Here bring your will into action, for your trouble is a wandering attention. You

must _force_ your mind to persist along the chosen line of conversation and

resolutely refuse to be diverted by _any_ subject or happening that may

unexpectedly pop up to distract you. To fail here is to lose effectiveness

utterly.

 

Concentration is the keynote of conversational charm and efficiency. The

haphazard habit of expression that uses bird-shot when a bullet is needed

insures missing the game, for diplomacy of all sorts rests upon the precise

application of precise words, particularly--if one may paraphrase Tallyrand--in

those crises when language is no longer used to conceal thought.

 

We may frequently gain new light on old subjects by looking at word-derivations.

Conversation signifies in the original a turn-about exchange of ideas, yet most

people seem to regard it as a monologue. Bronson Alcott used to say that many

could argue, but few converse. The first thing to remember in conversation,

then, is that listening--respectful, sympathetic, alert listening--is not only

due to our fellow converser but due to ourselves. Many a reply loses its point

because the speaker is so much interested in what he is about to say that it is

really no reply at all but merely an irritating and humiliating irrelevancy.

 

Self-expression is exhilarating. This explains the eternal impulse to decorate

totem poles and paint pictures, write poetry and expound philosophy. One of the

chief delights of conversation is the opportunity it affords for