ate interest in my subject and of notes taken
during a period of many years. If the book affords readers one-half the
pleasure and stimulus it has brought to me, my labors will be happily
rewarded.

Beyond my chief critics, to whom I dedicate this volume, I express my
gratitude to Mrs. Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler, the pianiste, and to Dr.
Henrietta Becker von Klenze, formerly of the University of Chicago,
whose interest in all I have ever attempted to do has been an unfailing
support, and whose suggestions have added value to this work; to Dr.
Gustavus Howard Maynadier, of Harvard College, for friendly assistance
in many ways; and to Mr. George Benson Weston, of Harvard College, who
has been kind enough to read the manuscript, and by whose knowledge of
the literature of many languages I have greatly profited.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS,
August, 1912.

CONTENTS

Chapter I

_INTRODUCTORY_

WHAT CONVERSATION IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT

PAGE
What is the aim of conversation?--The talk of Coleridge and
Macaulay--Browning's delightful conversation--Why we go into
society--The elements of good conversation--What it is not--Genius
and scholarship not essential to good conversation 21

Chapter II

DISCUSSION _VERSUS_ CONTROVERSY

Dr. Johnson's and Robert Louis Stevenson's opinion of
discussion--Politeness and discussion--The hostess in
discussion--Flat contradiction in discussion--Polemical
squabbles--Brilliant discussion in France--The secret of
delightful conversation in France--Leading the talk--Topics for
discussion--Gladstone's conversation 35

Chapter III

GOSSIP

Gossip in literature--Gossip comes from being of one kindred under
God--Gossip and the misanthrope--Personal history of people we know
and people we don't know--Gossip of books of biography--Interest in
others gives fellowship and warmth to life--Essential difference
between slander and innocent gossip--The psychology of the
slanderer--The apocryphal slanderer--"Talking behind another's
back"--Personal chat the current coin of conversation 63

Chapter IV

WHAT SHOULD GUESTS TALK ABOUT AT DINNER?

Guests' talk during the quarter of an hour before dinner--What guests
may talk about--Talking to one's dinner-companion--Guests' duty to
host and hostess--The dominant note in table-talk--General and
_tete-a-te