EVIL SPEAKING ASD LYING.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 6, 5 July 1882, Page 3

EVIL SPEAKING ASD LYING.

— o The itch nf evil spe.-nring which so' commonly afflicts humanity m *y be oYen J cured by the ointment of industry iu any ( subject of science or art. As physical exercise is the best medicine for many maladies of the body, so intellectual exercise is a certain cure for most of the distempers of the mind. The old. proverb is not far wrong which informs us that the devil finds occupation for idle hands. As weeds spring up in an uncultivated field, so slandei is too often the fruit of a sluggish and unemployed understanding. So long as people have leisure and opportunity for gossip, fhe characters of their neighbors are likeiy to suffer. It would be robbing talk of its ancient privilege to attempt any emb.irgo on the officious communication of malignant intelligence. Curiosity, however sa ed, is .always ready lo feast upon this piquant dish. And as ctirioviiy is one of the most lasting and powerful passions of our nature there will probably always be plenty of talebearers anxious to earn a temporary importance by feeding it with the foods it most enquires after. That a man of any reputation should imagine he can pass through society without any injury to his characlerfrom secret, calumny, is all one with supposing he cau, like good Queen Emma, walk blindfold among burning ploughshares without being scorched or singed — neither feat can be performed by the natural man. He must be ariificiidly hardened iu the one case by the application of alum, in the other by the counsels of philosophy. Saturday Adveriiser.