we do it against the resistances and checks of our own conscience; when that at the time tells us, This thing thou ought not to do; nay lays before us the danger as well as the sin of it; yet in spite of these admonitions of conscience, we go on and commit the sin. A fourth aggravation of the sin is when it hath been often repeated, for then there is not only the guilt of so many more acts but every act grows also so much worse and more inexcusable. Fifthly the sins which have been committed after vows and resolutions of amendment, are yet more grievous; for that contains also the breaking of those promises. Sixthly, a yet higher step is, when a sin hath been so often committed that we are come to a custom and habit of it.

"THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN."

The body sins not, 'tis the will,
That makes the action good or ill.

-HERRICK.

O thou that sitt'st in heaven, and see'st
My deeds without, my thoughts within,
Be thou my prince, be thou my priest-
Command my soul, and cure my sin:
How bitter my afflictions be

I care not, so I rise to thee.

-QUARLES.

Lord! who art merciful as well as just,
Incline thine ear to me, a child of dust!
Not what I would, O Lord! I offer thee
Alas! but what I can.

Father Almighty, who hast made me man,

And bade me look to Heaven, for Thou art there,

Accept my sacrifice and humble prayer, Four things which are not in thy treasury, I lay before thee, Lord, with this petition: My nothingness, my wants,

My sins, and my contrition.

-SOUTHEY.

139. SLANDER.

Il fares that neighbourhood, where

sland'rers meet

With easy faith to back their base deceit :

From house to house the plague of discord spreads,
And brings down ruin on their hapless heads.*

No, 'tis slander,

Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile.

-SHAKESPEARE.

The slanderer's tongue is a devouring fire which tarnishes whatever it touches; which exercises its fury on the good grain as on the chaff, on the sacred as on the profane, and which wherever it passes, leaves the marks of desolation and ruin.

-MASSILON.

The other more close and private way of spreading such reports, is that of the whisperer; he that goes about from one to another; and privately vents his slanders, not out of an intent by that means to make them less public, but rather more; this trick of delivering them by way of secret, being the way to make them both more believed, and more spoken of too; for he that receives such a tale as a secret from any one, thinks to please some body else by delivering it as a secret to him also, and so it passes from one hand to another, till at last it spreads over a whole

*From Bewick's Select Fables.

town. This sort of slanderer is of all others the most dangerous, for he works in the dark, ties all he speaks to, not to own him as the author: so that whereas in the more public accusations the party may have some means of clearing himself, and detecting his accuser, here he shall have no possibility of that; the slander, like a secret poison, works incurable effects before ever the man discerns it.

-"THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN."

This (whispering) is such a guilt that we are to beware of all the degrees of approach to it, of which there are several steps; the first is the giving ear to, and cherishing of, those that come with slanders; for they that entertain and receive them encourage them in the practice; for as our common proverb says, If there were no receivers, there would be no thief; so, if there were none that would give an ear to tales, there would be no tale-bearers. A second step is, the giving too easy credit to them; for this helps them to attain part of their end. A third step is, the reporting to others, what is thus told thee; by which thou makest thyself directly a party in the slander, and after thou hast unjustly withdrawn from thy neighbour thy own good opinion, endeavourest to rob him also of that of others.

"THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN. "

Slander cannot make the 'subjects of it either better or worse, it may represent us in a false light, or place. a likeness of us in a bad one; but we are the same: not so the slanderer; for calumny always makes the calumniator worse, but the calumniated-never.

-COLTON.

If their faults men but knew

As others they view,

Would the slanderer dare his profession pursue ? *

-A CURAL ODE.

None is so easy and persistent, not to speak of mischievous and destructive-as the habit of detraction. It is such a temptation to get into the way of seeing the worst of every one, and turning up the seamy side of everything; and ghoulish as is the satisfaction of fattening one's own lean reputations on the destruction. of another's, there is a selfish value in it also, as thereby we show forth ourselves so much the better by the force of contrast. For, all things being relative in this world, and nothing absolute, if we can but paint another's complexion of a full black, our own doubtful white seems snow-coloured, and even our dusky grey not so very far removed from white.

Base calumny by working under-ground,

Can secretly the greatest merit wound.

The words of a tale-bearer are as wounds, and they go down into the inner-most parts of the belly.

-"BIBLE-PROVERBS."

Three essentials to a false story-teller are

1. A good memory. 2. A bold face. 3. Fools for an audience.

-WELSH SAYING.

Men will refrain from evil-speaking, when their fellowmen refrain from evil-hearing.†

From the Folk-songs of Southern India by Gover.

From the Book of Humour, Wit, and Wisdom.