Injunctions on editing "Walden"

March 31.

In criticising your writing, trust your fine instinct.  There are many things which we come very near questioning, but do not question. When I have sent off my manuscripts to the printer, certain objectionable sentences or expressions are sure to obtrude themselves on my attention with force, though I had not consciously suspected them before. My critical instinct then at once breaks the ice and comes to the surface.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 31, 1854

When I have sent off my manuscripts to the printer, certain objectionable sentences or expressions are sure to obtrude themselves on my attention. See March 28, 1854 ("Got first proof of "Walden.””); April 8, 1854 ("I find that I can criticise my composition best when I stand at a little distance from it. . .and judge it more impartially when my manuscript is out of the way");  See also January 1, 1852 ("When possessed with a strong feeling on any subject foreign to the one I may be writing on, I know very well what of good and what of bad I have written."); March 1, 1854 (" In correcting my manuscripts, . . . having purified the main body and thus created a distinct standard for comparison, I can review the rejected sentences and easily detect those which deserve to be readmitted."); February 20, 1859 ("It is the greatest art to find out as quickly as possible which are the best passages you have written, and tear the rest away.");