The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1882-07-04
CONVERSATION AS A SCIENCE
AND AN ART.
Read by Mrs. H. E. Monroe, Before
the Social Science Club.
Afchisnn Patrint.

Atchison Patriot.
Polhymnia. the muse of eloquence,
is herself represented with a foretinger
on her lip. to signify that silence, il
aptly employed sets of language to
the best advantage. The highest au.
thority assures us that speech is silver.
but silence is golden. Sydney Smith
devoutly asked few brilliant flashes
of silence from his loquacious gentle
men yet some of us are old fashioned
enough to prefer the steady glow of
an interesting conversation to even
the brilliant flashes of silence.
Conversation does not come by ma
ture alone. Garrulity does. One,
the most desirable of all accomplish
ments, the other. something u be fol-
lowed by gentle but efficient remedies.
We all know
THE WOMAN WHO TALKS on AND ON OF
HUSBAND.
children, servants and yet SAYS moth.
ing worth remembering. She ripples
Oh like the brook until YOU wonder
how long it would take TO drive YOU
to insanity.
Yet one must have fair share of
small change ON hand for the inciden-
tai meetings of life. Margaret Fuller
could not talk until conversation had
drifted out into the deep cnannels
which made her appear awkard and
pendantic. Madame De Stael could
flash brilliant reparIee as she swept
by you on the street, As well as pour
a flood of learning into the usual sa-
loon conversation.
Observation teaches us that woman
must either retain the dimples of her
youth, or have the wisdom of age to
keep her attractiveness after thirty.
II: women were better cOnversers
they would possess the tOuch-stone by
which they could most quickly discov-
er their friends. Friends are no,
made. They already exist, and by
music. conversation or art We rec
Ognize our own, and make haste to
claim them. LADY Ashburton has
said: Good conversation consists in,
giving good opportunities. 1t has
often been remarked that with the ex
ceptiOn of that unsurpassalbe club of
Shakespeare, rare Ben Jonson, Mar
lowe and company, that while the
great conversers have been about
equally divided between brave men
and fair women they have centered
around some bright woman who was
not necessarially herselfa bright talk
er, but had the rare tact of giving op-
portunities and asking judlcious ques-
tons which permitted, and encour &c
each to display his choicest Thoughts.
This has been true from the days
when Pericles and
THE LEARNING OF GREECE GATHERED
AROUND AsPAsIA
down to the brilliant French s,lon
the last century, the Holland house
and home of Lady Blessington of the
present century, and we doubt not a
refined and educated woman will be
the center of the brilliant circles of
the future.
A witty woman has said: Men
will think you good conversational
ist if you listen with such intentness
that you run the corner of the table
through YOU" Cynics are pow say
ing that Madame Recamier's beauty
was only the attractiveness of a great
listener. A conversation, to be prof
liable, must not have too few engaged
in it, or it will lack variety, not too
many, or it becomes either a mono
lOgue or confusion. But be sure YOU
have friends who answer to the differ
ent phases of your mind. Converse
ton is the forge of the intellect. Diff:
erent people develop different thoughts
To one We never get past the weather
or the latest style; to another We
speak of the crops or religion; to an
other of poetry. history and political
economy; to another of pure politics.
In other words We touch people at the
points where We most agree, or where
our difference amounts to antagO
nism-either is development. "Per.
feet speech is the perfect express
sion of the senses" Gods temple
was divided into an atrium,
the sanctum and the sanctorum
or the holy or hOlier. So
with earth's friendships. There
is an outer circle of humanity with
whom We enter into no close relation.
ships. They tell us the news, they
NAV even show love or hate. While
our lives touch them they have no
penetrating influence. They stand in
the atrium. There are others at that