The evil wrought by the tongue is a constant and perennial theme of the moralist, and the makers of proverbs are in complete accord, "The tongue talks at the head's cost." "More have repented speech than silence." Those who suffer at the hands, or rather the tongues, of others may learn how effectually to avenge themselves, for "Pardon and pleasantnesse are great revengers of slanders," and the experiment is one that is well worth trial. In any case, "Neither prayse nor disprayse thyself: thy actions serve the turne." "The effect speakes, the tongue need not." How full of wisdom is this final cluster of pearls, this sheaf of javelins: "A gift much expected is paid, not given." "Pleasing ware is half sould." "The hole calls the thief"--a warning against putting temptation in the way and thereby causing a brother to offend. The man who has gone far on the path of reformation is not safe so long as any relic of the past yet clings round his heart, for "The horse that draws after him his halter has not altogether escaped." "Whither shall the oxe goe where he shall not labour?" How can one hope to evade the responsibilities of his position? The proverb is an interesting reminder of the custom once common enough, and which we ourselves have seen in Sussex and Wiltshire, on the heavy down-lands, of ploughing with a yoke of oxen. There is quaint humour in this, "The chicken is the countrey's, but the citie eateth it." "If the old dog barke he gives counsell." "A married man turns his staffe into a stake," his wandering days are over. A not unpleasant cynicism gives point to the assertion that "Nothing dries sooner than a teare," while it is equally one's experience of life that "When the tree is fallen all goe with their hatchet," and that "Men speak of the fair as things went with them there." It is a rather touching assertion that "The reasons of the poor weigh not," and it is too true. Their poverty makes the poor despised and their words unheeded by many who, richer in this world's goods, treat with contempt the struggling and the unsuccessful. Poverty is not a crime: it may be a badge of shame if the result of vice, or it may be a badge of honour where a man has scorned to stoop to shuffling dishonesties that may have enriched some who presume to despise him.