Whiles a man liveth he may mend: count not thy brother reprobate; When he is dead his chance is gone: remember not his faults in bitterness. A man, till he dieth, is immortal in thy sight; and then he is as nothing: Make not the living thy foe, nor take weak vengeance of the dead. For life is as a game of chess, where least causeth greatest, And an ill move bringeth loss, and a pawn may ensure victory. Dost thou suspect? seek out certainty: for now, by self-inflicted pain, Or ill-directed wrath, thou wrongest thyself or thy neighbour: Suspicion is an early lesson, taught in the school of experience, Neither shalt thou easily unlearn it, though charity ply thee with her preaching; Yet look thou well for reasons, or ever mistrust hath marred thee, Or fear curdled thy blood, or jealousy goaded thee to madness; For a look, or a word, or an act, may be taken well or ill As construed by the latitude of love, or the closeness of cold suspicion. Better is the wrong with sincerity, rather than the right with falsehood: And a prudent man will not lay siege to the stronghold of ignorant bigotry. To unsettle a weak mind were an easy inglorious triumph, And a strong cause taketh little count of the worthless suffrage of a fool: Lightly he held to the wrong, loosely will he cling to the right; Weakness is the essence of his mind, and the reed cannot yield an acorn. Dogged obstinacy is oftentimes the buttress that proppeth an unstable spirit, But a candid man blusheth not to own, he is wiser to-day than yesterday. A man of a little wisdom is a sage among fools; But himself is chief among the fools, if he look for admiration from them. A heresy is an evil thing, for its shame is its pride: Its necessary difference of error is the character it most esteemeth: Give a man all things short of liberty, thou shalt have no thanks, And little wilt thou speed with thine opponent, by proving points he will concede. The tost sand darkeneth the waves; and clear had been the pages of truth, Had not the glosses of men obscured the simplicity of faith. In all things consider thine own ignorance, and gladly take occasion to be taught; But suffer not excess of liberality to neutralize thy mental independence.