from *The Notebooks of Samuel Butler* (1835-1902)

"Fascination"

"I know a man, and one whom people generally
call a very clever one, who, when his eye catches
mine, if I meet him at home or an evening party,
beams upon me from afar with the expression of
an intellectual rattlesnake on having espied an
intellectual rabbit. Through any crowd that man
will come sidling towards me, ruthless and irresistible
as fate; while I, foreknowing my doom, sidle also
him-wards, and flatter myself that no sign of my
inward apprehension has escaped me."