THE DECAY OF CONVERSATION

New Zealander, Volume XXI, Issue 2222, 13 September 1864, Page 6

THE DECAY OF CONVERSATION

The ancient art of talking is falling fast into decay. It is an ascertainable fact that, in proportion to the increased population, the aggregate bulk of conversation is lessening. People, now-a-days, have something else to do but to talk, Not only do they live in such a burry that there is only leisure for just comparing ideas as to the weather, but they have each and all a gross quantity of reading to do, which pots talking out of the question. If persons remain at home, they read ; if they journey by raj I, they read ; if they goto the seaside they road. We have met misguided individuals out in the open fields with hooks in hand. Young folks have been seeu stretched underneath trees, and noon the banks of rivers, poring over the ».pone i page ; on the tops of mountains, in the desert, 'ar within forests —everywhere men pull print d shoots from their pockets ; and, as the •erliost, latest, highest, occupation of this life, they read. The fact is incontestably true, that randcrn men and women are reading themselves into a comparatively silent race. Reading is the greatest business of the present time ; it has become a sort of lay piety, according to which the perusal of volumes reckons as good works; it is in a word, the supe gfc lon of the nineteenth century.— Chamber Jomn'il