To the Same.

Northampton, Aug. 10, 1866.

... I find the savants much more reasonable and sensible in private conversation than in debate. In private discourse, they are much more apt to give you the result of mature thought; but the interest of debate depends too much on the illusory charm of new and crude ideas. Among the superstitions of America, please mention the admiration and ambition of public speaking. I have assured several savant-struck ladies that enthusiasm in speech is very apt to be proportioned to crudeness in ideas. But this does not explain ----, who repeated yesterday what he has said at every scientific meeting at which I have heard him speak; and he said it with as much animation as if the world were not weary of it. I never heard him mention it in private; and so, notwithstanding its age, I class it with new and crude ideas, — with the difference that it is a chronic case of public speaking, — a brilliant idea which occurred to him once upon a time, and has been a standing marvel of inspiration ever since.