in Thoreau’s Journal:

[Occasionally I think it’s interesting to see Thoreau’s entire entry for a particular day, not necessarily for the content, but to be able to see how his mind moved from observation to observation and what impressed itself upon him enough for him to note and write it down.  A sustained and detailed entry in the Journal is an opportunity to simulate being there with him in time and place.  Imagine writing this much by hand about your observations and activities, say, for today, March 19, 2021 and I think you’ll get a glimpse of his genius.  Although it’s commonplace to wonder what he would have done with a camera or camcorder, that he did this with words is quite something else and in many ways much richer.]