The reason why this piece was difficult to read was due to the frequent use of long sentence structure. As a result, to an average reader, this would cause them to be ambiguous. In addition, long sentences tend to create a monotonous and sometimes archaic tone. His syntax at times can cause the reader to lose focus. Some of his allusions may not be well understood to an average reader from the 21st century such as the mentioning of the Troubadours. His diction can cause one to frequently look up the words such as "Undulation" and "incursions" in the dictionary. Parallelism was ubiquitous, which may suggest that Emerson used this style to further convey his perspective; for instance, he stated that, "Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all. Man is priest, and scholar, and statesman, and producer, and soldier." The constant use of an indefinite article along with an occupation in a list gets the reader's attention and emphasizes that Man is everywhere. Overall, this piece qualifies as being highly pedantic.
In one of the paragraphs, he mentioned about the significance of books to a Scholar. One may infer that this example somewhat supports the quote that he previously made that, "The millions, that around us are rushing into life, cannot always be fed on the sere remains of foreign harvests." The books could refer to the "remains" that are essential for a scholar to prosper intellectually through knowledge. The constant focus on getting life and the next goal, is getting the truth. One may observe that almost each and every clause within that paragraph started with the antecedent, "it" for the word "book."
