8. PRACTICE SELF-DENIAL.--If a man would get through life honorably
and peaceably, he must necessarily learn to practice self-denial
in small things as well as in great. Men have to bear as well as to
forbear. The temper has to be held in subjection to the judgment;
and the little demons of ill-humor, petulance, and sarcasm, kept
resolutely at a distance. If once they find an entrance to the mind,
they are apt to return, and to establish for themselves a permanent
occupation there.

9. POWER OF WORDS.--It is necessary to one's personal happiness, to
exercise control over one's words as well as acts: for there are
words that strike even harder than blows; and men may "speak daggers,"
though they use none. The stinging repartee that rises to the lips,
and which, if uttered, might cover an adversary with confusion, how
difficult it is to resist saying it! "Heaven, keep us," says Miss
Bremer, in her 'Home', "from the destroying power of words! There are
words that sever hearts more than sharp swords do; there are words the
point of which sting the heart through the course of a whole life."

10. CHARACTER EXHIBITS ITSELF.--Character exhibits itself in
self-control of speech as much as in anything else. The wise and
forbearant man will restrain his desire to say a smart or severe thing
at the expense of another's feeling; while the fool blurts out what he
thinks, and will sacrifice his friend rather than his joke. "The mouth
of a wise man," said Solomon, "is in his heart; the heart of a fool is
in his mouth."

11. BURNS.--No one knew the value of self-control better than the poet
Burns, and no one could teach it more eloquently to others, but when
it came to practice, Burns was as weak as the weakest. He could not
deny himself the pleasure of uttering a harsh and clever sarcasm at
another's expense. One of his biographers observed of him, that it
was no extravagant arithmetic to say that for every ten jokes he made
himself a hundred enemies. But this was not all. Poor Burns exercised
no control over his appetites, but freely gave them the rein:

"Thus thoughtless follies laid him low,
And stained his name."

12. SOW POLLUTION.--Nor had he the self-denial to resist giving
publicity to compositions originally intended for the delight of the
tap-room, but which continued secretly to sow pollution broadcast in
the minds of youth. Indeed, notwithstanding the many exquisite poems
of this writer, it is not saying too much