I could not well describe it; but I do not
think I ever heard any address that I should be so unwilling to blot
from my memory. Not that there was much in it that cannot be found in
his writings, or inferred from them; but the manner of the man was a
key to the writings, and for naturalness and quiet power, I have never
seen anything to compare with it. He did not deal in rhetoric. He
talked--it was continuous, strong, quiet talk--like a patriarch about
to leave the world to the young lads who had chosen him and were just
entering the world. His voice is a soft, downy voice--not a tone in
it is of the shrill, fierce kind that one would expect it to be in
reading the Latter-day Pamphlets.
"There was not a trace of effort or of affectation, or even of
extravagance. Shrewd common sense there was in abundance. There was
the involved disrupted style also, but it looked so natural that
reflection was needed to recognise in it that very style which purists
find to be un-English and unintelligible. Over the angles of this
disrupted style rolled out a few cascades of humour--quite as if
by accident.
Pages:
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106