shows of things as of their essences, wore all the semblance of
sincerity; and, in one sense, deserved it. No fears, no doubts, no
scruples shook him. Of the license which advocacy draws from sympathy
with the feelings of those it represents, he made full use, with
unhesitating power; for his reason, of 'large discourse,' was as
pliable as the affections of the most sensitive nature. Nor was he
diverted from his aim by any figure or fancy: if he neither exalted
his subject by imagination, nor illustrated it by wit, nor softened
its details by pathos, he never made it the subject of vain attempts
at the exhibition of either. He went into the arena, stripped of all
encumbrance, to win, and contended studious only and always of
victory. His presence of mind was not merely the absence of external
distraction, nor the capacity of calling up all energies on an
emergency, but the continued application of them equally to the duty
of each moment. There are few speakers, even of fervid sincerity and
zeal, whose thoughts do not frequently run before or beside the
moment's purpose; whose wits do not sometimes wander on to some other
part of the case than that they are instantly discussing; who do not
anticipate some future effect, or dally with some apprehension of
future peril, while they should consider only the next word or
sentence. This momentary desertion of the exact purpose never occurred
to Follett; he fitted the thought to its place; the word to the
thought; and allowed the action only to take care of itself, as it
always will with an earnest speaker. His, therefore, was rather the
artlessness than the art of advocacy-- its second nature-- justly
appreciated by those to whose interests it was devoted; but not fully
understood even by the spectator of its exertion; dying with the
causes in which it was engaged, and leaving no vestiges except in
their success. Hence the blank which is substituted for the space he
filled in human affairs. The modest assurance, the happy boldness, the