As most authors of Literature will do at some point in their career, Thoreau lauds the value of his craft in Reading. He celebrates the universal merit of knowledge that, to him, is never greater than when it is expressed in writing. He specifically acknowledges the supposed supremacy of the written word in saying, “the orator yields to the inspiration of a transient occasion…but the writer…speaks to the intellect and heart of mankind.” One main idea of this passage is the necessity to “read well,” or more specifically, “to read true books in a true spirit.” By “true” books, I think he means to say, books regarded in history to hold multifaceted and intricate answers to the “questions that disturb and puzzle and confound us.” He means books that have the ability to impart the perspective of genius minds to us. In Thoreau’s ideal world, we would all learn the original languages of every genius so as to not have an “imperfect knowledge of the human race.” Thoreau wants us to participate in reading as much as an author does in writing. He has an interesting, thought provoking theory on the correct way to read, and an even more interesting perspective on the value of reading – these same questions that disturb and puzzle and confound us have in their turn occurred to wise men, not one has been omitted.” It brings to mind the song Bodies by Smashing Pumpkins, “No body’s ever new – no bodies. And no body’s felt like you – no bodies.” This idea is that all quandaries of man and God and law have been addressed before, and that your personal outlook, developed in what then is the present, are better formed as an evolution of the past ideas of notable authorities (the wise men Thoreau speaks of.)