...when he surveys the massy folios of Donne's sermons — each sermon spreads out over many pages — a vast congregation in the Cathedral or at Paul's Cross,...and rapture, to those interminable disquisitions." ... "It is astonishing to us," he adds, "that he should hold a London congregation enthralled, unwearied,...

...intelligible. But Donne in his own day was a more famous preacher than poet. Yet it is difficult to imagine a vast congregation in the Cathedral or at Paul's Cross,...and rapture, to those interminable disquisitions, teeming with laboured obscurity, false and misplaced wit, fatiguing antitheses. However set off, as...

...vast congregation in the Cathedral or at St. Paul's Cross, listening not only with patience, but even with absorbed interest, with unflagging attention,...delight and rapture, to those interminable disquisitions It is astonishing to us,' ho adds, ' that he should hold a London congregation enthralled, unwearied,...

...various incidental occasions. An eminent successor of Donne, the late Dean Milman, finds it difficult to " imagine, when he surveys the massy folios of...not only with patience, but with absorbed interest, 1 Elegy by Mr. RB, attached to Poems by John Donne (1669), p. 393. with unflagging attention, even...

...when he surveys the massy folios of Donne's sermons — each sermon spreads out over many pages — a vast congregation in the Cathedral or at Paul's Cross,...unflagging attention, even with delight and rapture, to these interminable disquisitions, to us teeming with laboured obscurity, false and misplaced wit, fatiguing...

...applied to Jew1sh congregations as well: "It is difficult ... to imagine ... a vast congregation . . . listening not only with patience but with absorbed...unflagging attention, even with delight and rapture, to these interminable disquisitions, to us teeming with laboured obscurity, false and misplaced wit, fatiguing...