They were a race of men (I hope in God the species is extinct) who, when
they rose in their place, no man living could divine, from any known
adherence to parties, to opinions, or to principles, from any order
or system in their politics, or from any sequel or connection in
their ideas, what part they were going to take in any debate. It is
astonishing how much this uncertainty, especially at critical times,
called the attention of all parties on such men. All eyes were fixed
on them, all ears open to hear them; each party gaped, and looked
alternately for their vote, almost to the end of their speeches. While
the house hung on this uncertainty, now the HEAR HIMS rose from this
side--now they rebellowed from the other; and that party, to whom they
fell at length from their tremulous and dancing balance, always received
them in a tempest of applause. The fortune of such men was a temptation
too great to be resisted by one to whom a single whiff of incense
withheld gave much greater pain than he received delight in the clouds
of it which daily rose about him from the prodigal superstition of
innumerable admirers. He was a candidate for contradictory honours; and
his great aim was to make those agree in admiration of him who never
agreed in anything else.