lives. For the second year, they talked over all their
interior life, confiding to each other every phase of thought and
affection and spiritual experience. But in the third year, they were
_utterly silent_. They had "talked out." And what could more strikingly
picture the misery of such a confinement than this entire exhaustion of
materials for mutual communication? Yet how could it be otherwise? With
absolutely nothing new to flow in, how could anything new be drawn out?

The story impresses upon us the lesson, that, if we would enrich and
enliven our conversation, we must always be supplying ourselves with new
resources, new studies, new experiences. Let me lay it down, then, as a
further rule to help one in the attainment of this valuable art: Make it
a point to inform yourself on a variety of topics. One of the greatest
hindrances, you will observe, to profitable or entertaining conversation
is the extremely limited range of ideas with which most persons are
familiar. Take any miscellaneous company, brought together in some
public conveyance, or detained at some public house. The chances are,
that very few out of the whole number will be conscious of any definite
opinions to express on the higher departments of thought. They could
doubtless tell you a great many _facts_ which have interested them; but
ask them for their _ideas_ upon science, theology, politics, or morals,
and they are dumb. They will talk with you of _persons_ as long as you
will listen, but of _principles_ they seem to have only the remotest
conception. Now I do not quite agree with the "Guesses at Truth," that
"personality is the bane of conversation"; for persons come nearer to
our every-day sympathies, and one need not, one does not, always bring
them forward for gossip and scandal. But does it not denote extreme
poverty of thought to introduce personalities into every conversation?
Let them rather be illustrations, and thus stepping-stones to something
higher and more edifying. Come now and then, at least, fully prepared
for something like intellectual gymnastics. Put your whole strength into
the conflict. Gather up all your forces of thought and knowledge, and do
your best as a man among men, contending not for victory or display, but
for the truth and the right. If you ever belonged to a literary club or
debating-society of any kind, you will remember what healthy glow and
freshness it gave to all your faculties to enter into this intellectua