up from between us.
Instead of hammering at commonplaces, he became pointed, and spirited,
and eloquent.'

'Is he an educated man?' I asked.

'For a Spaniard,' answered Z., 'yes. He has the quickness, the finesse,
and the elegance of mind and of manner which belong to the South. The
want of book-learning contributes to his originality.'

'The most wonderful speaker in a foreign language,' said Sumner, 'was
Kossuth. He must have been between forty and fifty before he heard an
English word. Yet he spoke it fluently, eloquently, and even
idiomatically. He would have made his fortune among us as a stump-orator.'

_Tuesday, April_ 28.--Tocqueville drank tea with us.

We talked rather of people than of things.

'Circourt,' said Tocqueville, 'is my dictionary. When I wish to know what
has been done or what has been said on any occasion, I go to Circourt. He
draws out one of the drawers in his capacious head, and finds there all
that I want arranged and ticketed.

'One of the merits of his talk, as it is of his character, is its
conscientiousness. He has the truthfulness of a thorough gentleman, and
his affections are as strong as his hatreds. I do not believe he would
sacrifice a friend even to a good story, and where is there another man
of whom that can be said?'

'What think you of Mrs. T-----?' I inquired.

'I like her too,' he replied, 'but less than I do Circourt. She has
considerable talent, but she thinks and reads only to converse. She has
no originality, no convictions. She says what she thinks that she can say
well; like a person writing a dialogue or an exercise. Whether the
opinion which she expresses be right or wrong, or the story that she
tells be true or false, is no concern of hers, provided it be _bien
dit_.'

'The fault of her conversation,' I said, 'seems to me to be, that while
she is repeating one sentence she is thinking of the next, and that while
you are speaking to her, she is considering what is to be her next topic.
I have noticed this fault in other very fluent conversers. They are so
intent on the future that they neglect the present.'

'It is rather a French than an English fault,' said Tocqueville. 'The
English have more curiosity and less vanity, than we have; more desire to
hear and less anxiety to shine. They are often, therefore, better
_causeurs_ than we are. _Le grand talent pour le silence_, or, in other
words, the power of listening which has been imputed to them, is a