Calumny and Detraction.

They who are too fair-spoken before you are likely to be foul-spoken behind you. If you would keep clear of the one extreme, keep clear of both. The rule is a very simple one: never find fault with anybody except to himself; never praise anybody except to others.

Guesses at Truth.

MEN that make

Envy and crooked malice nourishment
Dare bite the best.

King Henry VIII., Act v. Sc. 3, 1. 43.

Calumny will sear virtue itself.

The Winter's Tale, Act ii. Sc. 1, 1. 73.

No, 'tis slander,

Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath
Rides on the posting winds and doth belie

All corners of the world: kings, queens, and states,
Maids, matrons; nay, the secrets of the grave,
This viperous slander enters.

Cymbeline, Act iii. Sc. 4, 1. 35.

No might nor greatness in mortality
Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?

Measure for Measure, Act iii. Sc. 2, l. 196.

Rumour is a pipe

Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures,

And of so easy and so plain a stop

That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,

Can play upon it.

Second Part of Henry IV., Induction, 1. 15.

If I am

Traduced by ignorant tongues, which neither know

My faculties nor person, yet will be

The chronicles of my doing, let me say

'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake That virtue must go through. We must not stint Our necessary actions, in the fear

To cope malicious censurers.

King Henry VIII., Act i. Sc. 2, 1. 71.

I do not like 'But yet,' it does allay The good precedence; fie upon 'But yet'! 'But yet' is as a gaoler to bring forth

Some monstrous malefactor.

Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii. Sc. 5, 1. 50.

2

CALUMNY AND DETRACTION.

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,

Is the immediate jewel of their souls:

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Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;

But he that filches from me my good name

Robs me of that which not enriches him

And makes me poor indeed.

Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3, 1. 155.

Feigned Prayer.

Prayers

Are daughters of Almighty Jupiter,

Lame, wrinkled, and squint-eyed, that painfully

Follow misfortune's steps; but strong of limb
And swift of foot misfortune is, and, far

Outstripping all, comes first to every land,

And there wreaks evil on mankind, which prayers
Do afterwards redress. Whoe'er receives

Jove's daughters reverently when they approach,
Him willingly they aid, and to his suit

They listen.

Whosoever puts them by
With obstinate denial, they appeal

To Jove, the son of Saturn, and entreat
That he will cause misfortune to attend
The offender's way in life, that he in turn
May suffer evil and be punished thus.

Homer's Iliad, translated by WM. CULLEN BRYANT.

HAT high All-Seer that I dallied with

ΤΗ

Hath turn'd my feigned prayer on my head
And given in earnest what I begged in jest.
Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men
To turn their own points on their masters' bosoms.

King Richard III., Act v. Sc. I, l. 20.

When I would pray and think, I think and pray

To several subjects

Heaven in my mouth,

As if I did but only chew his name;

And in my heart, the strong and swelling evil

Of my conception.

Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 4, 1. 1.

Ah, countrymen ! if when you make your prayers,
God should be so obdurate as yourselves,

How would it fare with your departed souls?

Second Part of King Henry VI., Act iv. Sc. 7, 1. 121.

The King. O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon 't,
A brother's murder. Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will:
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent:
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence?

And what 's in prayer but this two-fold force,
To be forestalled ere we come to fall,

Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up;
My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder '?