Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 1, 1894 - Miscellanies, Volume I

X
TALK AND TALKERS
Sir, we had a good talk. — Johnson.
As we must account for every idle word, so we must for every idle
silence. — Fkanklin.
There can be no fairer ambition than to excel in
talk ; to be affable, gay, ready, clear and welcome ;
to have a fact, a thought, or an illustration, pat to
every subject; and not only to cheer the flight of
time among our intimates, but bear our part in that
great international congress, always sitting, where
public wrongs are first declared, public errors first
corrected, and the course of public opinion shaped,
day by day, a little nearer to the right. No measure
comes before Parliament but it has been long ago
prepared by the grand jury of the talkers ; no book
is written that has not been largely composed by
their assistance. Literature in many of its branches
is no other than the shadow of good talk ; but the
imitation falls far short of the original in life, freedom,
and effect. There are always two to a talk, giving
and taking, comparing experience and according
179