Question:
- What is silence?
- Which objects do make a man talkative?
- Why should we keep silence?
- What are the benefits of keeping silence?
- Why does it give enjoyment?
Answer: Silence is quite unnatural to any man. He begins his life with a cry and ends it is stillness. In the interval, he does all he can to make a noise in the world and there are a few things of which he stands in more fear than of the absence of noise. Even his conversation attempts to prevent a dreadful silence. If he is introduced to a fellowman, and a number of pauses occur in the conversation he regards himself as a worthless person and is full of envy of the emptiest headed chatter-box. He knows that ninety-nine percent of human conversations mean no more than the buzzing of the fly, but he longs to join in the buzz and to prove that he is a man and not a waxwork figure. The object of conversation is not, for the most part, to communicate ideas; it is to keep up the buzzing sound. There are, it must be admitted, different qualities of buzz. Most buzzing fortunately is pleasing to the ear and some of it is agreeable even to the mind. Infect it is a virtue of a man.