h each other. The very first wits and men
of letters and statesmen and savans were enrolled in it, and each
brought to the entertainment some choice morceau which he had laid
aside from his own particular field to add to the feast. The daily
intimacy gave each one such perfect insight into all the others'
habits of thought, tastes, and preferences, that the conversation was
like the celebrated music of the Conservatoire in Paris, a concert of
perfectly chorded instruments taught by long habit of harmonious
intercourse to keep exact time and tune together.

"Real conversation presupposes intimate acquaintance. People must see
each other often enough to wear off the rough bark and outside rind of
commonplaces and conventionalities in which their real ideas are
enwrapped, and give forth without reserve their innermost and best
feelings. Now what is called a large party is the first and rudest
form of social intercourse. The most we can say of it is, that it is
better than nothing. Men and women are crowded together like cattle in
a pen. They look at each other, they jostle each other, exchange a few
common bleatings, and eat together; and so the performance terminates.
One may be crushed evening after evening against men or women, and
learn very little about them. You may decide that a lady is
good-tempered, when any amount of trampling on the skirt of her new
silk dress brings no cloud to her brow. But _is_ it good temper, or
only wanton carelessness, which cares nothing for waste? You can see
that a man is not a gentleman who squares his back to ladies at the
supper-table, and devours boned turkey and _pate de foie gras_, while
they vainly reach over and around him for something, and that another
is a gentleman so far as to prefer the care of his weaker neighbors to
the immediate indulgence of his own appetites; but further than this
you learn little. Sometimes, it is true, in some secluded corner, two
people of fine nervous system, undisturbed by the general confusion,
may have a sociable half-hour, and really part feeling that they like
each other better, and know more of each other than before. Yet these
general gatherings have, after all, their value. They are not so good
as something better would be, but they cannot be wholly dispensed
with. It is far better that Mrs. Bogus should give an annual party,
when she takes down all her bedsteads and throws open her whole house,
than that she should never see her friends a