315 TALKATIVENESS. Tis a troublesome and difficultTask which Philofophy undertakes in going about to cure the Difeafe, or rather Itch of intemperate Prating: For, that Words, which are the fole Remedy against it, require Attention. But they who are given to prate, will hear no body; as being a Sort of People that love to be always talking themfelves. If we would define Loquacity, fays Theophraftus, it is an exceffive Intemperance of Words. The Prater will not fuffer any Perfon in Company to tell his own Story, but let it be what it will, tells you, you mistake the Matter: He only apprehends the Thing right; and if you please to hear him, he will make it very P 2 clear clear to you. The Interruptions of these impertinent Talkers, as they make them the Marks of Ridicule, fo are they moft unreasonable Methods of fupporting Converfation. They weary out a Man with the Volubility of their poor Rhetorick, and teize him into a Deteftation of Society in general, for fear of being worried. I would as willingly fuffer the the Torment and Gratings of a thoufand difcordant Sounds, as be run out of all Temper, and talked out of Patience, by these eternal Triflers. The principal Vice of loquacious Perfons, is, that their Ears are ftopped to every Thing but their own Impertinences: This I take to be a willing Deafness in Men, controuling and contradicting Nature, that has given us two Ears, though but one Tongue. As fedate and moderate People retain what is spoken to them; fo, on the contrary, whatever is faid to talkative Perfons, runs through them as through a Cullender; and then they whisk about from Place to Place, like empty Veffels, void of Senfe or Wit, but making a hideous Noife. We frequently talk with Im-. petuofity in Company, through Vanity or Humour, rarely with neceflary Caution; defirous to reply, before we have heard out the Question, we follow our own No tions; tions, and explain them, without the leaft Regard to other Mens Reafons. Were a Man to hear and write down thefe Converfations, he would fee, perhaps, a great many good Things fpoken, but with little Confideration, and lefs Coherence. It must be accounted a fad Thing, when Men have neither Wit enough to fpeak well, nor Judgment enough to hold their Tongues; for this Want is the Foundation of all Impertinence. Were Garrulity a curable Vice in Nature, one would think your great Talkers fhould be broke of that Faculty, by feeing the Uneafinefs it puts their Hearers under: For when a Fool, full of Noife and Talk, enters into a Room where Friends are met to difcourfe, to regale or be merry, the whole Company are hufhed of a fudden, and afraid of giving him any Occafion to fet his Tongue upon the Career. And if he once begin to open, they are glad to fheer off, and avoid the Perfecution: Like Seamen, that forefeeing an immediate Storm and rowling of the Waves, when they hear the North-Wind begin to whistle from an adjoining Promontory, make all the Sail they can, and haften into Harbour. I must confefs, when a Man expreffes himself well upon any Occafion, and his falling into an AcP. 3. count. ). count of any Subject arifing from a Defire It is an Obfervation of Plutarch, That there is no Member in human Bodies, which Nature has fo ftrongly inclofed within a double Fortification, as the Tongue, entrenched within with a Barricadoe of fharp Teeth, to the End, that when he refufes to be ruled by Reason, that holds the Reins of Silence within, we should fix our Teeth in it till the Blood comes, rather than fuffer the inordinate and unreasonable Din. Γλώσσης του θησαυρὸς ἐν ἀνθρώποισιν άριςος. Φείδωλῆς πλείςη δὲ χάρις καλά μέτρον ἰάσης. fays Hefiod: A provident Tongue is a moft valuable Treasure in Man; and there is much Grace in ufing it with Difcretion, and obferving a Medium. But Men that let their Tongues run at random, rend and tear the the Ears with their Tautologies; like thofe, that after Table-Books have been newly cleansed and wiped, deface them. again with their impertinent Scrawls and Scratches. It was a good and feasonable Reproof of Ariftotle's to an egregious Prater, that had perplex'd him with many abfurd Stories, and concluded every one with this idle Repetition, And is not this a wonderful Thing, Ariftotle? No Wonder at all, faid the Philofopher, this; but if a Man fhould ftand fill to hear you prate thus, who bad two Legs to run away, that were a Wonder indeed. Another Thing, that fhould be a confiderable Mortification to thefe intemperate Tatlers, is, That their Difcourfe is feldom heard with Attention: For when there is no avoiding the Vexation of one of these chattering Fops, Nature has afforded us this Happiness, that it is in the Power of the Soul, to lend the outward Ears of the Body, and endure the Brunt of the Noife, while the retires to the remoter Apartments of the Mind, and there. employs herself in better and more useful Thoughts. Indeed, the Undulation of the Sounds about my Head, may, in fome Measure, interrupt my Meditations, but even by thofe imperfect Snatches of Thought, P 4 |