John Stilgoe describes Thoreau thus in his preface to the journals, highlighting Thoreau’s well-disciplined eye and his awareness of the limitations of words in describing what such an eye could see.
Source: Henry David Thoreau, The Journal 1837-1861, Damion Searls (ed.), preface by John R. Stilgoe (New York: New York Review Books, 2009), p. xi
