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LEARNING TO CONVERSE.
CHAPTER II.

I AM very glad, uncle, that you are here so soon; for now I can begin to learn to converse."

"But, before you begin, I must show you the folly and bad effects of conversing ill ; and the wisdom and good effects of conversing well."

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Yes, that is exactly the plan you laid down; and you said there were two very important things in conversation--the manner, and the matter."

"I did; and we will now proceed to make it appear that this is the case. To me, it is a very unpleasant thing to converse with a loud talker. I know one who is shunned by almost every body, on account of this bad habit; for, whatever may be the subject, and whoever it may concern, he hallooes out as if he were speaking to one at a distance. Some time since, I met him by the garden hedge of my neighbour Lovell, when immediately he bawled out, I tell you what, Mr. Archer, your neighbourthough I should not like him to know that I said so-is no better than a simpleton, for not setting his gardener to clip his hedges; they ought to have been done weeks ago.' Why, Mr. Lovell might have been just on the other side of the hedge, and heard every word."

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"It was exactly so; and, if he had not been a forbearing man, he would have taken offence at once; but, as it was, he looked over the hedge, and good-naturedly advised him to speak in a lower key, and then people would not be compelled to hear more than he wished them to know."

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That was right. He himself was the simpleton, and not Mr. Lovell. I shall

remember not to bawl out when I talk with any one."

"I have a friend who runs into the opposite extreme, for he speaks as if he were ashamed of what he says. Unless I am tolerably near him, I am almost always obliged to ask him to repeat his words, he speaks so low."

Why, that is nearly as bad as bawling out."

"In some respects it is; but I question whether either of these bad habits is worse than that of speaking too fast, or talking too slow. There is a lawyer in a neighbouring town, who talks so fast, and so continually, that it is quite as much as any one can do to listen to him; as for getting in a word by way of reply, that is altogether out of the question. Rattle! rattle! rattle! on he goes, as if he had taken out a patent for talking, and no one else had a right to be heard."

"That is a very unfair way of talking."

“You are right; for he ought to listen to others, who expects others to listen to him. A neighbour of the lawyer's, who is getting in years, is a different kind of talker; for so slowly does he drawl out his words, that you always know what he means long before he comes to the end of his remarks. He kept me full half an hour, the other day, prosing over nothing at all, when I sadly

wanted to get away from him. Had it not been for his age, I should have left him to prose by himself."

"That slow way of talking is very disagreeable."

"It might do, if we had no active duties to perform; though, even then, it would be a sad waste of time. As it is, such a bad habit ought to be avoided. There is a great deal of difference between being slow to speak, and being a slow speaker."

"I must remember to talk neither too loud nor too low, too fast nor too slow."

"I hope you will; for a whisperer and a bawler, a chatterer and a drawler, are all disagreeable characters. There are many other modes of talking that are very unpleasant; but, having said so much on the manner, let us now go to the matter of conversation, and here we shall soon find that there are still greater errors committed than those already mentioned."

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Ay, now for the matter."

"Let us suppose that ten or a dozen young men are in company together, talking of Sunday schools. What should you think, if one of them made the remark-that, in his opinion, the tuition communicated in such seminaries was of a questionable character; and that, for his part, he should consider it derogatory in him to become a teacher ?"

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I should think that he was trying to show off his fine long words, and that his opinion was good for nothing."

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You would indeed have too much reason to think so. And what, if another should say that Sunday schools were all a hoax, and only intended to rob young people of their Sunday holidays ?""

"He who could say so must be very silly." "I agree with you and if another took the other side of the question, declaring that Sunday schools were such good things, that they were absolutely without fault, and that they had done as much good as the Bible; what should you think of him ?"

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That he was sadly overstating the truth." "I am glad that you see these things so plainly. It is hardly possible that such remarks could do anything else than evil : and if, in addition to these, one observed, with a wink, that he should' tip Sunday schools and Sunday scholars the go-by,' for that they were both humbugs;' you would, at once, put him down for a low, vulgar fellow." "That I should; there could be no doubt about the matter."

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And, I dare say, if any one of them declared that superintendents and teachers had no other object in view, than that of taking the lead, and lording it over those below them, you would consider the remark both ill-natured and unjust."