Word: hearers
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...present, with their expectations gauged by Mr. Perry's success last year. We do not, however, think they were fully met, though through no fault of the lecturer. In such a course the first lecture must be more or less introductory, and in proportion as it is so, the hearer has all the more difficulty in becoming interested. Then, too, it is rather hard for us to appreciate the dramatic attempts of the thirteenth century in England, when Noah's Ark and Balaam's Ass were the only plays that had a "run." The next lecture, to be given...
...appearance was in every respect romantic. Her profile was of the purest Grecian type, excepting her nose, which, being a little retrousse, added marvellously to the deep sentiment written plainly in her other features. There was a plaintive dulcet tone to her voice that thrilled the heart of every hearer, as completely as - as - as the squeaking of bad chalk does in a recitation-room. Her poem, "On the Beauty of Youth," was too perfect a production for us to dare to mar it by quotations. The author breathed forth her inspiration with all the calm resignation of some bereaved...
...wandering away from the subject, which should absorb his whole attention. Instead of brief, simple, terse statements, easily grasped and understood, we have attempts at profound, high-sounding expositions, whose object is to exhibit the learning of the author or utterer, rather than to teach the reader or hearer. Trite sayings, which might be found endurable when succinctly stated, are spun out into a labyrinth of empty phrases, and shallow ideas are harped upon through infinite paragraphs, to give them an importance which they do not deserve...
Finds the hearer's heart within its reach...
...would be pleasant for both speaker and hearer if this could be otherwise; if the orator, with only a scholar's preparation, could spring full-armed to life, like Minerva from the Thunderer's brow. We should then be spared the blunders and failures of the young orator in his eager and oft-times futile efforts for success; that crude-ness which, in the young orator as in the budding writer, may be called, by a metaphor as true as it is homely, "veal." But this is one of the things impossible. The little bird, seeing its parent flying from...