POETEY AND ELOQUENCE 163 



tion, to marshal together facts and considerations, 

 imbue them with passion, and hurl them like an 

 army on the charge upon the mind of the reader or 

 hearer. 



The pleasure we derive from eloquence is more 

 acute, more physiological, I might say, more of the 

 blood and animal spirits, than our pleasure from po- 

 etry. I imagine it was almost a dissipation to have 

 heard a man like Father Taylor. One's feelings and 

 emotions were all out of their banks like the creek? 

 in spring. But this was largely the result of his 

 personal magnetism and vehemence of utterance. 



The contrast between eloquent prose and poetic 

 prose would be more to the point. The pleasure 

 from each is precious and genuine, but our pleasure 

 from the latter is no doubt more elevated and endur- 

 ing. 



Gibbon's prose is often eloquent, never poetical. 

 Euskin's prose is at times both, though his tempera- 

 ment is not that of the orator. There is more ca- 

 price than reason in him. The prose of De Quincey 

 sometimes has the " sonorous ring " of which Kenan 

 speaks. The following passage from his essay on 

 " The Philosophy of Roman History " is a good sam- 

 ple : — 



" The battle of Actium was followed by the final 

 conquest of Egypt. That conquest rounded and in- 

 tegrated the glorious empire ; it was now circular as 

 a shield, orbicular as the disk of a planet ; the great 

 Julian arch was now locked into the cohesion of 

 granite by its last keystone. From that day forward, 



