Chapter III: Reading
6 argumentative units
- 01The Immortality of Truth
He posits that all men would be students if they chose their pursuits deliberately, as dealing with truth makes us immortal.
- 02Reading the Heroic Books
To read the classics is a noble exercise that requires training, for the written language is a father tongue, distinct from the spoken mother tongue.
- 03Books as the Wealth of the World
A written word is the choicest of relics, and books are the fit inheritance of nations, which even the wealthy trader eventually turns to.
- 04The Art of True Reading
He argues that the greatest books have never been truly read, as most men read only for paltry convenience or for easy, stupefying entertainment.
- 05The Illiterateness of the Educated
Thoreau laments the lack of taste for the best books in Concord, even among the college-bred, and how a single book can create a new era in a man's life.
- 06A Call for Uncommon Schools
He calls for villages to become universities and patrons of the fine arts, hiring the wise men of the world to teach them.