This convenience writer warns against becoming obsessed with details.
My academic work on this piece makes the case that the text is addressing perfectionism.
I argue that the writer encourages a childlike, natural curiosity, and that she believes that this state of mind will deliver the kind and benevolent dreams sought by clients.
When she references the mother tongue, she is intimating that we each have a mother tongue, that is, a natural language that we immediately recognize and understand. This writer believes that the best dreams are delivered in that language.
The text derives from The Theory of Effect by John Bengo and C. T. Hinckley, published in 1850, and the image is from How to Make a Vegetable Garden by Edith Fullerton, 1905.
Detail and Dream Finish
Detail is useless, it is mischievous,
it dissipates the attention, drawing it from the principal point.
Benevolent dreams express what is natural to the mind,
the curious and attentive mind,
in the tone of the mother tongue.
