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This is the real art of the serious conversationalist, a manner so modest and conciliatory that everybody would like to be on his side if they could only see things his way. And good will wins more converts than good syllogisms. On the other hand, one positive, dogmatic statement, such as, "Free verse is simply a low form of poetry, that's all there is to it," will make everyone secretly hope that the speaker will fall over a dangling participle before the evening is over. The greatest authority in the world is not long welcome in a group, if he is positive and dogmatic. Yet it is also true that the value of an authority should be to get the truth advanced a little faster, to help prevent inconclusive discussion. Therefore it seems to me a recognized authority on a topic may occasionally settle futile discussion on a point by saying, "While I hate to seem positive as to whether French or Spanish is more widely spoken, yet since our topic of languages has so many more significant and disputable phases, I would like to adduce that the best almanacs definitely state that some one hundred million people speak Spanish and only sixty million French. What is not settled is which language is richer in idiom." Now and then, it seems to me, a person who is a specialist has a right to shift the discussion from an easily verifiable point to a more profitable one. But always tactfully, and not often. One must remember that people are gathered conversationally, not to hear the truth as from an oracle, but by a groping exchange of evidence and reasons, and among blind alleys, pleasantly if slowly to come to feel the truth, as well as to find it. |
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