214 LITEEAET VALUES 



most truly descriptive of his " Leaves of Grass " 

 was the word suggestiveness. " I round and finish 

 little, if anything ; and could not consistently with 

 my scheme. The reader will always have his or her 

 part to do, just as much as I have had mine. I 

 seek less to state or display my theme or thought, 

 and more to bring you, reader, into the atmosphere 

 of the theme or thought — there to pursue your own 

 flight." These sentences themselves are suggestive, 

 because they bring before the mind a variety of 

 definite actions, as finishing a thing, displaying a 

 thing, doing your part, pursuing your own flight, 

 and yet the idea conveyed has a certain subtlety and 

 elusiveness. The suggestiveness of his work as a 

 whole probably lies in its blending of realism and 

 mysticism, and in the art of it running parallel to or 

 in some way tallying with the laws and processes of 

 nature. It stimulates thought and criticism as few 

 modern works do. 



Of course the suggestiveness of any work — poem, 

 picture, novel, essay — depends largely upon what 

 we bring to it ; whether we bring a kindred spirit 

 or an alien one, a full mind or an empty one, an 

 alert sense or a dull one. If you have been there, 

 so to speak, if you have passed through the experi- 

 ence described, if you have known the people por- 

 trayed, if you have thought, or tried to think, the 

 thoughts the author exploits, the work will have a 

 deeper meaning to you than to one who is a stranger 

 to these things. The best books make us acquainted 

 with our own, — they help us to find ourselves. No 



