To a large extent, Thoreau lets the book review itself through these demonstrative excerpts, only occasionally stopping to advance a minor technical quibble against a grandiose technological extrapolation or to experiment with going even further out on Etzler's limb.
For the most part, Thoreau enables the book's assessment by means of these illustrative passages, rarely pausing to raise a minor technical objection or test the limits of Etzler's ideas further.