articulated breath; of
consonants that resist with the firmness of a maid of honor, or half or
wholly yield to the wooing lips; of vowels that flow and murmur, each
after its kind; the peremptory b and p, the brittle k, the vibrating r,
the insinuating s, the feathery f, the velvety v, the bell-voiced m, the
tranquil broad a, the penetrating e, the cooing u, the emotional o, and
the beautiful combinations of alternate rock and stream, as it were, that
they give to the rippling flow of speech,--there is a fascination in the
skilful handling of these, which the great poets and even prose-writers
have not disdained to acknowledge and use to recommend their thought.
What do you say to this line of Homer as a piece of poetical full-band
music? I know you read the Greek characters with perfect ease, but
permit me, just for my own satisfaction, to put it into English
letters:--

Aigle pamphanoosa di' aitheros ouranon ike!

as if he should have spoken in our poorer phrase of

Splendor far shining through ether to heaven ascending.

That Greek line, which I do not remember having heard mention of as
remarkable, has nearly every consonantal and vowel sound in the language.
Try it by the Greek and by the English alphabet; it is a curiosity. Tell
me that old Homer did not roll his sightless eyeballs about with delight,
as he thundered out these ringing syllables! It seems hard to think of
his going round like a hand-organ man, with such music and such thought
as his to earn his bread with. One can't help wishing that Mr. Pugh
could have got at him for a single lecture, at least, of the "Star
Course," or that he could have appeared in the Music Hall, "for this
night only."

--I know I have rambled, but I hope you see that this is a delicate way
of letting you into the nature of the individual who is, officially, the
principal personage at our table. It would hardly do to describe him
directly, you know. But you must not think, because the lightning
zigzags, it does not know where to strike.

I shall try to go through the rest of my description of our boarders with
as little of digression as is consistent with my nature. I think we have
a somewhat exceptional company. Since our Landlady has got up in the
world, her board has been decidedly a favorite with persons a little
above the average in point of intelligence and education. In fact, ever
since a boarder of hers, not wholly unknown to the readin