Know thyself, thine evil as thy good, and flattery shall not harm thee: Yea, her speech shall be a warning, a humbling and a guide. For wherein thou lackest most, there chiefly will the sycophant commend thee, And then most warmly will congratulate, when a man hath least deserved. Behold, she is doubly a traitor; and will underrate her victim's best, That, to the comforting of conscience, she may plead his worse for better. Therefore, is she dangerous,--as every lie is dangerous: Believe her tales, and perish: if thou act upon such counsel. Her aims are thine not thee, thy wealth and not thy welfare, Thy suffrage not thy safety, thine aid and not thine honour. Moreover, with those aims insured, ceaseth all her glozing; She hath used thee as a handle,--but her hand was wise to turn it; Thus will she glorify her skill, that it deftly caught thy kindness, Thus will she scorn thy kindness, so pliable and easy to her skill. And then, the flatterer will turn to be thy foe, the bitterest and hottest, Because he oweth thee much hate to pay off many humblings. Thinkest thou now that he is high, he loveth the remembrance of his lowliness, The servile manner, the dependent smile, the conscience self-abased? No, this hour is his own, and the flatterer will be found a busy mocker; He that hath salved thee with his tongue, shall now gnash upon thee with his teeth; Yea, he will be leader in the laugh,--silly one, to listen to thy loss, We scarce had hoped to lime and take another of the fools of flattery. At the last; have charity, young scholar,--yea, to the sycophant convicted; Be not a Brutus to thyself, nor stern in thine own cause. Pardon exaggerated praise; for there is a natural impulse, Spurring on the nobler mind, to colour facts by feelings: Take an indulgent view of each man's interest in self, Be large and liberal in excuses; is not that infirmity thine own? Search thy soul and be humble; and mercy abideth with humility; So that, yea, the insincere may find thee pitiful, and love thee. Mildly put aside, without rudeness of repulse, the pampering hand of flattery, For courtesy and kindness have gone beneath its guise, and ill shouldst thou rebuke them. Thou art incapable of theft: but flowers in the garden of a friend Are thine to pluck with confidence, and it were unfriendliness to hesitate: Thou abhorrest flattery: but a generous excess in praise Is thine to yield with honest heart, and false were the charity to doubt it: The difference lieth in thine aim; kindliness and good are of charity, But selfish, harmful, vile, and bad, is Flattery's evil end. [Illustration] OF NEGLECT.