Self-restraint is nowadays one of the cardinal virtues of good
conversation.
The spirit of conversation is greatly changed. We are enjoined to keep
the voice low, think before we speak, repress unseasonable allusions,
shun whatever may cause a jar or jolt in the minds of others, be seldom
prominent in conversation, and avoid all clashing of opinion and
collision of feeling.
Macaulay was fond of talking, but made the mistake of always choosing a
subject to suit himself and monopolizing the conversation. He lectured
rather than talked. His marvelous memory was perhaps his greatest enemy,
for though it enabled him to pour forth great masses of facts, people
listened to him helplessly rather than admiringly.
Carlyle was a great talker, and talked much in protest of talking. No
man broke silence oftener than he to tell the world how great a curse is
talking. But he told it eloquently and therein was he justified. There
was in him too much vehement sternness, of hard Scotch granite, to make
him a pleasant talker in the popular sense. He was the evangelist of
golden silence, and though he did not apparently practice it himself,
his genius will never diminish.
Gladstone was unable to indulge in small talk. His mind was so
constantly occupied with great subjects that he spoke even to one person
as if addressing a meeting. It is said that in conversation with Queen
Victoria he would invariably choose weighty subjects, and though she
tried to make a digression, he would seize the first opportunity to
resume his original theme, always reinforced in volume and onrush by the
delay.
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