ing of birds" and the efflorescence of trees is very welcome;
but who does not equally welcome the time of fruit-bearing also? The
lark soars in the air and sings merrily, but she also falls to earth and
sings not at all. Jesus rejoiced; but "Jesus wept." The night of
weeping and the morning of joy unite in one. So let the grave and the
cheerful conjoin in speech, according to times and seasons, places and
circumstances.

It is wise to have the two thus meet together. To be lifted up in
hilarity is the precursor of being cast down in dejection. A sudden rise
of the thermometer is generally followed by as sudden a fall. "I am not
sorry," said Sir Walter Scott, after the breaking up of a merry group of
guests at Abbotsford, "being one of those whom too much mirth always
inclines to sadness."

"There is no music in the life
That sounds with idiot laughter solely;
There's not a string attuned to mirth,
But has its chord in melancholy."

"To some men God hath given laughter; but tears to some men He hath
given:
He bade us sow in tears, hereafter to harvest holier smiles in heaven;
And tears and smiles they are His gift; both good, to smite or to uplift:
He tempers smiles with tears; both good, to bear in time the Christian
mood."

XI.

_THE SLANDERER._

"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."
SHAKESPEARE.

He has a mischievous temper and a gossiping humour. He deals
unmercifully with his neighbour, and speaks of him without regard to
truth or honour. The holy command given him by his Maker, to love his
neighbour as himself, is violated with impunity. Like those busy tongues
spoken of by Jeremiah, that would feign find out some employment, though
it was mischief, he says, "Report, and we will report." He catches up
any evil rumour, and hands it on to others, until, like the river Nile,
it spreads over the whole land, and yet the head of it remains in
uncertainty. He hides himself from discovery, like those fish which
immerse themselves in mud of their own stirring.

He tells malicious stories of others, and ascribes odious names to them,
without any just foundation for