Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1881 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

72 ''Virginibiis Piierisqiicr
and fallow ; for the pleasure of comradeship, and
the intellectual part of love, rest upon these
very " elements of humour and pathos." Here
is a man opulent in both, and for lack of a
medium he can put none of it out to interest in
the market of affection ! But what is thus made
plain to our apprehensions in the case of a
foreign language is partially true even with the
tongue we learned in childhood. Indeed, we all
speak different dialects ; one shall be copious
and exact, another loose and meagre ; but the
speech of the ideal talker shall correspond and
fit upon the truth of fact — not clumsily, ob-
scuring lineaments, like a mantle, but cleanly
adhering, like an athlete's skin. And what is
the result .-' That the one can open himself
more clearly to his friends, and can enjoy more
of what makes life truly valuable — intimacy
with those he loves.
An orator makes a false step ; he employs
some trivial, some absurd, some vulgar phrase ;