First Sentence

"As if a strong, delightful water that we knew only as a river appeared in the character of a fountain; as if one whom we had wondered at as a good walker or inexhaustible pedestrian, began to dance; as if Mr. Bright, in the middle of a public meeting, were to oblige the company with a song,-no, no, not like that exactly, but like something quite new,-is the appearance of George Eliot in the character of a poet."