Quotes Tagged "orator"
In 1881, being on a visit to Boston, my wife and I found ourselves in the Parker House with the Ingersoll's, and went over to Charleston to hear him lecture. His subject was 'Some Mistakes of Moses,' and it was a memorable experience. Our lost leaders, -- Emerson, Thoreau, Theodore Parker, -- who had really spoken to disciples rather than to the nation, seemed to have contributed something to form this organ by which their voice could reach the people. Every variety of power was in this orator, -- logic and poetry, humor and imagination, simplicity and dramatic art, moral and boundless sympathy. The wonderful power which Washington's Attorney-general, Edmund Randolph, ascribed to Thomas Paine of insinuating his ideas equally into learned and unlearned had passed from Paine's pen to Ingersoll's tongue. The effect on the people was indescribable. The large theatre was crowded from pit to dome. The people were carried from plaudits of his argument to loud laughter at his humorous sentences, and his flexible voice carried the sympathies of the assembly with it, at times moving them to tears by his pathos. {Conway's thoughts on the great Robert Ingersoll}
Tags: wisdom, voice, truth, thoreau, thomas-paine, tears, sympathy, speech, some-mistakes-of-moses, simplicity, robert-ingersoll, robert-green-ingersoll, robert-g-ingersoll, respect, reason, ralph-waldo-emerson, ralph-emerson, ralph-e-emerson, praise, power, poetry, pathos, paine, orator, morality, mirth, memorable, love, logic, lecture, laughter, inspirational, ingersoll, imagination, humor, honor, henry-thoreau, henry-david-thoreau, henry-d-thoreau, friendship, emotion, emerson, boston, art, admiration
A Swedish minister having assembled the chiefs of the Susquehanna Indians, made a sermon to them, acquainting them with the principal historical facts on which our religion is founded β such as the fall of our first parents by eating an apple, the coming of Christ to repair the mischief, his miracles and suffering, etc. When he had finished an Indian orator stood up to thank him. βWhat you have told us,β says he, βis all very good. It is indeed bad to eat apples. It is better to make them all into cider. We are much obliged by your kindness in coming so far to tell us those things which you have heard from your mothers. In return, I will tell you some of those we have heard from ours. βIn the beginning, our fathers had only the flesh of animals to subsist on, and if their hunting was unsuccessful they were starving. Two of our young hunters, having killed a deer, made a fire in the woods to boil some parts of it. When they were about to satisfy their hunger, they beheld a beautiful young woman descend from the clouds and seat herself on that hill which you see yonder among the Blue Mountains. βThey said to each other, βIt is a spirit that perhaps has smelt our broiling venison and wishes to eat of it; let us offer some to her.β They presented her with the tongue; she was pleased with the taste of it and said: βYour kindness shall be rewarded; come to this place after thirteen moons, and you will find something that will be of great benefit in nourishing you and your children to the latest generations.β They did so, and to their surprise found plants they had never seen before, but which from that ancient time have been constantly cultivated among us to our great advantage. Where her right hand had touched the ground they found maize; where her left had touched it they found kidney-beans; and where her backside had sat on it they found tobacco.β The good missionary, disgusted with this idle tale, said: βWhat I delivered to you were sacred truths; but what you tell me is mere fable, fiction, and falsehood.β The Indian, offended, replied: βMy brother, it seems your friends have not done you justice in your education; they have not well instructed you in the rules of common civility. You saw that we, who understand and practise those rules, believed all your stories; why do you refuse to believe ours?
Tags: swedish, stories, proselytizing, origins, orator, native-americans, myths, maize, indians, fantasy, falsehood, fable, education, creation-myths, courtesy
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