it, must be in the temper of the man with whom others have
intercourse. He must be benevolent, sympathetic and affectionate. His
heart must overflow with good-will; and he must be anxious to relieve
every little pain, and to contribute to the enjoyment and complacent
feelings, of those with whom he is permanently or accidentally
connected. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."

There are two considerations by which we ought to be directed in the
exercise of the faculty of speech.

The first is, that we should tell our neighbour all that it would be
useful to him to know. We must have no sinister or bye ends. "No man
liveth to himself." We are all of us members of the great congregation
of mankind. The same blood should circulate through every limb and every
muscle. Our pulses should beat time to each other; and we should have
one common sensorium, vibrating throughout, upon every material accident
that occurs, and when any object is at stake essentially affecting the
welfare of our fellow-beings. We should forget ourselves in the interest
that we feel for the happiness of others; and, if this were universal,
each man would be a gainer, inasmuch as he lost himself, and was cared
and watched for by many.

In all these respects we must have no reserve. We should only consider
what it is that it would be beneficial to have declared.

We must not look back to ourselves, and consult the dictates of a narrow
and self-interested prudence. The whole essence of communication is
adulterated, if, instead of attending to the direct effects of what
suggests itself to our tongue, we are to consider how by a circuitous
route it may react upon our own pleasures and advantage.

Nor only are we bound to communicate to our neighbour all that it will
be useful to him to know. We have many neighbours, beside those to whom
we immediately address ourselves. To these our absent fellow-beings,
we owe a thousand duties. We are bound to defend those whom we hear
aspersed, and who are spoken unworthily of by the persons whom we
incidentally encounter. We should be the forward and spontaneous
advocates of merit in every shape and in every individual in whom we
know it to exist. What a character would that man make for himself, of
whom it was notorious that he consecrated his faculty of speech to the
refuting unjust imputations against whomsoever they were directed, to
the contradicting all false and malicious reports, and to th