nsider it very rude for a person to look into your private
room; but I say it is far worse to pry into another's private life
and to expose it.

The calumniator should remember that, besides the fault he commits
and the wrong he does to his neighbours, he exposes himself, by a
just punishment of God, to be the victim of calumny himself.

XXVIII

NINTH PRESERVATIVE

_How to check uncharitable conversation in superiors, etc._

WHEN we see charity wounded by persons worthy of respect, keep
silent, in order to show your regret, or relate something to the
advantage of the absent. If necessary, withdraw.

It is related in the life of Sister Margaret, of the Blessed
Sacrament of the Carmelite Order, that when a discourse against
charity took place in the house she saw a smoke arise of such
suffocating odour that she nearly fainted, and fled immediately to
her Divine Master for pardon.

St. Jerome, writing to Nepotian on this subject, says: "Some
object that they cannot warn the speaker of his fault without
failing in the respect due to him. This excuse is vain, because
their eagerness to listen increases his itch for speaking. No one
wishes to relate calumnies and murmurs to ears closed with
disgust. Is there anyone so foolish as to shoot arrows against a
stone wall?" Let your strict silence be a significant and salutary
lesson for the detractor. "Have no commerce with those who bite,"
said Solomon, because perdition is on the eve of overtaking them;
and who can tell the disaster and ruin with which the rash
detractor and equally blamable listener are threatened?

If it be true, according to the testimony of a religious who was
visitor of the houses of his Order, that the virtue against which
one can most easily commit a grievous sin in religion is charity;
and, according to St. Francis de Sales, sins of the tongue number
three-fourths of all sins committed; cannot it be said with equal
truth that to refuse to listen to detractors is with one blow to
prevent the sin and safeguard charity?

In many cases one can adroitly make known the good qualities and
virtues which more than counterbalance the defects related by the
defamer. To act thus is to spread about the good odour of Christ.

XXIX

TENTH PRESERVATIVE

_Be cautious after hearing uncharitable conversation_

AFTER having heard uncharitable words, observe the following
precautions given by the Saints:

1. Repeat nothing.

2. Believe all the go