Year: 1868

anu ColeTluge were WOndertul takers, DuC as
Lamb said of the latter, they preached, not
cOnversed. Neither of them had any more
definite idea of what conversation meant than
Madame de Stael, who being introduced in Jest
to deaf and dumb gentleman and ignorant of
his inhrmlty, declared him, after two hours
tete a-tete, the most delightful talker she had
ever listened to. Men who pride themselves
on their conversational abilities are apt to rely
too much on whatever pleasure they excite to
ignore the sage prOverb that speech is silver,
but silence is golden to become enamOred of
their voice like NarcisSus of his face, and so to
forget that conversation is an affair of at least
two. Such as these could never bend their
trOmbOnes into the bugles of small talk, where
also, more than In any other species of CONVEX
satiOn, monopoly would be disastrous. For,
leaving out OF question that wOmanly dislike
to reticence which Eve has transmitted to her
daughters, it is absolutely impossible. to men
at least (habitua practice makes it easier fo:
women to talk small talk for any length of
time without resting. Just as doing nothing
is the hardest physical work, so saying nothing
aloud is the most distressing mental labor, not
because one S mind is at all exercised but Just
because it is not; just because there is a GER
tain delusive phantaSm of labor without any
corresponding result. Small talk, therefore,
requires at least two performers: a greater
number it Injuries its completeness by depriying
of that flavor of tenderness which man must
be SOltS cunl cola ever to risk. So constituted,
and between actors of the proper ability, moth
ing can be more delightful, for it has all the
essential enjoyment of rational conversation
without its tiresOme continuity Of thought and
| its exhaustive tax on the brains.


We have said that small talk is the sort of
conversation which not only pleases but suits
society best. For society is not intended solely
for the benefit Of intellect or wisdom on the
contrary, it must be conceded that the vast
majority of the people one meets in society are
dreadfully unintellectual Social converse,
therefore, must be regulated much on the same
principle as handicap race that is to say, it
must be accommodated to the level of the low
est mind. 1t is an impertinence to be wise in
a aIl-rOOm there, If anywhere, is the locus
dcSipienM There are better places for discus.
sing comic sections or the Cartesian doubt;
there Is no place where lady might be expect
ed to feel less interest in the blnOmial theOrem,
or the doctrine Of future punishment and re-
taxation they fold up their brains as it were,
on entering, and at most show only the covers


Small talk is to other talk as dessert is to din
ner, or, more accurately speaking (fOr one gets
speedily surfeited of dessert) it is as the bread
and potatoes, of which we never grow tired


to the roast beef and plum-pUdding which are
only made palatable by constant change


Moreover, these common places of cOnversa-
ton, these inanities of pleasant pratte, are
the natural ground on which strangers meet to
exchange cvilities; the skirmshers that one


puts forth to feel the enemy's conversational


force. Without the invaluable aid of these
conventional fOrmule, two persons meeting for


the first time would be rather at loss for
means of opening mutual intercourse. Intrin-
sically considered, there are many more sub
jects more entertaining, many that are vastly
more novel, than the weather; there is none


that one can SO safely trust to launch the un-
wieldly ship of talk You may be sure that


your neighbOr will have something to say about
the elemental influences, while the odds are


ten to one that he or she will be dumb to the


merits Of the Calm method Of musical nota.
ton.


Sensible people-we use the word sensible in
cOntradistinctiOn to the term brilliant-sensible


people are apt to sneer at small talk and to re-
vile it vOtaries; but that is merely because
sensible people so rarely acquire the art. Om-
ne ignOtem pro n,dgnifcO is not a universal
rule; we quite as often despise what we dc
not understand. And in spite of sneers and
reviliug small talk will continue to flourish
from the very necessity of the case, as long as
! society exists Even apart from this, its adopts
have rather the best of the argument They
are seldom dull, at least to one another: while
there is no more tresOme bore than a sensible
man who insists on being sensible out of season