Various / 2008-09-18 00:00:00

Around
the tables were gathered a company numbering nearly three hundred,
including Emerson, Lowell, Holmes, George S. Hillard, Nathaniel P.
Willis, and others of the literary guild. Among the decorations of the
banqueting-hall was displayed a bust of Burns crowned with a wreath of
roses and bays. Mr. Emerson spoke to the principal toast of the
evening, "The Memory of Burns," and his graceful flights of oratory
were received with cheers, and calls for "More! More!" which the
presiding officer, General John S. Tyler, quieted with the remark:
"Mr. Emerson begs to be excused, not because the well of gushing
waters is exhausted, but because, in the kindness of his heart, he
thinks he ought to leave room for gentlemen who are to succeed him."
Willis, writing later of the festival, said of this speech, "Why, in
that large and convivially excited audience, there was not, while he
spoke, a wandering eye--not a pulse or a breath that was not held
absolutely captive. Wherein lies the wonderful spell?"]

MR.
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