Word: enthusiasm
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1873-1873
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...address public meetings, or may place him in the legislative halls, must have this power of reply fully developed. Though his passion may be wrought up, his knowledge comprehensive, and his imagination vigorous, yet he who pleads lacks something. A man may begin to speak burning with enthusiasm, influencing by his persuasive eloquence; he may by his keen perception bring weighty arguments from threatening facts; yet his armor is defective, and the weak spot will be detected by his adversaries. To be successful, he must be equipped and ready for every interruption and questioning, innuendo and repartee, and send back...
...then realize the true beauties of the work in his hands; and a knowledge of construction would come of itself from familiarity with the pages of the model writers of old. One did not read Latin and Greek with the view of becoming a pedagogue. One read them with enthusiasm and pleasure, as they should be read, as a means of elegant culture; and the student of those days graduated with a lively admiration, if not a decided taste and love, for those grand old pages which had been opened to him in the halls of Alma Mater...
...everything old under the head of "fogyism," and for the encouragement of everything new, under the head of "progression," - a progression which consists rather in tearing down everything behind you, than in building up anything in front, - nor is much to be gained from that spirit of easily kindled enthusiasm which chiefly shows itself in the rejection of the positive for the comparative, of the comparative for the superlative...