The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-01-20
CONVERSATION.

Dear Sir: Win you have the kindness
to write for the Ledger upon the subject of
Conversation, and confer great favor
on c.
If our questioner had made his question
a little more definite, we should have been
able, perhaps, to give some advice; as it is,
we are in the dark as to what he wants
Does he wish simply to know how to
communicate his ideas on business? Does
he wish to attain t1uency in social circles
Does lie wish to learn how to be both in
structive and entertaining? Does he wish
to shine in society as conversational ?
Is he by nature reticent? Is he slow Of
speech and over cautious, and therefore
hesitating in the construction of sentences?
Conversational power is gift of birth.
1t is some mems nature to talk. Words
flow out necessarily, like drops from
spring in the hill side-not because they
are solicited, but because pushed out by
inward force that will not let them lie still.
We have known persons whose tongue ran
from the rising of the sun until the going
down of the same. One sentence ran into
another as continuously as one link in an
endless chain took hold of another link.
We always marvel whether they do not
wake up nights and have a spell of talk all
by themselves, just for the relief it would
give them.
From this extreme is every degree Of nat
ural modification until we come to the op-
posite extreme, in which men seem almost
.1l ip11- IN a. ~,
thoughts.
Some men are poor in simple language.
They have thoughts enough, but the sym
bols of thougbt--wo rds-refuse to present
themselves or come slowly and stingly.
Others are silent from the structure ofsecre-
tiveness. Others are cautious and look
before they speak, and before they are
ready the occasion has passed. Cautious
men are very apt to be slow and involved
in their speech, their sentences having
many limitations, and containing additions
and finally coming out so vaguely that one
cannot exactly tell what they do mean.
The great mass of men lying between
these two extremes, will be found to move
toward the one side or the other, very much
according to their education or circum-
stances. and to be susceptible Of develop
ment in either direction.
There are very few men who do not talk
we'll. about things which they understand,
and in which they are deeply interested.
Conversation is more the product of feel
ing than of reflection. Those who are
quick and hot in motions will usually be
the most fluent; while those who add an
element of reflection to emotion will be the
most entertaining.
The first element of conversational pow
err springs from the natural gifts of feeling
and imagination; after that, genial and
synrparhetic social feelings; and LASTLY,
the gift of language.
In regard to all but the last, it will be
seen that the education which will make
men interesting i'll conversation is just that
which will make them good men-intelli-
gence, kindheartedness and social good
ness.
In regard to language itself, the habit of
reading pure English, and of employing 1t
every day, is the best drill for good talk
err. People always act more naturally in
their everyday clothes than they do when
dressed up for Sunday, and the reason is,
that they are unconscious in one case, and
self. conscious in the other. 1t is so in
speech. If ono allows himself to talk
coarsely and vulgarly every day, in and out
of company.
Habit is stronger than intention, and
somewhere the common run of speech will
break through and betray you. To con-
verse well at all times. Avoid on the one
side vulgarisms, all cant and street COLO
quialisms, even when they are not viscious;
for by-words and slang sentences amuse
only while they are new. AS soon as they
become habitual they corrupt your language
without any equivalent in amusement.
On the other extreme, avoid magnilo-
quent and high-fown language of every
kind Nothing is more tedious than a
grand talker. Everybody laughs at p' mp
, GUS fellow who Tugs into his conversation
big words or pedantic expressions. The
best language in the world is that which is
80 simple and transparent that no one
thinks of the words which you use, but
only of the thought or feeling which tn
express. Language like window glass,
should not stop the attention on itself, but
on that which passes through it.-Beeeher.