EVERY MAN HIS OWN STORY-TELLER. 



THE art of relating stories or anecdotes in a rapid and skilful 

 manner, so as to excite pleasurable sensations in the bosoms of those 

 who hear, requires no mean exertion of taste and humour. You shall 

 meet fifty clever and able men of business in society for one enter- 

 taining companion ; a circumstance which is to be attributed to the 

 great disinclination which the people of a commercial country have 

 to exert themselves from any other cause than the acquisition of 

 wealth. The mere pleasure of pleasing is an impulse not sufficiently 

 strong to stimulate the powers of men, who think life happy and 

 enviable only in proportion as it is wealthy. Hence we find, in this 

 country at least, that the entertaining and agreeable companions are 

 to be found among those persons, whose life being somewhat irre- 

 gular and idle, presents them with opportunities of seeing and hear- 

 ing much variety of adventure, and abundance of time to devote to 

 acquirements, which the more solid, grave, and discreet part of society 

 consider as trivial. The gay soldier, who dines every day at a dif- 

 ferent table, and changes his quarters every six months ; the young 

 man of extensive property and enlarged education, whom no neces- 

 sity or difficulty enchain ; the pliable parasite, the restless author, are 

 the characters which often in society yield us amusement by their 

 convivial qualities and anecdotal skill. 



The teller of good stories ought to be a man of the true epic cast, 

 who dashes immediatel, in medias res, without any prolixity or long 

 prefacial preparation. He should have the judgment to select the 

 most striking parts of his anecdote, and the art to embellish them. 

 He should be rapid and forcible in narration ; and if he have a talent 

 for mimickry, a flexible voice, and a countenance susceptible of variety 

 of expression, he will be able to throw into his story a theatrical effect, 

 and captivate the eyes as well as the ears of his auditors. Horace 

 says, " Segnier irritant animos demissa per aurer, quam quce cunt 

 oculis subjectafcdelibus." The teller of stories or anecdotes should, 

 above all things, avoid an injudicious introduction of them. They 

 should be always told as illustrative of the matter in discussion, and 

 appear to grow out of the conversation. The person relating them 

 should avoid all hesitation, or episode, or a too frequent use of con- 

 junctions, but hasten onward to the pith and marrow of his circum- 

 stance, and terminate his anecdote with the peculiar incident or re- 

 mark which forms the point, the zest, the soul of it. Let him intro- 

 duce no after observation, no comment on his own anecdote, no 

 moral, but leave the effect entirely to the matter itself, and the manner 

 in which he has related it. We cannot better explain our opinion on 

 this subject, than by the introduction of a couple of anecdotes. The 

 first was told by a tedious old grocer, who amassed a considerable 

 M. M. No. 95. 4 D 



