Ralph Waldo Emerson writes to Margaret Fuller:
I believe I shall roll up with this, Thoreau’s paper [on Persius]. I read it through this morning & foresee that it may give you some hesitations. There is too much manner in it—as much as in Richter—& too little method, in any common sense of that word—Yet it has always a spiritual meaning even when the literal does not hold; & has so much brilliancy & life in it that in our bold bible for The Young America, I think it ought to find a place. I wish it were shorter. But the three divisions of the piece may be marked in the typography; & nobody need read it who cannot transpierce the imagery. Besides, when one article is too long, why not print a few pages more than the rubric, so that any thing material shd. not be excluded.
There is surely time for you to send this paper back to Thoreau for any corrections: a few words I noticed, but thought I would not keep it for them.
(The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 2:287)
