ELOQUEAYTE. 91

an instant warped from l1is crectncss. There is for every man a statement possible of that truth which l1e is 111ost imwilling to receive,—-:1 state- ment possible, so broad and so pungent that he cannot get away from it, but nuist either bend to it or die of it. Else there would be 110 such word as eloquence, which means this. The listener can- not hide from himself that something has been shown him and the whole world which he did not wish to see ; and as he cannot (lispose of it, it (lis- poses of him. The history of pilblic men and af- fairs i11 America will readily furnish tragic exam- ples of this fatal force.

For the triumphs of the art some\vl1at more must still be required, namely a reinforcing of man from events, so as to give the double force of reaison and (lestiny. In transcendent eloquence. there was ever some crisis in affairs, such as could (leeply engage the man to the cause he pleads, and draw all this wide po\\r'er to a point. For the explosions and eruptions, there 11111st he accumulations of heat somewhere, beds of ignited anthracite at the centre. And i11 cases where profound conviction l1as been wrought, the eloquent man is he who is no beauti- ful speaker, but who is inwardl3r drunk with a cer- tain belief.

almost hereaves him of the power of articulation.

lt agitates and tears him, and perhaps

Then it rushes from him as i11 short, abrupt screams,