cks, must we not
see the necessity of burying in a well-fortified prison that most
dangerous monster, the tongue? "Ah! truly death and life are in
the power of the tongue" (Prov. xviii.). "And although the sword
has been the instrument of innumerable murders, the tongue has at
all times beaten it in producing death" (Ecclus. xxviii.). "It
forms but a small part of the body, and has done mighty evil: as
the helm badly directed causes the wreck of a fine ship, and as a
spark may enkindle a forest. . . . Unquiet evil, inflamed
firebrand, source of deadly poison, world of iniquity" (St. James
iii.).

XXI

SECOND PRESERVATIVE

_To meditate on what the Saints say_

ST. BONAVENTURE relates that St. Francis of Assisi said to his
religious one day: "Uncharitable conversation is worse than the
assassin, because it kills souls and becomes intoxicated with
their blood. It is worse than the mad dog, because it tears out
and drags on all sides the living entrails of the neighbour. It is
worse than the unclean animal, because it wallows in the filth of
vices and makes its favourite pasture there. It is worse than
Cham, because it exposes everywhere the nasty spots which soil the
face of religion--its mother."

St. Bernard goes further: "Do not hesitate to regard the tongue of
the backbiter as more cruel than the iron of the lance which
pierced our Saviour's side, because it not only pierces His sacred
side, but one of His living members also, to whom by its wound it
gives death. It is more cruel than the thorns with which His
venerable head was crowned and torn, and even than the nails with
which the wicked Jews fastened His sacred hands and feet to the
Cross, because if our Divine Saviour did not esteem more highly
the member of His mystic body (which is pierced by the foul tongue
of the slanderer) than His own natural body formed by the
operation of the Holy Ghost in the chaste womb of the Virgin Mary,
He would never have consented to deliver the latter to ignominies
and outrages to spare the former."

Now St. Francis and St. Bernard are here speaking to religious. Is
it possible, then, for backbiting to glide into religious
communities? Yes, certainly. And it is by this snare that Satan
catches souls which have escaped all others.

St. Jerome says: "There are few who avoid this fault. Amongst
those even who pride themselves on leading an irreproachable life,
you will scarcely find any who do not criticize their bret