The Background for Good Conversation

JOHN LOCKE, the English philosopher, said, "Before a man can speak on any subject it is necessary to be acquainted with it." We recall that Samuel Johnson said that for conversation "There must, in the first place, be knowledge, there must be materials." One cannot get out of a sack what isn't in it. Since conversation is the communicating of facts, ideas, and feelings, one must have them to talk them. The most devastating charge that can be brought against anyone is, "He doesn't know what he is talking about." Rhetoric, diction, voice are important, of course, but one must never forget that they are important not as ends but as tools. They are not the goods, they are merely the express that delivers them.