The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-09-17
Brilliant TIlkerS.

1t has often been remarked that the number
of brilliant conversationalists bears small
proportion to the number of gifted men and
women, even in Europe, where conversation
is still more cultivated as an art than in this
country The Chambers Journal recently
contained very interesting article on this
subject. The author says:
The late William Hezlitt, man gifted with
great po wers of observation and expression.
was OF opinion that actors and authors We're
not fitted, generally speaking, TO shine in
conversation. "Authors ought to be read and
not heard - and as to actors they could not
speak tragedies in the drawing room, and
their wit was likely to be comedy and farce at
second hand. The biography Of men of let
ters, in great measure, confirms this opinion.
Some of the greatest names in English and
French literature, men who have filled books
with an eloquence and truth that defy OBJ
livion, We're mere mutes before their fellow
men. pescartes, the famous mathomatician,
and Philosopher; Lafon tame, celebrated for
his witty fables, and Button, the great natur-
alist, We're oil singularly deficient in the pow
ers of conversation. MarmonteI, the novel
ist, was so dull in society that his friend said
of him, after an interview: II must 60 and
read his tales. to recompense me for the wea-
rlness of hearing him -
As to Corneille, the greatest dramatist of
France, he was completely lost in society
so absent and embarrassed that he wrote of
himself witty coupiet, importing that he
was never intelligible but through the
mouth of another. Wit on paper seems to
be something widely different from that play
OF words in conversation, which, while it
sparkles, dies; for Charles the IL, the wit
tiest monarch that ever sat on the English
throne, was SO charmed with the wisdom of
6 Hudibras - that he caused himself to be in
troduced in the character of Il private gentle
man to Butler. its author fhe witty king
found that author a very dull companion,
and was of opinion, with many Others, that
so stupid fellow could never have written
IL al
gance u style has long been considered the
best model for young writers, was shy and
absent i'll society, preserving, even before a
single strangers stif and dignified silence.
Goldsmith appeared, III company, 10 have
spark Of that genius which alone shone
forth SO brightly in his works. His address
was awkward, his manner uncouth, his Ian
guage unpublished; he hesitated when speak
ing, and was always unhappy if the conver-
sation did not turn upon himself.
Nearer 10 our own time, we have many
authors whose faculty told twice. Sheridan
and Theodore Hook were men of infinite Jest;
they could set u table in roar" ana fill
pages with pathos and wit OF such qualRy
that it makes their survivors think '' we
could have spared better meu. Burns was
famous for his colloquial powers; and Gait
is said To have been AS sklliful as the story
iellers of the East in fixing the attention -
Coleridge WAS in the habit of pouring forth
brilliant anbroken mohologues OF two or
three hours duration to listeners SO en-
chlAtett inat, Ike 0aaih, WAonp oai .
were filled with the eloquence of an
arch angel, they forget g place, all sea
sons and their change" Washington Ir-
wing, in the account he has given of his visit
TO Abbottsford, says of Sir Walter Scott, that
his conversation was frank. hearty, pic
turesque and dramatic. He never talked for
effect or display, but from the flow of spirits.
the stores of his memory, aud the sigor OF
his Imagination. He was good listener
as talker; appreciated everything that oihers
said however humble might be their rank
and pretensions and was quick to testify his
perception of any point in their DISCOURSE
No sone's concerns, no ones thoughts aud
opinions, no ones tastes and pleasures seemed
heneath him. He IN ade himself SO thorough
ha p,an ed TO be, that they forgot. Tor - time,
his superiority, and only recoiiected and
wondered when all was over that it Was Scott
in whose society they had felt so perfectly at
ease. tt efss H