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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-