Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1885-06-13

world, and however diversified the
opinions of many eminent writer's
may have been respecting the man
ner of conducting education, all of
them concur unanimously in its SAL
utary effects.
Now it is evident that without
this necessary cultivation the mind
is like q barren desert, overgrown
with the weeds of ignorance and COW
cred over with the thorny briers of
error. The exercise of our reason
ing powers is duty that devolves
upon every station Of life. Not an
hour of existence but calls for our
Judgment upon ten thousand occa-
sions, whether we regard the init
mate and relative duties which we
owe to our family and connections
or the more distant, though scarcely
less indispensable, obligations to a
neighborhood and society at large.
What is it but education which i'm
parts this powor of discrimination
What but the cultivation of the
mind can enable us to discharge our
moral and social duties with advan-
tage to ourselves, benefit to those
around us, and honor to our coun.
try? 'Tis this which teaches us to
cultivate virtue, by harmonizing the
nobler passions of our nature and
restraining the bad ones. IT'S this
which never fails to afford perpetual
delight and entertainment for those
leisure hours which must otherwise
be passed in slothful inaction, or
perhaps, (what is infinitely worse)
in criminal pursuits. And it is from
this alone that we can acquire just
notions of right and wrong-of ele-
gance and taste. The mind thus
cultivated in all those obligations
which man owes to society and to
himself; thus accustomed to discern
the beauties Of virtue, and reflect on
the miserable depravity Of vice, en-
ters upon the vast stage of human
with most peculiar advantages.
Such are some Of the arguments
which may serve to point out the
necessity and advantages of selfim-
provement; and would many who
now complain that they have no
time to pursue it, only apply them.
selves with but half the zeal they do
frivolous amusement, how soon
would they be obliged to confess
their mistakel
The chief means of attaining self
improvements are conversation read
ing and study-without the last
nothing indeed can prove of any es-
sential service. Conversation, If
properly conducted, is one of the
greatest enjoyments Of life; but how
few there are who are good CONVEX
sationalists.
Conversation must not be con-
founded with talking. A parrot can
talk but not converse. In it's bet
ter part, conversation is gift, not
an art. Yet, as one Of our poets re-
marked, much depends on culture
and the sowing of the soil; that is,
the man or woman who has received
a good education, and has had early
opportunities of listening to the con-
versation of well educated men and
women, has the best chance of be-
coming a good conversationalist.
But it is not our great men who
are the best onversationalists. The
late Lord Beaconsfield and Carlyle,
for example, were not conversations
alists at all in the strictest sense of
the term.
The former, in company, spoke
too little, and the latter too much.
The one, therefore, soon became
insupportable, and the other unen-
durable.
The precepts in respect of CONVEX
sation, laid down by the amiable
Cowper, should be studied by every
one who wishes to excel as con-
versationalist.