This is a marvel of the universe:
To fling a thought across a stretch of sky—
Some weighty message, or a yearning cry,
It matters not; the elements rehearse
Man's urgent utterance, and his words traverse
The spacious heav'ns like homing birds that fly
Unswervingly, until, upreached on high,
A quickened hand plucks off the message terse.
Josephine L. Peabody—Window.
Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul,
And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole.
| author = Pope
| work = Eloise to Abelard. L. 57.
.
I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.
Midsummer Night's Dream. Act II. Sc. 1.
L. 175.
| seealso = (See also Chapman)
| topic =
| page =
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say "It lightens."
Eripuit caelo fulmen, mox sceptra tyrannis.
He snatched the thunderbolt from heaven, the sceptre from tyrants. Turgot—Inscription for the Houdon bust of Franklin. SeeCoNDORCET—Life of Turgot. P. 200. Ed. 1786. Eripuit fulmenque Jovi, Phceboque sagittas. Modified from AntiLucretius. I. 5. 96, by Cardinal de Polignac. Eripuit Jovi fulmen viresque tonandi. Marcus Maniius—Astronomica. I. 104. line claimed by Frederick von der Trenck asserted at his trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris, July 9, 1794. See Gartenlaube—Last Hours of Baron Trenck.
ELEPHANT
Th' unwieldy elephant,
To make them mirth, us'd all his might, and wreathed
His lithe proboscis.
The elephant hath joints, but none for cour
tesy: his legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure.
Troilus and Cressida. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 97.
ELM TREE
Ulmus
And the great elms o'erhead
Dark shadows wove on their aerial looms,
Shot through with golden thread.
In crystal vapour everywhere
Blue isles of heaven laughed between,
And far, in forest-deeps unseen,
The topmost elm-tree gather'd green
From draughts of balmy air.
| author = Tennyson
| work = Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere.
.
ELOQUENCE
The most eloquent voice of our century uttered, shortly before leaving the world, a warning cry against the "Anglo-Saxon contagion."
He adorned whatever subject he either spoke or wrote upon, by the most splendid eloquence.
Chesterfield—Character of Bolingbroke.
Is enim est eloquens qui et humilia subtiliter,
et magna graviter, et mediocria temperate potest dicere.
He is an eloquent man who can treat humble
subjects with delicacy, lofty things impressively, and moderate things temperately.
Cicero—De Oratore. XXIX.
Discourse may want an animated "No"
To brush the surface, and to make it flow;
But still remember, if you mean to please,
To press your point with modesty and ease.
| author = Cowper
| work = Conversation. L. 101.
II embellit tout qu'il touche.
He adorned whatever he touched.
Fenelon—Lettre sur les Occupations de I'Academie Francaise. Sec. IV.
| seealso = (See also Chesterfield)
| topic =
| page =
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>A good discourse is that from which nothing
can be retrenched without cutting into the
quick.
St. Francis de Sales—Letter upon Eloquence.
L'eloquence est au sublime ce que le tout est a sa partie.
Eloquence is to the sublime what the whole is to its part.
La Bruyère—Les Caractères. Ch. I.
Eloquence may be found in conversations and in all kinds of writings; it is rarely found when looked for, and sometimes discovered where it is least expected.
La Bruyère—The Characters. Ch. I. 55.
Profane eloquence is transfered from the bar, where Le Maltre, Pucelle, and Fourcroy formerly practised it, and where it has become obsolete, to the Pulpit, where it is out of place.
La Bruyère—The Characters. Ch. XVI. 2.
There is as much eloquence in the tone of voice, in the eyes, and in the air of a speaker as in his choice of words.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims and Moral Sentences. No. 261.
True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxims and Moral Sentences. No. 262.
