It may be thought that I have thus dilated on the Bishop's address
for the sole purpose of showing what a much better address I could
have made. That is not the case at all. I could not have done the
thing at all to start with, and, given both the nerve and the
presence and the practice of the man, I could not have done it a
quarter as well, because he was in tune with his audience and I
should not have been. That was to me part of the tragedy. The
Bishop's voice fell heavily and steadily, like a stream of water
from a great iron pipe that fills a reservoir. The audience, too,
were all in the most elementary mood. Boys of course frankly desire
success without any disguise. And parents less frankly but no less
hungrily, in an almost tigerish way, desire it for their children.
The intensity of belief felt by a parent in a stupid or even
vicious boy would be one of the most pathetic things I know, if it
were not also one of the primal forces of the world.
And thus the tide being high the Bishop went into harbour at the
top of the flood.
Pages:
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275