unkenness, which are so
much better than the vinous, because they taste themselves so keenly,
whereas the other (according to the statement of experts who are
familiar with its curious phenomena) has a certain sense of unreality
connected with it. He delighted in the reflex stimulus of the excitement
he produced in others by working on their feelings. A powerful preacher
is open to the same sense of enjoyment--an awful, tremulous, goose-flesh
sort of state, but still enjoyment--that a great tragedian feels when he
curdles the blood of his audience.

Mr. Stoker was noted for the vividness of his descriptions of the
future which was in store for the great bulk of his fellow-townsmen and
fellow-worlds-men. He had three sermons on this subject, known to all
the country round as the sweating sermon, the fainting sermon, and
the convulsion-fit sermon, from the various effects said to have been
produced by them when delivered before large audiences. It might be
supposed that his reputation as a terrorist would have interfered with
his attempts to ingratiate himself with his young favorites. But the
tragedian who is fearful as Richard or as Iago finds that no hindrance
to his success in the part of Romeo. Indeed, women rather take to
terrible people; prize-fighters, pirates, highwaymen, rebel generals,
Grand Turks, and Bluebeards generally have a fascination for the sex;
your virgin has a natural instinct to saddle your lion. The fact,
therefore, that the young girl had sat under his tremendous pulpitings,
through the sweating sermon, the fainting sermon, and the convulsion-fit
sermon, did not secure her against the influence of his milder
approaches.

Myrtle was naturally surprised at receiving a visit from him; but she
was in just that unbalanced state in which almost any impression is
welcome. He showed so much interest, first in her health, then in her
thoughts and feelings, always following her lead in the conversation,
that before he left her she felt as if she had made a great discovery;
namely, that this man, so formidable behind the guns of his wooden
bastion, was a most tenderhearted and sympathizing person when he
came out of it unarmed. How delightful he was as he sat talking in the
twilight in low and tender tones, with respectful pauses of listening,
in which he looked as if he too had just made a discovery,--of an angel,
to wit, to whom he could not help unbosoming his tenderest emotions, as
to a being from ano