The principles of the art of conversation / by J.P. Mahaffy.

Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of the art of conversation / by J.P. Mahaffy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    48/196 page 32
    Intellectual Quickness § 12. What has hitherto been said about knowledge in a man of conversa- tion has left out of all account the way of producing it, and merely considered the mental store from which conversation may be supplied. But almost as im- portant as these materials, is the faculty of producing them without effort. This quality may be called intellectual quick- ness, as distinguished from solidity ; and of all the conditions we have yet dis- cussed, this seems most due to nature, and unattainable by education. It is indeed sometimes a characteristic of nations. The Irishman or the Frenchman will show this quality with an average excel- lence far above that attained in England or Germany. It may of course be allied with, or even due to, some such moral quality as sympathy, of which we shall
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3