Madame De Stael, as
she talked, twisted a bit of paper, or rolled a leaf between her
fingers. (Some have attributed this to her vanity, as she had very
beautiful hands.) I believe friends came to note her necessity, and
supplied her with leaves. Well, do what you will that is harmless, if it
but serve to pin your attention right down to the matter before you.
The great conversers of literature are wrongly called so. Set topics
do not often lead to genuine conversation, and those who occupy the
time by delivering their ideas on given subjects are really lecturers.
Johnson as well as Coleridge talked right on while all the rest sat
and listened.
Conversation that is real implies give and take. We do not talk to
illuminate the minds of others only, but to get their ideas also. And,
don't you see, we never quite know what our own thoughts are till we
come to try to make them clear to others? "Intercourse is, after all,
man's best teacher. 'Know thyself is an excellent maxim; but even self-
knowledge cannot be perfected in closets and cloisters." [Footnote:
Mathews.] Three or four expressing ideas on the same subject give one
a larger range of thoughts, make one more liberal and less obstinate.
If you care for a girl's opinion because it is just like yours, maybe
it is her sympathy you are after and not her opinion. An interchange
of ideas sometimes leads to discussion, and that is admirable for the
growth of mind, provided it does not degenerate into dispute.
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