refuse to do it for a reward." The man was greatly struck, and made a resolve to try never to swear again. Lord Erskine answered writers of begging letters thus: "Sir, I feel much honoured by your application to me, and I beg to subscribe "-here the reader had to turn over the leaf-" myself your very obedient servant." Beggars, especially in Spain, are so courteous that they deserve, if not money, certainly manners. Even a Kaffir boy could beg from his teacher in this polite way: "I have no trousers; the trousers are broken. I am not begging, only reporting." Polite, and yet truthful, was Lord Beaconsfield's formula for acknowledging an author's presentation of a book to him-" Lord Beaconsfield presents his compliments to Mr. X., and will lose no time in perusing his interesting work." A few nights ago a man was hurrying along a street, when another man rushed out of an alley and the two collided. One of them raised his hat and said, "My dear sir, I don't know which of us is to blame for this violent encounter, and I am in too great a hurry to investigate. If I ran into you, I beg your pardon; if you ran into me, don't mention it," and he tore away at redoubled speed. CHAPTER XXI CENSORIOUS AND GRUMBLING AN Irishman began a speech by remarking that he was bothered entirely by a preliminary want of information. This trifle does not bother that class of people who think that they have a mission to set everybody right. These people are not only their own doctors, their own lawyers, and their own divines, but the self-constituted physical, legal, and spiritual advisers of every one else. Like Cassio, they "Never set a squadron in the field, Nor the division of a battle know but this does not deter them from finding fault with generals who are campaigning thousands of miles away in circumstances the difficulty of which only those who are on the spot can appreciate. “A man must serve his time to every trade 66 66 Said an American, fellow !" "Hate A little knowledge is not only a dangerous but an uncharitable thing. "Oh, Jones, I hate that him?” asked his friend ; I why, I did not think you knew him.” No, I don't," was the reply; "if I did, I guess I shouldn't hate him." When the collier suggested to his mate that half a brick should be heaved at the new parson, it was only because the reverend gentleman was new, and unknown to him; nothing personal ! Many persons whose only language is that of renunciation and denunciation would draw it milder if they knew the real facts of the case. "To understand all is to pardon all," says a wise French proverb. In the lives and actions of those who are apparently most guilty there are extenuating circumstances. 66 But it is want of imagination more than want of knowledge that causes uncharitable censures. Judge not thy friend," said Rabbi Hillel, "until thou standest in his place." If the young could in imagination put themselves in the place of the old and the old in that of the young, if the enthusiastic could understand the difficulties of the cautious and the cautious the scorn of consequences which is felt by zealots, they would be less censorious. The more we are able to put away self when finding fault the better will be the result. We must not think, So-and-so has been done to me, and is therefore a great crime, because I am a person of vast importance. Consider the question more in the abstract and forget self. Ask yourself what would be the decision of a perfectly just and impartial judge after weighing all the circumstances of the case. A candidate elder in a Scotch church was asked why he sought the office. "You could not visit the sick, teach in the Sunday School, or do any of these things." "No," "No," was the reply, "but I could aye object." The man who can do nothing but object is a miserable specimen. Nil admirari is the devil's motto. A man who had one well-formed and one crooked leg was wont to test the disposition of his friends by observing which leg they looked at first and most. 66 "The worthiest persons," says Bacon, are frequently attacked by slanders, as we generally find that to be the best fruit which the birds have The been pecking at." And yet, when a person is really worthy in the main, his worthiness ought surely to be allowed to hide his faults. great Duke of Marlborough and the first Lord Bolingbroke were in opposite political interests, and were consequently on most occasions ranged against each other. Some gentlemen, after the Duke's decease, were canvassing his character with much severity, and particularly charged him with being avaricious. At length they appealed for the truth of their statements to Lord Bolingbroke, who was one of the company. nobleman answered, "The Duke of Marlborough was so great a man that I forget his failings." This If some who are engaged in religious and philanthropic work would employ their critical faculties, not against fellow-workers, but in examining themselves, with a view to improvement, how much better it would be. For the sake of such persons we quote the following: "As the eye seeth all things and cannot see itself, so we see other men's faults but not our own." We would find fault less if we reflected that all good qualities cannot exist in the same character, and that if there is much of any one virtue there must be deficiency of another. Every creature is after its kind. "Life is too short to waste in critic peep or cynic bark, Quarrel or reprimand; 'twill soon be dark; Up-mind thine own aim, and God speed the mark!" The expression "home truths" has come to be almost synonymous with abuse, for members of a home say things to each other which they would not dare to say to outsiders. A little bracing criticism may do good, but we protest against the cynical spirit that prevails in some |