The great business in company is conversation. It should be
studied as art. Style in conversation is as important, and as
capable of cultivation as style in writing. The manner of
saying things is what gives them their value.

The most important requisite for succeeding here, is constant
and unfaltering attention. That which Churchill has noted as
the greatest virtue on the stage, is also the most necessary
in company,--to be "always attentive to the business of the
scene." Your understanding should, like your person, be armed
at all points. Never go into society with your mind _en
deshabille._ It is fatal to success to be all absent or
_distrait._ The secret of conversation has been said to
consist in building upon the remark of your companion. Men of
the strongest minds, who have solitary habits and bookish
dispositions, rarely excel in sprightly colloquy, because
they seize upon the _thing_ itself,--the subject abstractly,-
-instead of attending to the _language_ of other speakers,
and do not cultivate _verbal_ pleasantries and refinements.
He who does otherwise gains a reputation for quickness, and
pleases by showing that he has regarded the observation of
others.

It is an error to suppose that conversation consists in
talking. A more important thing is to listen discreetly.
Mirabeau said, that to succeed in the world, it is necessary
to submit to be taught many things which you understand, by
persons who know nothing about them. Flattery is the
smoothest path to success; and the most refined and
gratifying compliment you can pay, is to listen. "The wit of