Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-25

NIHkT delicate and rare and gracious
w art is the art OF conversation! With
what a dexterity and skill the bubble of
speech must be r,aneuvered If mind is to
meet and mingle with mind.
THERE is no sadder disappointment than
L to realize that a conversation has been
complete failure By which we mean
that it has failed in blending or isolating
for contrast the ideas, opinions and sur.
misses Of two eager minds. So often a con.
versation is shipwrecked by the very eager.
ness Of one member to contribute. There
must be give and take, parry and thrust
patience to hear and Judgment to utter
How uneasy is the qualm as one looks
back on an hours talk and sees that the
opportunity was wasted: the precious in
slant of intercourse gone forever: the Sc
crets of the heart still incommuncate!
Perhaps we were too anxious to hurry the
moment, to enforce our own theory, to
adduce instance from our own experience
Perhaps we were not patient enough to
wait until our friend could express himself
with ease and happiness. Perhaps we
squandered the dialogue in tangent topics,
In a multitude Of irrelevances
L L real talk! There are fine merry fel.
lows, full Of mirth and shrewdly minded
observation, who Will not abide by one
topic, who must always be lashing out
upon some new byroad. snatching at every
bush they pass. They are too excitable,
too ungoverned for the Joys OF patient in
tercourse. Talk is SO solemn rite It
should be approached with prayer and
must be conducted with nicely and for
bearance. What steadiness ard sympathy
are needed II the thread OF thought Is to
be unwound without tangles or swapping!
What forbearance. while each of the pair,
after tentative gropings here and yonder
feels his way toward truth as he sees it,
So often two in talk, are like men standing
back to back each trying to describe to the
other what he sees and disputing because
their visions do not tally. 1t takes little
time for minds to turn face to face.
among three than between two for the
reason that then one Of the trio is always,
unconsciously acting as umpire. interpos-
ing fair play. recalling wandering wits to
the nub Of the argument seeing that the
aggressveness of one does no foul to the
reticence of another. Talk in twos may
alas! fall into speaker and listener: talk
in threes rarely does SO.
TT is little realized how slowly. how pain
1 fully. we approach the expression of
truth. We are so variable, so anxious to
be polite, and alternately swayed by cau-
tion or anger. Our mind oscillates like a
pendulum: it takes some time for 1t to
come to rest And then, the proper allow
ance and correction has to be made for
our Individual vibrations that prevent ac-
curacy. Even the compass needle doesn't
point the true north, but only the mag
netic north. Similarly our minds at best
can but indicate magnetic truth, and are
distorted by many things that act as iron
filings do on the compass. The necessity
Of holding ones Job: what an iron fling
that is on the compass card Of a mans
brain! ft
vIyE ARE all afraid Of truth: we keep a
w battalion of our pet prejudices and
precautions ready to throw into the argu-
msnt - shock troops. rather than let our
fesfzesp - xxpth p ytQsmea w fave
/. \. S. 4, 3 4, ;s. 4. &. !; u Il u u s 4 81