Her by her sight: her pure and eloquent blood
Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought,
That one might almost say her body thought.

What a curious phenomenon is that of blushing! It is impossible
to witness this phenomenon without interest and sympathy. It
comes at once, unanticipated by the person in whom we behold it.
It comes from the soul, and expresses with equal certainty shame,
modesty, and vivid, uncontrollable affection. It spreads, as it
were in so many stages, over the cheeks, the brow, and the neck,
of him or her in whom the sentiment that gives birth to it is
working.

Thus far I have not mentioned speech, not perhaps the most
inestimable of human gifts, but, if it is not that, it is at
least the endowment, which makes man social, by which principally
we impart our sentiments to each other, and which changes us from
solitary individuals, and bestows on us a duplicate and
multipliable existence. Beside which it incalculably increases
the perfection of one. The man who does not speak, is an
unfledged thinker; and the man that does not write, is but half
an investigator.

Not to enter into all the mysteries of articulate speech and the
irresistible power of eloquence, whether addressed to a single
hearer, or instilled into the ears of many,--a topic that belongs
perhaps less to the chapter of body than mind,--let us for a
moment fix our thoughts steadily upon that little implement, the
human voice. Of what unnumbered modulations is it susceptible!
What terror may it inspire! How may it electrify the soul, and