The purpose of the third paragraph is to provide a transition from

I. A description of the crowd to a description of the minister

II. The narrator's praise to the narrator's censure

III. Images of power to images of weakness

(A) I only

(B) II only

(C) I and III only

(D) II and III only

(E) I, II, and III

This comes from the book, which is also the passage it's asking about (you can search this online or in SparkNotes): "How fared it with him then? Were there not the brilliant particles of a halo in the air about his head? So etherealized by spirit as he was, and so apotheosized by worshipping admirers, did his footsteps, in the procession, really tread upon the dust of the earth."