, 1873-01-12
THE GREAT CONVERSERS.

VINO, IN tho DAYS OF bampl1u6 al1o AaIu ullnh1oB
was hoard to say,-"I tell you what, air, jus
think that conversation is the banu OF society
Such must have been the opinion OF many per
SONS in England when Niebuhr, tho German bis
torian, visited that country, for ho complaint
bitterly Of the BuperfciaIty aud insipidity ot
nearly all the conversations he listened to, af
being absolutely depressing. Yet it was in thai
same "silycr-coasted islo" that had lived and
! fouriehed, only generation before Samuel John.
son, the Alexander OF the conversational realm, tc
whoeo iron rule the accomplished Reynolds, the
| luminous and learned Gibbon, the many-tongued
Jones, the inimitable Garrick, the classic Lang
| ton, and even the eloquent Burke, were willing
| to bow; and what talker did ever Germany pro-
| duce to rival Johnson2 To discuss questions OF
taAte, Of learning, OF casuistry, in language 80
! exact and forcible that it might have boon
printed without the alteration Of q word, was to
| him, IS Macaulay has remarked, no exartion,
! but D pleasure He loved, as he said, to fold
his legs, and have his talk out and he loved es
pccially to talk with those who were able to send
! him back every ball that he threw. Sluggish by
! nature, md ayerse to the drudgery OF compo-
| s;tion, he found conversation to be necessity
Of his vigorous and teoning intellect. His pow
| erfuI logic; his prompt and keen retorts; his
pithy and sage remark; hia apt quotation his
| rnerciless wit; bis prince1y command Of Ian
! guage; his intense poeitirism, dogmatisn, and
Bo,o-,uo,o manner; his mingled cynician, mel
ancholy, pathos, and teuderness,- made him ono
of the mightest ta1kers that ever lived. It has
been truly said that his vivid. pithy talk spoiled
men for everything that Was not at once both
weighty aud smart. ''It was at once gay and
potent; it's playfu1ness resembling the ricochot-
ting Of Bixtyeight Founders. which
bound like lndia-rubber balls, get bat
ter down. fortreeses." Contemporary
with johnson, though not Of the Club,
was Horn Tooke, who, nimble~witted and full Of
learning, overdowed with an intermiuab1e babble.
Yet, he Was no nero bebb1or, but had 'tcut-and-
comc-again" in him." tongue with garnish OF
brains." '~''
Contemporary with Johnson, though younger,
Was "Auld scotia's" greatest bard, who added
co1loquial genius to his other gifts Tint tho
nan who dashed OH Tam OShanter in single
day, and OF whose terse, caustic, and humorous
lines and sentences 80 many hundreds have
passed like iron into the blood Of our daily
speech, WIS charming talker; We should infer,
as o matter Of course- The Duchess
Of Gordon said, somewhat coarsely. in nllusion
to tho fiery sleet Of tho poets discourse, that he
could talk her OF her legs, In the next ago, TIC
have Sir Walter Scntt, whose conversation vas
not brilliant but frank, hearty, picturesque, and
dramatic. Es pronounced George ELLIS the first
converser he ever knew, and expressed the opin-
ion that the higher order Of genius is not fayora
bic to conversational excellence. Tint Byron
Was splendid tslker mono can doubt. "His
more serious conversation" said Shelley, "is q
sort OF conversation it WEB now Childo Har~
old, now Manfred, now Don Juan, and anon the
quintesaonce of nll togothcr.
It is said that in the days Of Jekyll, Mackin~
tosh, and Sydney Smith, society had no member
moro popular than William Wiloerforco Mad
nmo de Stacl pronounced him the most brilliant
conrerssr sho had met with in England. Wit, it
has been said, may either pervade mans con-
veraation, or be condensed in particular passages
of it,-as the electric current may either be dif-
fused through tho atmosphere, or aash ACROSS it.
Wi1berforce's wit was OF the former kind; he
had no terse and pregnant jests, got whatever
he said was amusing or interesting. Some
times Sir Francis Bacon would supply the |
toxt, and sometimes Sir John Sinclair; but |
whether he fused the pure gold Of
tho sage, or brayed, as in mortar,
the crotchets Of the simpleton, the comment !
hd5 AAo
could retain tho glowing, picturesque, OF comic !
language in whichit Was delivered. Mack |
intosb, his contemporary, must have been,
re think, q wearsome talker, In Epito !
of-or rather, on account ot-his pro-
aigious learning, although Robert Hall is
reported to have said: 'Ihaye been with Mack
intosh thls morning; but, OH! sir, it was like
the Euphratea pouring itself into Il teacup." Sir
James had little verbal wit,-briuiant ropartcos,
pnngent sayings, concentrated, and episrammat-
10 remarks, were not lis forte. His talk
was luminous, 1ottered, and 1ong~memo-
RED" The ahrawd, masculine Joanna Baillio
calls him o cleycr talAor; "bnt he tried me
very much, although my sister once repeated
10 mo seventeen things he sail worth remember
ng, one morning at breakfast" To Sydney
Smiths coloquial powers we can but barely nd
sert; Who could do justice to them in = touch
indigo notice? We can think Of no great con-.
farser, whom we would hare walked more miles
% hear. He talked, not for display, but as a
bird sings, because he could not he1p it,-be-
:ausa his mind VAS spring bubbllng over With
deas, and, as he said, he must speak OF burst.
Though the prince of wits, ho was no mere
joker, or barron provoker OF laughter. There
xas always plenty Of bread to his sack. His fa-
TOI1ta HE6 1a1t u lusAu3 4hAl-1luuuteH l
"a you can get, but never take more than half T.
minute without pausing, and giving others an
opportunity to strike in; and no vowed that
clo7er aquaintance Of his; who talked On the
opposite principle, Was the Identical Franehman
rho murnured, a. he Was anxiously watching
ival, ''s''il crache on tousso, il est perdul"
Was Macaulay fine conversationalist? It is
lard to gay; the name which Sydney Smith gave
"a "book in breaches, would imply that
le was monologuist, not a converser: We
zero greatly interested some years ago BY an
ceount giyen Us Of his talk BY an English
riend who had tho pleasure Of listening to
me Of his monologues at q breakfast party.
though. he took the 1ion'a shazc Of the
it was not from arrogance,
II 4 desiro to monopolize the atten-
ion OF the company, but simply because the
tream welled forth from full mind and pro-
igious memory: When be launched upon a.
ubject, there was no hope Of arresting his voy-
ge, nor any wish to do so. Commencing with
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