Life and Literature Part 127

Silence is the best resolve for him who distrusts himself.

--_Rochefoucauld._

1764

Silence is the consummate eloquence of sorrow.

1765

Of keeping silence few have paid the cost; Of having said too much, a countless host.

1766

Silence is often an answer.

1767

The silence often of pure innocence, Persuades, when speaking fails.

--_Shakespeare._

1768

There is a sure reward for faithful silence.

--_Horace._

1769

He knows much who knows how, and when, to be silent.

--_Scotch._

1770

Plated silver.

(Sarcastically applied to pretenders.)

1771

Most rare is now our old simplicity.

1772

Commit a sin twice, it will seem a sin no longer.

--_From The Talmud._

1773

Men's sins are before our eyes: our own, behind our backs.

--_Seneca._

1774

Many a man will give another man a letter of recommendation, though he would hardly lend the applicant a dollar.

1775

A HAPPY USE OF SINGING.

An excellent clergyman, possessing much knowledge of human nature, instructed his large family of daughters in the theory and practice of music. They were all observed to be exceedingly amiable and happy. A friend inquired if there was any secret in his mode of education. He replied--"When anything disturbs their temper, I say to them _sing_, and if I hear them speaking against any person, I call them to sing to me; and so they have sung away all causes of discontent, and every disposition to scandal."

--_Arvine._

1776

He who stands still in mud,--sinks.

1777

SLANDER AND EVIL SPEAKING.

A lady who had been in the habit of spreading slanderous reports once confessed her fault to St. Philip Neri, who lived several hundred years ago. She asked him how she could cure it. "Go," he said in reply, "to the nearest market-place, buy a chicken just killed, pluck its feathers all the way, and come back to me." She was greatly surprised, wondering in what way a dead chicken could help her overcome her evil habit; but she did as he bade her, and came back to him with the plucked chicken in her hand. "Now go back," he said, "and bring me all the feathers you have scattered." "But this is impossible," she replied: "I cast the feathers carelessly, and the wind carried them away; how can I recover them?" "That," he said, "is exactly like your words of slander. They have been carried about in every direction. You cannot recall them. Go and slander no more." It was a striking way of teaching a very important lesson.

1778

He who slanders his neighbors makes a rod for himself.

--_Dutch._

1779