interjections, happily thrown in by the hearer, are a great comfort and
stimulus to the speaker; and one who has always been accustomed to this
evidence of sympathy, or comprehension, in their friends, feels, when
listened to without it, as if she were talking to a dead wall.

For the encouragement of those who feel themselves deficient in
conversational powers, we will subjoin a notice of the lately-deceased
wife of a clergyman in this state:

"I saw and felt, when with her, as few others have ever made me feel,
the power and uses of conversation. With her it was always promotive of
intellectual and moral life. And here let me inform you, for the
encouragement of those who may be thinking they would gladly do as she
did in society, if they were able, that when I first knew Mrs. B., her
powers of conversation were very small. She was embarrassed whenever she
attempted to convey her thoughts to others. She labored for expression
so much, that it was sometimes painful to hear her. Still, her social,
affectionate nature longed for communion with other minds and hearts, on
all subjects of deepest import. Her persevering efforts at length
prevailed, and her ardent love of truth gave her utterance: yes, an
utterance that often delighted, and sometimes surprised, those who heard
her; a readiness and fluency that are seldom equalled. Learn, then, from
her, my friends, to _exercise_ your faculties, whatever they may be. In
this way only can you improve, or even retain them. If you have but one
talent of any sort, it may not, with impunity to itself--it may not,
without sin to you--be wrapped in a napkin. And sigh not for higher
powers or opportunities, until you have fully and faithfully exercised
and improved such as you have. Nor can you know what you possess until
you have called them into action."