who can say anything new or striking, anything that rouses the attention without offending the taste, or wearing out the feelings of his hearers, is a man whom one could not, in his public capacity, honour enough.
 Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (1814). copy citation

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Author Jane Austen
Source Mansfield Park
Topic honour attention
Date 1814
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/141/141-h/141-h.htm

Context

“There is something in the eloquence of the pulpit, when it is really eloquence, which is entitled to the highest praise and honour. The preacher who can touch and affect such an heterogeneous mass of hearers, on subjects limited, and long worn threadbare in all common hands; who can say anything new or striking, anything that rouses the attention without offending the taste, or wearing out the feelings of his hearers, is a man whom one could not, in his public capacity, honour enough. I should like to be such a man.” Edmund laughed. “I should indeed. I never listened to a distinguished preacher in my life without a sort of envy. But then, I must have a London audience. I could not preach but to the educated;” source