34t FRENCH OPINION discreet imitators of this taciturn orator in the London parties, What a diminu- tion would it have been in the number of this lady's delighted auditors, and what a lessening of their own gratifica= tion in enjoying the exhibition of her superlative talents There are, indeed, very frequently, sounder causes for being silent than de- ficiency of talent, or lack, of inform- ation and hOw happily would the mul- titude of idle talkers be diminished, if they never opened their mouths but when they had something to say., The writer in question ascribes to causes, which appear quite new, the reserve and insipidity of the English ladies, when she says, that the true motive is the fear of ridicule and that as they are not called upon to enliven conversation, they are more struck with the danger of talking, than with the inconvenience of silence. She then, somewhat unaccountably, goes on to attribute the frigidity of their society to the dread of newspapers and
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