. Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern . ysis. Hence posterity frequentlyreverses (or rather seems to reverse, for the decision upon a speechmutilated of voice and action cannot be really conclusive) the verdictsof contemporaries upon oratory. ^< What will our descendants thinkof the Parliamentary oratory of our age ? ^^ asked a contemporary ofBurkes, ^^ when they are told that in his own time this man wasaccounted neither the first, nor the second, nor even the thirdspeaker ?^^ Transferred to the tribunal of the library, Burkes oratorybears away the palm from Pitt and
. Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern . ysis. Hence posterity frequentlyreverses (or rather seems to reverse, for the decision upon a speechmutilated of voice and action cannot be really conclusive) the verdictsof contemporaries upon oratory. ^< What will our descendants thinkof the Parliamentary oratory of our age ? ^^ asked a contemporary ofBurkes, ^^ when they are told that in his own time this man wasaccounted neither the first, nor the second, nor even the thirdspeaker ?^^ Transferred to the tribunal of the library, Burkes oratorybears away the palm from Pitt and Fox and Sheridan; yet, unless wehad heard the living voices of them all, it would be unsafe for us tochallenge the contemporary verdict. We cannot say, with the loverin Goethe, that the word printed appears dull and soulless, but itcertainly wants much which conduced to the efficacy of the wordspoken:— * WB CO hi oc w O. RALPH WALDO EMERSON 5425 Emersons orations are no less delightful and profitable readingthan his essays, so long as they can be treated as his essays wereintended to be treated when they came into print; that is, readdeliberately, with travelings backward when needed, and frequentpauses of thought. But if we consider them as discourses to be lis-tened to, we shall find some difficulty in reconciling their popularityand influence with their apparent disconnectedness, and some reasonto apprehend that, occasional flashes of epigram excepted, they mustspeedily have passed from the minds of the hearers. The apparentdefect was probably remedied in delivery by the magnetic power ofthe speaker; not that sort of power which ^^wields at will the fiercedemocraty,^^ but that which convinces the hearer that he is listeningto a message from a region not as yet accessible to himself. Theimpassioned orator usually provokes the suspicion that he is speakingfrom a brief. Not so Emerson: above all other
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectliterat, bookyear1902
