The Importance of Conversation
Dublin Core
Title
The Importance of Conversation
Subject
Class Divisions
Creator
[Unknown]
Source
http://addison.vt.edu/record=b1775388~S1
Publisher
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Date
May 1876
Contributor
Jennifer Schrauth, Britt Hoskins
Rights
Permission to publish images from The Gray Jacket must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.
Format
Text
Language
English
Type
Article
Identifier
LD5655.V8 L4, ser.1, v.1, no.7 (May 1876), p.3
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Not a few persons think it degrading to converse with any one whom they consider below them in family rank, thus losing the most important opportunities of acquiring domestic knowledge. Among this class of beings our exalted aristocracy holds a prominent place.
Robed in all the costly apparel that a lofty name and fine estates make it incumbent upon them to wear, lounging upon beds of down in their handsome mansions, spending their days in luxury, ball-room etiquette and the consequent conversation, of course, become familiar to them; but, with all their studied etiquette, their lives are spent to no good purpose, and when made to experience the sad fate of adversity, which not unfrequently happens, they feel keenly the need of not having cultivated that universal conversation which stores the mind with such useful information concerning the affairs and occurrences of everyday life.
I cannot recall the exact words of Sir Walter Scott on this subject, but the purport of his saying is the following: "I have always found that there was something to learn by conversing with the characters I have met, let them be inmates of the finest palace or occupants of the lowest hovel."
Now, since this famous Scotch patriot and novelist is an example of the good accruing from conversation,dandified swells ought to consider it no degradation to converse with people below them in rank, but, on the other hand, esteem it very important.
Robed in all the costly apparel that a lofty name and fine estates make it incumbent upon them to wear, lounging upon beds of down in their handsome mansions, spending their days in luxury, ball-room etiquette and the consequent conversation, of course, become familiar to them; but, with all their studied etiquette, their lives are spent to no good purpose, and when made to experience the sad fate of adversity, which not unfrequently happens, they feel keenly the need of not having cultivated that universal conversation which stores the mind with such useful information concerning the affairs and occurrences of everyday life.
I cannot recall the exact words of Sir Walter Scott on this subject, but the purport of his saying is the following: "I have always found that there was something to learn by conversing with the characters I have met, let them be inmates of the finest palace or occupants of the lowest hovel."
Now, since this famous Scotch patriot and novelist is an example of the good accruing from conversation,dandified swells ought to consider it no degradation to converse with people below them in rank, but, on the other hand, esteem it very important.