for good?

Now I shall not attempt a dissertation, however tempting the theme, upon
the uses of speech in general. I will only ask you to consider that
single department of it which we call conversation. Did you ever think
how great a power in the world this is? See how early it begins to shape
our opinions, our plans, our studies, our tastes, our attachments, etc.
I remember that a casual remark, dropped in conversation by a beloved
and revered relative long before I had entered my teens, made me for
years feel more kindly towards the much-abused natives of the Emerald
Isle, though I have no doubt that she whose word I had listened to with
so much deference was entirely unsuspicious of having lodged such a
fruitful seed in my memory. If you can recall the formative periods of
your own life, I have no doubt you also will find hundreds of similar
instances, where a new direction was given to your sentiments and
purposes by some quite random words of friendly and domestic talk.
Consider how large a part of the life of most human beings is spent in
society of some sort, and then reflect how that society is bound
together and constituted, as it were, by familiar speech, and you will
begin to appreciate the extent of the power of conversation. Compare
this power with that of written language,--as books, letters, etc.,--or
even with more formal spoken language,--such as orations, sermons, and
the like,--and I think you will allow that it surpasses them all in its
diffusion and its permanence. Were the question solely as to the amount
of information imparted, books and deliberate addresses certainly stand
higher. But you must not fall into the common error, that the chief
object of conversation is or should be to instruct. It has manifold
objects, and some of them, to say the least, are quite as desirable as
instruction. We talk to keep up good feeling, to enliven the else dull
hours, to give expression to our interest in one another, to throw off
the burden of too much private care and thought. We have also, in
special cases, more serious ends in view, when we talk to reprove or
encourage, to console or arouse. Even this partial enumeration of the
offices of familiar speech may suffice to show you how desirable it is
to wield such a power. Conversation establishes a personal relation
between yourself and another soul. It is the open door through which
your spiritual treasures are interchanged. For the time, at least, it
suppo