stions, and then only those of a general character.
Curiosity should be curbed. Quite properly people resent
inquisitiveness. The best way to cultivate the rare grace of judgment is
to be mindful of your own faults and to correct them with all speed and
thoroughness.

The word "talk" is often used in a derogatory sense, and we hear such
expressions as "all talk," "empty talk," and "idle talk." But as
everyone talks, we should all do our utmost to set a high example to
others of the correct use of speech.

It is always better to talk too little than too much. Never talk for
mere talking's sake. Avoid being artificial or pedantic. Don't
antagonize, dogmatize, moralize, attitudinize, nor criticise. Talk in
poise,--quietly, deliberately, sincerely, and you will never lack an
attentive audience.

PHRASES FOR TALKERS

It is said of Macaulay that he never allowed a sentence to pass muster
until it was as good as he could make it. He would write and rewrite,
and even construct a paragraph or a whole chapter, in order to secure a
more lucid and satisfactory arrangement. He wrote just so much each day,
usually an average of six pages, and this manuscript was so erased and
corrected that it was finally compressed into two pages of print.

The masters of English prose have been great workers. Stevenson and
others like him gave hours and days to the study of words, phrases, and
sentences. Through unwearied application to the art of rhetorical
composition they ultimately won fame as writers.

The ambitious student of speech culture, whether for use in conversation
or in public, will do well to emulate the example of such great
writers. One of the best ways to build a large vocabulary is to note
useful and striking phrases in one's general reading. It is advisable to
jot down such phrases in a note-book, and to read them aloud from time
to time. Such phrases may be classified according to their particular
application,--to business, politics, music, education, literature, or
the drama.

It is not recommended that such phrases should be consciously dragged
into conversation, but the practice of carefully observing felicitous
phrases, and of noting them in writing, cultivates the taste for better
words and a sense of discrimination in their use. Many phrases noted and
studied in this way will unconsciously find their way into one's
expression.

The list of phrases which follows is offered as merely suggestive. In
readi