Bacon, supreme in a concise weightiness which
yet embraces both exaltation and depth, Landor,
in artfully wrought variety of perfection. Some-
times I would add Browne and often Thoreau,
and occasionally I hesitate over Emerson. For
in Emerson the fine sentences tend to become
a little monotonous, almost a routine, and with
too oracular a gesture. We can scarcely appre-
ciate the clarion of the cock as he deserves, for
his song has little variation and we find it
high-pitched ; there is too much gesture of the
lifted body, too much vibration of wings, in
this ejaculation. A blackbird's song is more
moving, for it has a continual slight novelty,
and it arises with complete serenity.
August 2. — I read the remarks of a journalist
that probably every writer loathes the sight of
his pen. If that is so it seems an excellent
reason why the reader also should soon come
to loathe the worl^ of that pen. It would
surely be well for the world if every writer
who loathes the sight of his pen should quickly
take the next step and cease to use it. The



THE WRITER'S FUNCTION 203

normal writer, one imagines, should neither
loathe nor love the sight of his pen, so long as
it performs its adjuvant functions wholesomely.
He should as little loathe it as the ordinary person
loathes the sight of a roll of toilet-paper, viewing
it rather with a subconscious satisfaction as the
suitable adjunct of his creative activities.
