The Oxford Book of American Essays

and that often vanishes with the curling blue smoke.

We find also the flavor of good talk, of the sprightly conversation that may sparkle in front of a wood fire

We find in the best of these American essayists the familiar style and the everyday vocabulary, the apparent simplicity and the seeming absence of effort, the horror of pedantry and the scorn of affectation, which are the abiding characteristics of the true essay