[Original]
He was an orator in its specific and highest sense. We need not prove this to those who have heard him; we cannot to those who have not. It was a living man sending living, burning words into the minds and heart of men before him, radiating his intense fervour upon them all; but there was no reproducing the entire effect when alone and cool; some one of the elements was gone. We say nothing of this part of his character, because upon this all are agreed. His eloquence rose like a tide, a sea, setting in, bearing down upon you, lifting up all its waves—"deep calling unto deep there was no doing anything but giving yourself up for the time to its will. Do our readers remember Horace's description of Pindar?
"Monte decurrens velut amnis, imbres
Quern super notas aluere ripas,
Fervet immensusque ruit profundo
Pindarus ore:
—"per audaces nova dithyrambos
Verba devolvit, mimerisque fertur