Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-03-19
aNiseellanu.
CONVERSATIONAL POWERS.

CONVERSATIONAL POWERb.
The late VIM. Hazlitt, a man gifted with
great powers of observation and express
sion, was of opinion that actors and au-
thors were not fitted, generally speaking,
TO SHINE In conversation. "Authors ought
to be read and not heard and as to ac-
tors, 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 letters, in a
great measure, confirms the opinion OF
some of the greatest names in English and
French literature. Men who have filled
books with an eloquence and truth that de-
fy oblivion, were mutes before their fellow
men. They had golden ingots. which,
IN the privacy OF home, they could convert
into coin bearing an impress that would
insure universal currency; but they could
not, on the spur of the moment, produce
the farthings current in the mariet-place.
Descartcs, the famous mathematician and
philosopher; Lafontaine, celebrated for
his witty fables; and Button, the great
naturalist. We're all singularly deficient in
the powers of conversation. Harmontel,
the novelist. was so dull in society, that
his friend said of him. after an interview,
II must go and read his tales, to recon-
pense myself for the WEAKNESS OF hearing
him."
As to Corneille. the greatest dramatist
of France, he was completely lost in So
ciety-so absent and embarrassed that he
wrote of himself Il witty couplet, impor-
ting that he was never Ineligible but
through the mouth OF another. Wit on
paper seems to be widely different from
that play of words in conversation which,
while it sparhles, dies; for Chaales II. the
Wittiest monarch that ever sat on the Eng
lish throne was SO charmed with the hui
NOR Of Hudibras that he caused himself to
be introduced in the character of pri-
vate gentleman. to Butler, its author.
The witty king found the author q very
dull companion and was of opinion, with
many others, that SO stupid fellow could
never have written 80 clever book. Ad-
olson, whose classic elegance OF style has
long been considered the best model for
young writer's, was shy and absent in So
ciety, preserving, even before single
stranger, stiff and dignitied silence.
He was accustomed to say that there
could be no real cony ersation but between
two persons, friends: and that it was then
thinking aloud Steele, Swift, Pope.
Congreye-men possessing literary and
conversational powers of the highest
order-allowed him to have been delight
tul companion among inmates: and Young
writes of him that he ''was rather mute in
society on some occasions. but, when he
began to be company, he was full of
viyacity and went on in mobile strain of
thought and language, so as to chain the
attention OF every one to him." Goldsmith
on the contrary, as described by his con-
temporary writers, appeared in company
to have no spark of that genius which
shone forth so brightly in his works. His
address was awkward, his language un-
polished; he hesitated in speaking and
was always unhappy if the conversation
did not turn upon himself. DR.. johnson
spoke of him rs an inspired idiot: yet the
great essayist, though delivering oracles
to those around him in pompous phases
which have been happily described as
entitled to be good converser.
Nearer to our own time, we have had
many authors whose faculty told twice.
Sheridan and Theodore Hool. were fellows
OF infinite jest; they could set ''table in
a roar and fill pages with pathos and wit
of such quality that it makes their sur
vivors think 1--WE could have spared better
men,"
Burns was famous for his colloquial
powers; and Gault is reported to have
been as skilltul as the story-tellers of the
East in fixing the attention of his auditors
on his prolonged narrations.
Colelidge was in the habit of poring
fourth brilliant, unbroken monologues of
TWO OF three hours duration, to listeners
so enchanted. that like Adam, whose ears
were filed with the eloquence of an arch
angel, they forgot ''all places. all seasons
and their change" but this was not all
conversation, and few might venture TO
emulate the cold man eloquent" with
hopes of equal success.
Washington Irving, in the account he
has given of his visit to Abbotsford, says
of Sir Walter Scott, that his conversation
was frank, healthy, picturesque, and
dramatic. He never talked for effect or
display, but from the flow of his spirits,
the stores Of his memory, and the vigor
of his imagination. He was as good a
listener as Il taiker; appreciated every
thing others said. however humble might
be their rank and pretensions, and was
quick TO testify his perception of any point
III their discourse. No ones concerns, no
ones tastes and pleasures, seemed beneath
him. He made himself so thoroughly the
companion Of those with whom he hap
pened to be, that they forgot for time,
his vast superiority. and only recollected
and wondered when all was over, that it
was Scott with whom they had been on
such familiar terms, in whose society they
had been so perfectly at ease.
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