‘Is he an educated man?’ I asked.

‘For a Spaniard,’ answered Z., ’yes.  He has the quickness, the finesse, and the elegance of mind and of manner which belong to the South.  The want of book-learning contributes to his originality.’

‘The most wonderful speaker in a foreign language,’ said Sumner, ’was Kossuth.  He must have been between forty and fifty before he heard an English word.  Yet he spoke it fluently, eloquently, and even idiomatically.  He would have made his fortune among us as a stump-orator.’

Tuesday, April 28.—­Tocqueville drank tea with us.

We talked rather of people than of things.

‘Circourt,’ said Tocqueville, ’is my dictionary.  When I wish to know what has been done or what has been said on any occasion, I go to Circourt.  He draws out one of the drawers in his capacious head, and finds there all that I want arranged and ticketed.

’One of the merits of his talk, as it is of his character, is its conscientiousness.  He has the truthfulness of a thorough gentleman, and his affections are as strong as his hatreds.  I do not believe he would sacrifice a friend even to a good story, and where is there another man of whom that can be said?’

‘What think you of Mrs. T-----?’ I inquired.

‘I like her too,’ he replied, ’but less than I do Circourt.  She has considerable talent, but she thinks and reads only to converse.  She has no originality, no convictions.  She says what she thinks that she can say well; like a person writing a dialogue or an exercise.  Whether the opinion which she expresses be right or wrong, or the story that she tells be true or false, is no concern of hers, provided it be bien dit.’

‘The fault of her conversation,’ I said, ’seems to me to be, that while she is repeating one sentence she is thinking of the next, and that while you are speaking to her, she is considering what is to be her next topic.  I have noticed this fault in other very fluent conversers.  They are so intent on the future that they neglect the present.’

‘It is rather a French than an English fault,’ said Tocqueville.  ’The English have more curiosity and less vanity, than we have; more desire to hear and less anxiety to shine.  They are often, therefore, better causeurs than we are. Le grand talent pour le silence, or, in other words, the power of listening which has been imputed to them, is a great conversational virtue.  I do not believe that it was said ironically or epigrammatically.  The man who bestowed that praise knew how rare a merit silence is.’

‘May we not owe that merit,’ I asked, ’to our bad French?  We shine most when we listen.’

‘A great talker,’ I continued, ’Montalembert, is to breakfast with us.  Whom shall I ask to meet him?’