. It is remarkable, if one keeps on trying,
how quickly he will conquer his awkwardness and self-consciousness, and
will gain ease of manner and facility of expression.

Everywhere we see people placed at a tremendous disadvantage because
they have never learned the art of putting their ideas into
interesting, telling language. We see brainy men at public gatherings,
when momentous questions are being discussed, sit silent, unable to
tell what they know, when they are infinitely better informed than
those who are making a great deal of display of oratory or smooth talk.

People with a lot of ability, who know a great deal, often appear like
a set of dummies in company, while some superficial, shallow-brained
person holds the attention of those present simply because he can tell
what he knows in an interesting way. They are constantly humiliated
and embarrassed when away from those who happen to know their real
worth, because they can not carry on an intelligent conversation upon
any topic. There are hundreds of these silent people at our national
capital--many of them wives of husbands who have suddenly and
unexpectedly come into political prominence.

Many people--and this is especially true of scholars--seem to think
that the great _desideratum_ in life is to get as much valuable
information into the head as possible. But it is just as important to
know how to give out knowledge in a palatable manner as to acquire it.
You may be a profound scholar, you may be well read in history and in
politics, you may be wonderfully well-posted in science, literature,
and art, and yet, if your knowledge is locked up within you, you will
always be placed at a great disadvantage.

Locked-up ability may give the individual some satisfaction, but it
must be exhibited, expressed in some attractive way, before the world
will appreciate it or give credit for it. It does not matter how
valuable the rough diamond may be, no explaining, no describing its
marvels of beauty within, and its great value, would avail; nobody
would appreciate it until it was ground and polished and the light let
into its depths to reveal its hidden brilliancy. Conversation is to
the man what the cutting of the diamond is to the stone. The grinding
does not add anything to the diamond. It merely reveals its wealth.

How little parents realize the harm they are doing their children by
allowing them to grow up ignorant of or indifferent to the marvelous