ItS
THE BATTALION.
functions of home; so that from the conversations of a young
man or woman vve learn nowadays but little of his family and
too much of the clique in which idle hours are spent. Let n e
hear you talk, young man, and 1 will tell you in what society
you spend those lesiure hours, more precious to you now than
gold, and for tne recovery of a tew of which you will some
day willingly exchange thousands in gold. “ Thy speech be-
trayeth thee.” There is no mothers loving gentleness in that
ribald talk in which if you are not personally sharing you
are taking an interested part; a sister never indicted the slang
with which you spin your otherwise insipid words; no where
in the family library at home did you find that flippant wis
dom which best suits white men with faces blacked; if that is
your conversational budget, that your manner of speech, there
are families in the land into which you could not enter with a
welcome. Yes carry it home young man and open it out,
and father and mother will drive you from the household.
Very objectionable from another point of view is the effort to
make conversation the means of displaying book-learning.
If you have ever read any of Mrs Augusta Evans’ writings
you will know what I mean. Learning is not to be depre
cated; let us have more of it, but to go out of the way for the
purpose of lugging it in; to talk like a book, as it
is sometimes expressed, to be learnedly prompous in speech
as Dr. Johnston was in the use of words, is like writing a
friendly letter in the turgid forensic eloquence of a Burk or
Webster. Study to make your conversation entertaining,
that is, let it be the outliow of the healthy mind from the
healthy body. Let it be your conception of things from your
point of view, treasures fresh and sweetsmelling from your
keeping and your careful method of handling. The best
teacher is not the man who tells you most, but the man who
draws the most from you, so the most entertaining conversa
tionalist is the one who puts us most at our ease and whilst en
tertaining gives us the desire and ability to entertain in turn.
Among the temptations which most beset the pathwaj' of the