IN A CLUB CORNER

TION.

IN Dean Swift's Hints towards CONVERSAan Essay on Conversation, he sets out by saying that he had observed few obvious subjects to have been so seldom, or at least so slightly, handled as this, and that few were so difficult to treat. Conversation is an art, says Emerson, in which a man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is that which all are practicing every day while they live. Metternich is re- Metternich's ported to have said, "In my whole life I have only known ten or twelve persons with whom it is pleasant to speak- that is, who keep to the subject, do not repeat themselves, and do not talk of themselves; men who do not listen to their own voices, who are cultivated not to lose themselves in commonplaces; and lastly, who possess tact and good sense enough not to elevate their own persons above their subjects." Steele said, "It is a secret known but to

experience.

thing to con

sider.

few yet of no small use in the conduct of life, that. when you fall into a man's conThe first versation, the first thing that you should consider is, whether he has a greater inclination to hear you, or that you should hear him." "To please," observed Chamfort, "one must make up his mind to be taught many things which he already knows, by people who do not know them." "The reason why few persons are agreeable in conversation," thought La Rochefoucauld, "is because each thinks more of what he intends to say than of what others are saying, and seldom listens but when. he desires to speak." La Bruyère was of opinion that "the art of conversation consists much less in your own abundance than in enabling others to find talk for themselves. Men do not wish to admire In what the you; they want to please. The wit of conversation consists more in finding it in others than in showing a great deal yourself; he who goes from your conversation pleased with himself and his own wit is perfectly well pleased with you."

wit of conversation mainly consists.

The question was once put to Aristotle, how we ought to behave to our friends, and the answer he gave was, "As we should wish our friends to behave to us." The

world has been justly likened to a lookingglass, which gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly, kind companion.

Swift's.

One of the best rules in conversation, A rule of in the opinion of Swift, is never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish we had left unsaid; nor can anything be well more contrary to the ends for which people meet together than to part unsatisfied with each other or themselves. Conversation, in the judgment of Sydney Smith, must and ought to grow out of materials on which men can agree, not upon subjects which try the passions.

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who had tried all things, pronounced a chosen conversation, composed of a few that one esteems, the greatest happiness of life. Of indoor entertainment, it has been remarked, the truest and most humane is that of conversation, But this social amusement is not, in all circumstances, to be got, and when it is to be had, we are not always fit for it. The art of conversation is so little cultivated, the tongue is so little refined, the play of wit and the

The greatest happiness of

.

Talkative

men seldom read.

Abandon

ment of one's self.

flow of fancy are so little encouraged or esteemed, that our social gatherings are too often stupid and wearisome. Talkative men, it has been observed, seldom read. This is among the few truths which appear the more strange the more we reflect upon them? For what is reading but silent conversation? Conversation, said Sterne, is a traffic; and if you enter into it without some stock of knowledge to balance the account perpetually betwixt you, the trade drops at once. Though, as Dr. Holmes has said, "Nobody talks much that doesn't say unwise things, things he did not mean to say; as no person plays much without striking a false note sometimes. Talk, to me, is only spading up the ground for crops of thought. I can't answer for what will turn up. If I could, it would n't be talking, but 'speaking my piece.' Better, I think, the hearty abandonment of one's self to the suggestions of the moment, at the risk of an occasional slip of the tongue, perceived the instant it escapes, but just one syllable too late, than the royal reputation of never saying a foolish thing." Alcott expressed the belief that "in conversation fine things may be said, but the best must come of themselves;

versation

they cannot be coerced; they must be born of the soul. All true conversation is spon- True contaneous, and only comes when the gods spontaneous. are near. When the gods are distant it is because of adverse influences. The intuitions are the essence of all wisdom, and all the intuitions come from the shrine of nature, which we must hold in reverence. There is no finite. The circles of our being begin and end in eternity."

Maintenon.

A great good of conversation is, that it fills all gaps, supplies all deficiencies, and makes you forgetful of particulars. It is recorded of Madame de Maintenon that, Madame de during dinner, the servant slipped to her side, "Please, madame, one anecdote more, for there is no roast to-day." Who does not remember occasions when the feast was the least part of the entertainment? when the flavor of the delicate and rich dishes was lost in the higher satisfaction of the intellectual palate?

The foundation of all good conversation is what the poet Rowe pronounces the foundation of all the virtues-good nature: "which is friendship between man and man; good breeding in courts; charity in religion; and the true spring of all beneficence in general." Censoriousness is