CHAPTER XVII.
IF YOU CAN TALK WELL When Charles W.Eliot was president of Harvard, he said, "I recognize but one mental acquisition as an essential part of the education of a lady or gentleman, namely, an accurate and refined use of the mother-tongue." Sir Walter Scott defined "a good conversationalist" as "one who has ideas, who reads, thinks, listens, and who has therefore something to say." There is no other one thing which enables us to make so good an impression, especially upon those who do not know us thoroughly, as the ability to converse well.
To be a good conversationalist, able to interest people, to rivet their attention, to draw them to you naturally, by the very superiority of your conversational ability, is to be the possessor of a very great accomplishment, one which is superior to all others.

It not only helps you to make a good impression upon strangers, it also helps you to make and keep friends.

It opens doors and softens hearts.

It makes you interesting in all sorts of company.

It helps you to get on in the world.