Literary cadet and Rhode-Island statesman. [volume] (Providence, R.I.) 1827-1829, 1828-08-30
FROM BLACKwooD's MAGAZINE.
THE MAN WITH THE MOUTH.

"Never did l behold such a mouth" This
was my internal exclamation as gazed upon
the man who sat opposite me in the Advocates
Library at Edinburgh. He was an elderly
personage-tall, meagre, long g-chinned, hook
nosed, pale complexion, and clothed from top
to toe in a suit Of black. 1t was wearing to-
wards twilight, and the noble apartment in
which was seated had been forsaken by all
its loungers, save myself and the man who
called forth my observation. Wo were alone,
he perusing tho Morning Ceronicle, )engaged
with Blackwood's Magazine. The article
was reading was a capital ono. 1t wns-let
me see-"Streams, that exquisite creation
of Christopher Nor;h's matchless pen. But
admirable as the article might be, it was not
so admirable as the mans mouth-who pc
rused the Chronicle. For somo time, indeed,
there was combat between the mouth and
the article, both soliciting my regards with
equal ardour, and compelling me every mo-
ment to turn my eyes, first to the one, and
then to tho other. Each possessed a ma gnetic
property; and my mind was, like q piece of
iron, rcciprocally acted upon by couple of
powerful loadstones. BY degrees, however,
the balance was destroyed: Ebony either grew
weaker, or the mouth stronger; and was
obliged, with a weeping heart, to throw the
former aside, and submit myself entirely to the
1t was, in truth, noble mouth, stretching,
in one magnificent sweep, from ear to ear
such mouth as the ogres of romance must
have had, or the whale that swallowed Jonah.
remember the first time when from the bottom
of the stairs leading to the Fountain Of Nep-
tunc-I behold the front of Versailles stupen-
dous palace. Ono feeling only occupied my
mind-that of breathlcss astonishment-as as the
huge fabric rose up before me, in sublime pro-
portion, from the bosom of its matchless gar
den. Such astonishment-s breathless-
ness came over me, when my eyes first encoun
tered the man, or rather his mouth. l was
more than astonished; / was delighted-de-
lighted, as when stepping into tho Slstine
Chapel, the grand creations of Michael An
gelo, frescoed upon its roof and walls, burst
ko glimpse of Paradise upon my tranced
4, spirit Such was the delight afforded by the
mighty mouth. not the man-belovod reader
for men as fair in all respects as he have I
| often seen. 1t was not his cheeks, thin as
parchment, bis nose curved like an eagles
| beak, his chin prominent as bayonet in full
| charge, or his complexion, pale and lustreless
as a faded lily. 1t WAS not these no, reader,
| it was not these which operated with such
| wizard power upon me. 1t was his mouth -
| wonderful as Versailles, and beautiful as the
| Sistene pel-which carried my sympatbes
away, and led me a captive worshipper at its
| shrine.
| Such were my first impressions on beholding
the Man with the Mouth. They were those
of unmingled awe and pleasure, and appealed
with resistless effect to my imag inaton. They
| camo upon me like rainbow bursting out from
| the bosom of dark coud-as a stream of sun
shine at mdnght-as the sound Of the Eolian
harp in a summer eve. But they appealed to
the fancy alone: they touched the heart, but
not the head; and it was some time before the
latter could bring its energies TO bear, so COM
plctely had it been overwhelmed with the
iumult Of passions which agtated the feelings.
II did act at last; and al soon as the incipient
impressions subsidized a little, | felt an irresist-
| ible desire to ascertain why such wonderful
effects should spring from such cause. But
it was in vain; and being neither casuist nor
phrcnologisi, was obliged to drop subject
to which my powers were altogether unequal.
| wondered, and was deghted; but what the
remote springs Of such wonder and delight
might be balIlod my philosophy, and set my
reasoning faculties at naught.
| Meanwhile the man continued opposite to
me, reading the Chronicle, and continued to
| look at him inarvelliDg OF the dimensions OF
that feature which had vanqu'shod Christopher
| North in single combat, and absorbed his beau
tful Streams" in its insatlablo gull, lie
never turned his eyes from the paper; they
were rigidly fixed upon its democratic columns;
| and, but for the motion Of his hands rs he
shifted il up and down, | should have supposed
him an image carved for some Dutch college,
by Chanirey or Thorwaldson the Dane. had
no curiosity abou, the man; his name, his