principal may rush in and hold
the field. They are jackals, who scent out a timid pause or an
unsuspecting silence which the lion tongue straightway destroys. Very
forcibly the conviction came to me that nowadays we listen only for an
opportunity to speak.

I was grieved that true listening had become a lost art; for without it
worthy speech is impossible. To good listening is due a great part of
the noble thought, the golden instruction, and the brilliant wit which
has elevated, enlightened, and brightened the soul of man. There are
fine minds whose workings are never expressed in writing; and even among
those who, in print, spread their ideas before the world there is a
certain cream of thought which is given only to listeners, if, happily,
there be such.

Modern conversation has degenerated into the Italian game of
_moccoletto_, in which every one endeavors to blow out the candles of
the others, and keep his own alight. In such rude play there is no
illumination. "There should be a reform," I declared. "There should be
schools of listening. Here men and women should be taught how, with
sympathetic and delicate art, to draw from others the useful and
sometimes precious speech which, without their skillful cooeperation,
might never know existence. To be willing to receive in order that good
may be given should be one of the highest aims of life.

"Not only should we learn to listen in order to give opportunity for the
profitable speech of others, but we should do so out of charity and good
will to our fellow-men. How many weary sick-beds, how many cheerless
lives, how many lonely, depressed, and silent men and women, might be
gladdened, and for the time transformed, by one who would come, not to
speak words of cheer and comfort, but to listen to tales of suffering
and trial! Here would be one of the truest forms of charity; an almost
unknown joy would be given to the world.

"There should be brotherhoods and sisterhoods of listeners; like good
angels, they should go out among those unfortunates who have none to
hear that which it would give them so much delight to say."

But alas! I knew of no such good angels. Must that which I had to tell
remain forever untold for the want of one? This could not be; there must
exist somewhere a man or a woman who would be willing to hear my
accounts of travels and experiences which, in an exceptionable degree,
were interesting and valuable.

I determined to advertise for a lis