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PUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLY.
VOLUME IV.
jfiMtnj,
Wilde vs. Willis.
The following poems were hand
ed to the Louisville Journal by a
gentleman who had been travelling
in Europe, and were given him by
a lady of Florence, for whom they
were written. That of Mr. Willis,
has been frequently published ; Mr.
Wilde’s has never, until very recent
ly, appeared in print.
BY N. P. WILLIS.
They may talk of love in a cottage,
And bowers of the trellised vino,
Os nature bewitchingly simple,
And milk-maids half divine.
They may talk of the pleasure of sleep
ing
’Neath the shade of a spreading tree,
Os a walk with a nymph in the morning,
Who trips with a footstep free.
But give me a sly flirtation,
By the light of a chandelier,
With music to play in the pauses,
And nobody over near.
Or give ItH! a scat on the sofa,
Wilh a glass of especial wine,
And mama too blind to discover
The small white hand in mine.
Your love in a cottage grows hungry,
Your vine is a nest for flies,
Simplicity cuts the graces,
And your milk-maids talk of pies.
YY>u sink to your shady slumber,
And wake with a bug in your ear,
And your nymph that walks in the morn
ing,
Is shod like a mountaineer.
True love is at home on a carpet,
And mightly likes his ease,
True love has an eye fora capon,
And would starve mid your shady
trees.
His wing is the fan of the lady,
His foot’s an invisible thing,
His arrow is tipped with a jewel,
And shot from a silver string.
Comment by the lion. JR. 11. Wilde.
You may talk of your sly flirtation
By the light of a chandelier,
With music to play in the panses,
And nobody over near.
Or boast of your seat on the sofa,
With a glass of especial wine,
And mama too blind to discover
The small white hand in thiue.
But the green sward give me, and the
river,
Tho soul-shrine of lovelit eyes,
A breeze and the aspen leaf’s quiver,
A sunset and Georgian skies.
Or give me the moon for an astral,
Tho stars for a chandelier,
And a maiden to warble a pastoral
With a musical voice on my ear.
CLIMBING THE HEICHTS.
ATHENS, GEORGIA, APRIL 13, 1872.
Your vision with wine being doubled,
You take twice the liberties due,
And early next morning are troubled
With “ parson or pistols for two.”
Unfit for this world or the other,
You’re forced to be married or killed,
The lady you choose, or her brother,
And a grave, or a paragraph’s tilled.
True love is at home among flowers,
And if he would dine at his ease,
A capon’s as good in his bowers,
As in rooms heated ninety degrees.
O’er sighs intermingled he hovers,
He foots it as light as ho flies,
His dreams are the glances of lovers,
And shot to the heart from the skies.
■■
first Ipad#’ Ipedare.
Lecture on “ Conversation.”
BY PROF. CHAS. MORRIS.
An Eastern proverb says, That
speech is silver, but silence is gold
en.” The sententious expression of
this half-truth makes us accept the
saying at more than its value; the
meaning of it being simply, to con
trast, in the strongest manner, the
garrulousness of folly, with the dig
nified reticence of wisdom. Again,
we have the witty saying of a witty
Frenchman, “ That speech was be
stowed upon us, in order to conceal
our thoughts ” Here the surprise of
the unexpected relation, induces a
certain assent, more especially when
we apply the maxim to himself, a
master of tortuous insincerity and
diplomacy. But we can accept nei
ther the proverb nor the witticism
as exponents of the tiLie uses of
speech.
I propose, then, by your permis
sion, to occupy a short portion of
your time this evening, in consider
ing the uses of speech in conversa
tion, considered as a Fine Art.
Conversation, in its widest sense,
may be said to embrace all the uses
of speech made in the ordinary inter
communion among men—from the
most trivial chit-chat up to the inter
change of instructive thought; from
the transaction of business, to the
communication of sentiment. In
its higher forms, it appeals as truly
to the intellect and the taste, and
affords, in a large degree, the same
kind of entertainment and culture,
as composition ; is equally capable
of cultivation and irnptovement, and
may therefore be properly classed
among the Fine Arts. Considered
in the light of a Fine Art, the defi
nition which l have given of con
versation, must be much narrowed.
