silent majority

is illustrated by the image of a half a dozen little, shriveled, meagre grasshoppers under a fern making the field ring with their importunate chink whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent.

Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray, to not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field... that, of course, they are many in number... or that, after all, they are other than the little, shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the hour.

silent majority, n.All

silent majority