Man is a tool-using animal…Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.Sartor Resartus (1834) bk. 1, ch. 5
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- May 2025
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www.oxfordreference.com www.oxfordreference.com
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- Oct 2024
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Carlyle
It bears noting in this book on writing and composition, Miles (nor the indexer if it was done by someone else) never uses Carlyle's first name (Thomas) in any of the eleven instances in which it appears, as he's famous enough in the context (space, time) to need only a single name.
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One might think at first that it was a Universal Lawthat all Writing or Speaking should be so clear as tobe transparent. And yet, as we have seen, no readerof Carlyle can doubt that a great deal of his Forcewould be gone if one made his Writings transparent.If one took some of Carlyle's most typical works andparaphrased them in simple English, the effect wouldnot be a quarter as good as it is.
How is this accomplished exactly? How could one imitate this effect?
How do we break down his material and style to re-create it?
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As to the other extreme, it is a questionwhether a sentence can be too clear, whether the Ideacan be too simply expressed ; and, if we once admitthat Carlyle's writings produced a greater effect anda better effect than they would have done if they hadbeen perfectly clear, then we must admit that forcertain purposes absolute Clearness is a Fault.
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No Writer seems to be going off the point, and tobe violating the Law of ' Unity ' and Economy, morethan Carlyle does. As we read his "Frederick theGreat", the characters at first appear to us to have nomore connexion with one another than the characters
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- Aug 2024
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archive.org archive.org
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“Man is a Tool-using Animal (Handthierendes Thier). Weakin himself, and of small stature, he stands on a basis, at mostfor the flattest-soled, of some half square-foot, insecurelyenough; has to straddle out his legs, lest the very windsupplant him. Feeblest of bipeds! Three quintals are acrushing load for him; the Steer of the meadow tosses himaloft, like a waste rag. Nevertheless he can use Tools, candevise Tools: with these the granite mountain melts intolight dust before him; he kneads glowing iron, as if it weresoft paste; seas are his smooth highway, winds and fire hisunwearying steeds. Nowhere do you find him without Tools;without Tools he is nothing, with Tools he is all.”
often shortened to:
Man is a Tool-using Animal... Nowhere do you find him without Tools; without Tools he is nothing, with Tools he is all.”
Link to:<br /> - Thoreau https://hypothes.is/a/vooPrPkwEe2r_4MIb6tlFw - Culkin https://hypothes.is/a/6Znx6MiMEeu3ljcVBsKNOw
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Carlyle, Thomas. Sartor Resartus. Edited by Kerry McSweeney and Peter Sabor. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
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- Aug 2022
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Selections from CarlyleEdited by H. W. BOYNTON. i2mo, cloth, 288 pages. Price, 75 cents.
And here I was not knowing who Carlyle was just a day or two ago and now I'm seeing advertisements for collections of his work! 😁
Apparently I've just been reading the wrong things and jumping back to the early 21st century is where it's all at.
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Imitation t o be avoided. Avoid the mannerisms andpersonal peculiarities of method or style of well-knownwriters, such as Carlyle or Macaulay.
Enough time has passed that these references are lost to me.
Were they so highly imitated at the time that they required a caution? (After almost no time lost on search, the answer is a resounding yes, particularly for Carlyle)
These are references to Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) and Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859).
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