160 EMERSON THE LECTURER. 



dainty Ariel ! &quot; he seemed murmuring to himself as he cast 

 down his eyes as if in deprecation of the frenzy of approval, 

 and caught another sentence from the Sibylline leaves that lay 

 before him ambushed behind a dish of fruit and seen only 

 by nearest neighbours. Every sentence brought down the 

 house as I never saw one brought down before and it is 

 not so easy to hit Scotsmen with a sentiment that has no 

 hint of native brogue in it. I watched, for it was an 

 interesting study, how the quick sympathy ran flashing 

 from face to face down the long tables, like an electric 

 spark thrilling as it went, and then exploded in a thunder 

 of plaudits. I watched till tables and faces vanished, for I, 

 too, found myself caught up in the common enthusiasm, and 

 my excited fancy set me under the bema listening to him 

 who fulmined over Greece. I can never help applying to 

 him what Ben Jonson said of Bacon : &quot; There happened in 

 my time one noble speaker, who was full of gravity in his 

 speaking. His language was nobly censorious. No man 

 ever spake more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or 

 suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. 

 No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. 

 His hearers could not cough, or look aside from him, 

 without loss. He commanded where he spoke.&quot; Those 

 who heard him while their natures were yet plastic, and 

 their mental nerves trembled under the slightest breath of 

 divine air, will never cease to feel and say : 



&quot; Was never eye did see that face, 



Was never ear did hear that tongue, 

 Was never mind did mind his grace, 



That ever thought the travail long ; 

 But eyes, and ears, and every thought, 

 Were with his sweet perfections caught&quot; 



