ization, but
habits, occupations, and culture, make inevitable differences between
men, such as render it less easy for them to converse together. The
scholar and the mechanic, the sailor and the farmer, the mistress and
the maid, in most cases will have little to interest each other. Their
interview will probably be awkward and brief, their words few and
constrained. This, perhaps, cannot be essentially remedied. But I trust
you will agree with me, that the true remedy is to be sought in a more
hearty recognition of that _common humanity_ which underlies all the
shades and diversities of human character. "_Nihil humani alienum_"--we
must go back to old Terence still, even to learn how to talk. You happen
to be thrown into the same public conveyance with a man of no literary
or intellectual tastes. "All his talk is of oxen," or perchance of his
speculations and profits in trade. Moreover, he offends your ear by a
shocking disregard of grammar, and vulgarisms of pronunciation. Your
first reflection is,--"What can I have to say to such a man? How
unfortunate to be condemned to such company!" Yet is there not _aliquid
humani_ even here? Were it only as an intellectual exercise, why not try
to find out the real man beneath all these wrappages? The gold-miner
does not grumble at having to crush the quartz, that he may bring to
light the few grains of precious metal hidden in it. Infinitely more is
it worth all the labor it costs to break through that harder shell in
which man hides his intrinsic gold. And besides, it will not reflect
much credit on the largeness of your own culture, if you suffer a mere
offence against taste and manners to keep you ignorant of your
companion's deeper nature. "But how to draw him out? What effectual
method to break through this hard or coarse covering?" I have no
infallible directions to give you. But you must first have a genuine
interest in him as a new specimen of _a man_; and then you must be able
to inspire him with confidence in you, confidence that you respect him
for his human nature and hold yourself to be on an equality with him,
inasmuch as "man measures man the world over." Start some topic which
will evidently not be remote from his familiar range, and by a little
tact you will easily find other related topics, till at last, as the
field continually widens, you will both be amazed to see how many common
interests, desires, beliefs you had, and how much unexpected benefit
each has