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 reading public,
brought her establishment into notice, it has attracted a considerable
number of literary and scientific people, and now and then a politician,
like the Member of the House of Representatives, otherwise called the
Great and General Court of the State of Massachusetts. The consequence
is, that there is more individuality of character than in a good many
similar boardinghouses, where all are business-men, engrossed in the
same pursuit of money-making, or all are engaged in politics, and so
deeply occupied with the welfare of the community that they can think
and talk of little else.

At my left hand sits as singular-looking a human being as I remember
seeing outside of a regular museum or tent-show. His black coat shines