7 DEC 05
Emerson copied out long passages in which Goethe talks about originality and the influence of others. Far from feeling a need to do nothing except what is completely original and novel, Goethe actually defines genius as "the faculty of seizing and turning to account every thing that strikes us." He protested that he himself would have got nowhere "if this art of appropriation were considered derogatory to genius." It was enormously helpful to Emerson to hear Goethe committing himself so clearly to the extensive and frank reuse of others' material. This method Emerson already found congenial.

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Along with Emerson's freedom to take whatever struck him went the equally important obligation to ignore what did not. Emerson read widely and advised others to do so, but he was insistent about the dangers of being overwhelmed and overinfluenced by one' s reading... He thought one should "learn to divine books, to feel those that you want without wasting much time on them." It is only worthwhile concentrating on what is excellent and for that "often a chapter is enough." He encouraged browsing and skipping. "The glance reveals what the gaze obscures. Somewhere the author has hidden his message. Find it, and skip the paragraphs that do not talk to you."

(Robert D. Richardson Jr., Emerson: The Mind On Fire)

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