The Commonplace 1 1 



we need the solace and resource of nature 

 so much. 



I am led to these remarks on looking over 

 the lists of Christmas books, and rinding my- 

 self challenged with the recurrence of the word 

 "sensation." In the announcement of the 

 forthcoming number of a magazine, I find 

 twenty articles, of which at least nineteen are 

 to be " tragic," " thrilling," " mystery-laden," 

 or otherwise worth buying. The twentieth one 

 I hope to read. 



One would think that a piece of writing 

 is valuable in proportion as it is racy, ex- 

 citing, startling, astounding, striking, sensa- 

 tional. In these days of sensational sales, 

 to have a book sell phenomenally well is 

 almost a condemnation of it. An article or 

 book that merely tells a plain story directly 

 and well is too tame ; so even when we write 

 of nature we must pick out the unusual, 

 then magnify and galvanize it. From this 

 literature the reader goes out to nature and 

 finds it slow and uninteresting; he must 

 have a faster pace and a giddier whirl of 



