I am not made of horn, of brass, of iron, or such like impenetrable stuff, as to be so totally void of sense or proper feeling, that I should hear unmoved a tale of so much distress; or so difficult of persuasion, that I should not listen to so reasonable a request.

There is no remedy against the tongue of the sycophant, who, by pretended concern for your interest, worm themselves into your confidence and get acquainted with your most intimate concerns. When men who are indifferent to you affect a more than ordinary regard for your interest, you should be cautious how you converse with them;

" Halaga la cola el can
Non por ti, sino por el pan",

the dog wags his tail not for you but for your bread. It might be well if the sycophant were content with pillaging, but more usually they flatter only to betray you; such men are said, "halagar con la cola, y morder con la boca," to bite while they fawn upon you and, if they are as crafty as they are malevolent, you will not discover the villany of their dispositions until they have done you some irremediable mischief; until they have alienated the minds of your friends, or raised such dissensions in your family as nothing but death will extinguish. When Iago saw that he had succeeded in exciting in Othello a suspicion of the incontinence of Desdemona, he says, exulting in the success of his villany,

–––"Not poppy, nor mandragore,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou ow'dst yesterday."

The ancients supposed that there were magic rings which had the power of defending those who wore them from certain diseases, inflicted, as they imagined, by inchantment or witchcraft, but even these were insufficient to protect them from the tongue of the slanderer.

There is no remedy against slander, it should therefore be borne quietly, and treated with contempt. What, if I have not deserved it? Then it will be the more easily borne. When a Roman patrician was ordered by the Emperor Tiberius to die, his friends in lamenting his doom, dwelt strongly on the injustice of the sentence. That, said he, my friends, is my greatest consolation; ye do not surely wish that I had been guilty.

«Latrantem curatne alta Diana canem ?»

Is the moon disturbed at the barking of a dog? Let them scoff, slander, abuse, wrong, curse and swear, feign and lye, when they have done all, innocency will vindicate itself, and a good conscience is a continual feast.

Be not in haste to give your opinion on any proposition, though pressed to it ever so earnestly. But be ready in all matters of moment to say, I will consider of it, will advise with my pillow. A wise man will neither give his assent nor dissent in any matter of consequence, until he has sufficiently examined it, and discovered its tendency.