SMALL TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 255, 27 October 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

SMALL TALK.

OCCUPATION OF EVERYBODY.

ITS CSABX AND DIFFICULTY.

THE MUSIC OF ONE'S OWN VOICE.

(By CONVERSATIONALIST.)

We all talk, in season or out of season, and sometimes both; in fact, to the average individual the sound of his own voice is sweetest music. So this little dissertation on such a universal matter i probably quite in order. It is no easy

matter to talk well, although to a listener the art may appear to he of the simplest. A man may have read many books, possess a tenacious memory and sound judgment, and yet may he unsuccessful in his attempts to keep an acquaintance from being bored. Be may have quite a large share of critical acumen, express his thoughts in elegant language, and discourse with wit—be a living lexicon and a walking encyclopaedia—and yet fail to entertain his friends. We know that George Eliot was supposed' never to engage in conversation unless she could say something absolutely' necessary, weighty, and worth while, and that she would not listen to others unless they shared the same views; but although this may have befitted genius it does not apply generally to ordinary mortals'.

.We are not all built for the strain of perpetual mental' gymnastics. All of us do not read books, and all who read do hot care to, or cannot, discuss them; but everybody loves to talk. Everyone finds pleasure in the sound of his own voice. This may be easily proved by watching for ten minutes any group of mei (or women, of course),-and noting their eagerness to cut their fellows' discourse short and insert their own. Chatting Happily through the Days. To speak contemptuously of small talk does not show wisdom. Ileal wisdom makes a man a most agreeable companion. If a man of great knowledge is a congenial man, it is not his learning, but his method of dispensing the same, that decides in his favour. If he be far above small talk, saying only those things which are absolutely necessary and worth while, I think he may—for nine-tenths of the world—keep his learning to himself. Small talk will go on merrily, while a few profound critics In the ancient languages of Greece and Borne spend years in deciding the reading of an old song, or bury themselves in dust they compile volumes upon a cadence. The moving mass will still go on chatting happily through the delights of small talk.

It is a common mistake to imagine that it is the easiest matter in the world to talk about nothing, or everyday occurrences. It requires an alert and observant mind and no small share of the invaluable, unpurchasable quality—goodhumour—to say something on everything to everybody. It has been noticed, as a remarkable and pleasant trait in a great many men of high mental ability and strong force of character, that they have excelled in making themselves loved of children, inasmuch as they were able and willing to descend from their heights and talk interestingly about small things. Skimming the Pleasant Surfaces.

Small talk is not inane talk; it is that easy skimming of the pleasant surfaces of life which may be compared to the delight of drifting in a punt after the zealous technique of an Oxford "eight." If a man must never open his lips but for the enunciation of an aphorism, if he must be everlastingly discussing knotty points of science, politics or metaphysics, he will find but few of Ms audience willing to hear.him out. One would not wish to vindicate nonsense or extol trifling, but merely to put in a claim for the due honours of that species of conversation which must inevitably more or less be at some time the occupation of us all. Within the recollection of most of us are memories of gatherings, public private, where kindly, delightful people dare scarcely open their lips for want of having read certain books or seen certain pictures or statues, or followed some purely intellectual fcbbby; and nmwll talk is a, good thing because it obviates these evils—the mind is at ease, there is no strain of necessity for or expectation of anything profound, and the latent characteristics of each individual, instead of being stifled, are unconsciously polished to a charming brilliance. Then it is that the ordinary garden variety of human being snatches "a grace beyond the reach of art," because there is no reason for us to be other than ourselves, and we meet upon the ground of life's everyday happenings which interest aIL Surely, to hold a listener by "wntii i> to talk