show "the perfect Stoic," only revealed a part of his character,—his nonconformity and courage. The later letters and journal-pages show the rounded man, in his gentleness as well as his independence, in his cravings of heart and soul as well as his mental strength and social indifference. This persistent desire to record his inner, true self, to deal with themes that were vital, not far-fetched, led to great precision and care in the formation of his more important sentences. Mr. Wendell has called