o retain it. He is a
_leaky_ vessel, a sieve-receiver, not able to keep anything put within
him.

There is oftentimes deception, if not absolute lying, in this talker.
Why does he receive the secret with the strong promise, "I will tell no
one, upon my honour," if he cannot retain it in his own bosom?

Such persons are not to be trusted _twice_. As soon as you discover your
facts given under covenant of secrecy are blabbed to others, you say, "I
shall not trust him again:" and very properly too. Of course he tells as
a secret what you tell him as a secret; but if he cannot retain it, how
can he expect others? It is in this way that a matter, which in the
first instance is spoken of under the most strict confidence, becomes a
well-known fact, as though the public bellman had been hired to proclaim
it in the streets.

XII. THE SNUBBER.--There is a man sometimes met with in society, whose
business, when he talks, seems to be the administration of rebuke, in a
spirit and with a tone of voice churlish and sarcastic, by which he
would stop the increase of knowledge, check the development of mind, and
arrest the growth of heroic souls. He is far from amiable in his
disposition, or happy in his temper. He is a knotty piece of humanity,
which rubs itself against the even surface of other portions, much to
its annoyance, and to his own irritability. He is like a frost, nipping
the tender blossoms of intellect, and stopping the growth of a youthful
branch of promise. He is shunned by the gentle and sensitive. The
independent and bold repel him, and pay him back in his own coin, a
specie which he does not like, although he does a large business with it
himself.

The word itself is banished from polite society; but alas! the custom is
by no means proscribed. The sound is, to some extent, significant of the
sense. "To snub" is certainly not euphonious, and would sadly offend the
ears of many who are addicted to the habit. Snubbing is of various
kinds. For instance, there is the snub direct, sharp, and decisive, that
knocks the tender, sensitive spirit at once; there is the covert snub,
nearly allied to being talked at; the jocose snub, veiling the
objectionable form of reproof under an affected pleasantry; and there is
also a most unpleasant form of snubbing, frequently used by well-meaning
persons to repress forwardness or personal vanity. It is very true that
children and young people often exhibit forwardness, vanity, and ma