l
arena. You could read and study with a great deal more interest after
that. You knew better what you really believed and thought concerning
the great interests of humanity. Your ideas of art, of ethics, of
history, of government, of philosophy, were set in clearer order, and
made you conscious of greater power. Now I am not pretending that you
can make a debating-club out of every mixed company you may chance to
meet, but only that you should carry into all society a readiness to
discuss the higher topics, whenever they come up naturally to mind. Here
it is _tact_ again, and evermore tact, which is required to make the
rule efficient,--tact to prevent "lugging in" unseasonable topics,--tact
to avoid too long a discussion,--tact to keep out offensive
egotism,--tact, in general, to adapt one's self to one's surroundings.

I will not conclude this letter, however imperfectly it may meet your
wants, without devoting a few words to the grave question, Shall we talk
of a subject so sacred as _religion_ in mixed society? For myself, I
must confess to some change of opinion on this point. I have greater
respect than I once had for that reserve which keeps one habitually
silent on this highest of all themes. I protest against the assumption,
that a religious man will feel it his duty to converse often about
religion. His duty must be governed by the peculiar circumstances of
each case. He certainly must not do violence to his own feelings of
reverence; nor ought he to suppose that the mere introduction of
religious themes into conversation, anyhow and anywhere, is sure to do
good. On the contrary, I believe that an injudicious treatment of this
subject has done vastly more harm than good. And yet there is no power,
in my opinion, within the whole range of the human faculties, more
desirable than that of awakening religious life and thought by means of
familiar speech. Whoever would wield such a power must know, as one of
the chief requisites, how to seize the _mollia tempora fandi_. The word
in season,--the very word to reach and move this individual heart,--find
_this_, and you have found the great secret of influence. And be sure
there is such a key to every man. Somewhere and sometime, if you watch
for it, you shall discover the tender place in the roughest and hardest
character. Men arm themselves against you by a thousand assumptions of
indifference, stoicism, and irreverence, put on for the occasion, that
you may not inv