Year: 1872

Let me give few other simple direc-
tions for Keeping the peace: One is,
Hold your tongue. There are more
quarrels smothered by just shutting
your mouth, and holding il shut, then
by all the wisdom in the world. You
may be obliged to speak; you may be a
teacher, and feel called upon to rebuke,
with all long-sufferings, and with suf-
fering that is not so long sometimes; but
ordinarily, in common life, more than
two-thirds of all the things which come
up for remark had better be let alone.
Just hold your tongue.


The old Greek said that a man had
two ears and one mouth, that he might
hear twice and speak oncei and there is
great deal of good sense in it. You
will find that if you simply hold your
peace, you will pass over nine out of ten
of the prOvOcatiOns of life.


"But what if men say and do things
so provoking that you can not hold
your tonguew Then, above all things,
hold it!


Closely allied to this direction for
keeping the peace, is another; which is,
Let things alone. Do not meddle with
things. Do not pick at them. You can
make an ulcer out of n pimple, if you
will only pick it enough. All that is
necessary is just to pick it. Leave
things to themselves. When things
happen, do not talk about them, Keep
quiet about them in the family. Do
not tell anybody about them. If things
happen in the neighbOrhOOd, do not try
to settle them. The Lord deliver me
from those Don QuiXOte settlers of
trouble who go about the neighbOrhOod
tanning to flame things that would
die of themselves, if let alone. The
majority of troubles in life are like sim
gle sparks. If you let them remain sin
gle they will very soon go out, and moth
ing will be left but ashes-and ashes
burn nobody; but if to spark you put
some kindling stuff, and blow it you
will soon have flame. The little trOub
les of life, which are of daily occurrence,
and of which there are so many, are to
be let alone.


f'You know that SO-and-So has done
so-and-so; what do you think we had
better do about it?n Nothing. There
are two plasters that will cure ninety
nine scores in n hundred-silenee, and
letting them alone. This is particularly
so in the household, in the shop, and in
other places where men are broughtnear
each other.


| might indulge in some strong re-
marks on the subject of those who adopt
the contrary cOurse-tale bearers, who
carry and fetch, and are like dogs that
| i'm summer days you will see with q
stick in their mouth, running here and
there with sportive boys. l have seen
persons who forever had mischeviOus
| tales in their mouth they were carrying
| hither and thither. They ought to be
employed in the DEVILS pOst-Ofiice; they
ought to be common carriers of vile
/ trash-and they are. They are distrib-


uting the DEVILS billet-douX throughout
their neighbOrhOOd.


| a dove would sit on q tree, on the
gable of n house, or on some peak, for


weeks and months, and never know
that there was anything decaylng in all
| the valley beneath him; but a turkey
| buzzard would not sit there three min
utes before he would see something dy-
I ing. There are men who are always
seeing something, always smelling
something, always hearing something.
And the moment they hear, they diff
fuse. They carry abroad what they
hear.


In our homes we suppress disagreea-
/ BILE things-we suppress stenches. No
person who has ordinary decency fails
| to do this 1t is only in respect for the
excretiOns of the soul that men run
about making themselves nasty carriers
of nasty things for nasty purposes.
| Where there is no tale-bearer, cOnten-
/ tion ceases. Where there is no fuel, the
fire goes out.-HenTy Ward Beecher.