We must necessarily exclude from it
all gossip and small talk, a larger
portion of what relates to mere bu
siness matters, and what concerns
matters merely local, personal, and
strictly private. All of these hear
about the same relation to conversa
tion considered as a Fine Art, that
ordinary house-painting does to high
decorative art, or the daub upon a
tavern sign to a picture by RafFaelle
or Angelo, In this light, we consi
der it as embracing that intercourse
among men, which is, at the same
time, instructive; interesting, and
entertaining, and regulated by deco
rum and politeness.
Conversation, in this sense, forms
the basis of the larger part of all in
struction—it is the foundation of the
higher uses of speech, both, as re
spects style and manner of expres
sion—it is the main-spring of all
that is most refined and cultivated
in social and domestic life—it fur
nishes, in fine, the links of that gol
den bond of sympathy that hinds
man to man in civilized society and
raises him above the brutes. Much
may he learned from hooks, and by
mere solitary application; but no
one, who has ever tried it, has failed
to perceive with how much more
readiness instruction is gained, as
well as imparted, when our thoughts
are put into words—when the sub
ject is placed in anew point of view
by another mind ; or light is struck
out by the collision of two. The
Ancient Greeks, so acute in observa
tion and so quick to seize all advant
ages, well knew the value of con
versation as a means of imparting
instruction ; witness the method of
their philosophers, who taught their
followers by conversing with them
as they strolled through their gar
dens and porticos, ascertaining by
means of alternate question, reply
and remark, not only that their doc
trines were thoroughly apprehended,
hut testing these doctrines by the
interchange of intelligent thought
and opinion with their pupils. Wit
ness, too, the fact that nearly all the
philosophical writings of antiquity,
which have survived to us, are
thrown into the form of dialogue.
Every teacher will testify to the
TERMS---$2.00 PER ANNUM.
NUMBER 8.
readiness with which an intelligent
boy, by a little conversational illus
tration, will seize, in a short time,
an idea so presented, which the same
boy would otherwise acquire with
painful labor in many hours. There
seems 'o be something in the sound
of words as uttered by the human
voice—something realized of the
original imitation of things and ideas
by words, to awaken a clearer appre
hension and to stir the whole power
of the faculties. Hence we find ad
vanced modern teaching: is returning:
to the ancient method, relying less
on the written text, and more on the
conversational exposition, and find
ing the latter to he only the more
effectual, if there be greater room for
interchange of thought by conversa
tion with the pupil ; and so, to as
certain the exact extent to which
the subject is comprehended.
It is the foundation of all higher
art in Oratory, since, in animated
conversation, when the imagination
is active, and the feelings aie enlist
ed, we adopt to some degree, if not
entirely, the style of thought and
expression, the tone and modulation
of voice, the action and gesture of
the orator. Hence in oratory, when
the subject and the strain of thought
are not above the tone of animated
conversation, any vehemence of ac
tion, any swell of tone in delivery,
any departure from the usual conver
sational adaptation of thought and
expression, strike us at ouce with
feelings of disgust. The forms and
manner which we adopt in conver
sation are merely idealized in the
higher art.
Need we picture to ourselves what
would be society without this high
er form of social interchange ?—nay,
might we not well ask whether it
could exist at all? There may be
a sympathetic communion even
among brutes by means of expres
sive action and looks, and the same
to some extent may avail with man;
but what at last would be the genial
face, the beaming eye, the expres
sive gesture, without the spoken
word to combine their silent harmo
ny with its own articulate music.
Conversation lightens toil ; it con
soles in affliction ; it soothes in ad
versity ; sympathises in joy; it
makes us in our higher communings,
a little lower than the Angels. Ma-