There was no resisting the man
while he was speaking. But he never was honestly in earnest. He never
really cared for his cause. There was never a moment when he could not
have spoken as effectively for the other side.
Finally this got through the consciousness of the people, and his
power over their convictions speedily dissolved.
Many years ago a business friend of mine heard this man speak on a
notable occasion. His address was on a subject in which the people
were deeply interested, and was a masterpiece of mingled argument and
pathos; and his audience belonged to him. It had no mind but his, no
will but his.
Afterward my friend said to me: "That man will not last; he is not
honest. At one climax so pure, so exalted, so tender, that I found
tears in my own eyes, I saw him wink at some intimate friends who were
sitting in a stage-box at his right. I was between them. They were
watching him as they would have watched a friend who was an actor. He,
on his part, was showing them what he could do. That wink said: 'See
how I did that. Now observe me closely! I will throw still another
ball of emotion into the air and juggle with it, too.'"
And sure enough, he did not last.
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