My Note-Book - Fragmentary Studies in Theology and Subjects Adjacent Thereto #265568

By far the major portion of every man's thinking is fragmentary. The best thinking of some men is so. They are seers of transient and disconnected vision. An educated man who practises literary frugality in preserving the ideas suggested by his reading, will find, after years of professional service, an accumulation of them, in which he will recognize some of the most robust products of his brain. Some of them will affect him with a sense of loss, because he has not been able to amplify them in monograph or volume.<br><br>Some men find an outlet for such thinking in brilliant colloquy. Their friendship is a literary treasure to other men. Hence have come such volumes as Eckermann's "Conversations with Goethe," and Coleridge's "Table-Talk." Others improve their moods of facile expression by recording their most suggestive fragmentary studies for their own gratification, or for future use. Hence we have such books as Pascal's "Thoughts" and Southey's "Commonplace-Book" and Hawthorne's "Notes."