Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7: Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent OratorsHubbard, Elbert
History
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7: Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators
Hubbard, Elbert
Orators
Not long after this I asked the same question of Doctor C. A. Bartol
that I had asked Doctor Leonard, and the reply was: "He was a man who
proved the possible--in point of temper and talent, the most virile
personality that New England has produced. We call Webster our greatest
orator, but this man surpassed Webster: he had a smile that was a
benediction; a voice that was a caress. We admired Webster, but Starr
King we loved: one convinced our reason, the other captured our hearts."
The Oriental custom of presenting a thing to the friend who admires it
symbols a very great truth. If you love a thing well enough, you make it
yours.
Culture is a matter of desire; knowledge is to be had for the asking;
and education is yours if you want it. All men should have a college
education in order that they may know its worthlessness. George William
Curtis was a very prince of gentlemen, and as an orator he won by his
manner and by his gentle voice fully as much as by the orderly
procession of his thoughts.
"Oh, what is it in me that makes me tremble so at voices! Whoever speaks
to me in the right voice, him or her will I follow," says Walt Whitman.
If you have ever loved a woman and you care to go back to May-time and
try to analyze the why and the wherefore, you probably will not be able
to locate the why and the wherefore, but this negative truth you will
discover: you were not won by logic. Of course you admired the woman's
intellect--it sort of matched your own, and in loving her you
complimented yourself, for thus by love and admiration do we prove our
kinship with the thing loved.
But intellect alone is too cold to fuse the heart. Something else is
required, and for lack of a better word we call it "personality." This
glowing, winning personality that inspires confidence and trust is a
bouquet of virtues, the chief flower of which is Right Intent--honesty
may be a bit old-fashioned, but do not try to leave it out.
George William Curtis and Starr King had a frank, wide-open, genuine
quality that disarmed prejudice right at the start. And both were big
enough so that they never bemoaned the fact that Fate had sent them to
the University of Hard Knocks instead of matriculating them at Harvard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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