... “calm the sea of their tempestuous spite: Such power have pleasing words! Such is the might Of courteous clemency in gentle heart!” We are all of us fond of gentle words, once more to quote an _ex titulo_ authority on all that concerns gentle living; and he denies the truth of the common rough proverb, “Soft words butter no parsnips,” which is shown to be, after all, an apologetic proverb, meaning that the hearer is tickled with the politeness, albeit real satisfaction is not yet made. “Soft words do butter parsnips; and many an oily fellow, whose talent, industry, and conscientiousness are small, owes his position and advancement in life to the soft words which drop continually from his mouth.” The soft answer that avails to dispel wrath, comes of practised patience; and when patience has its perfect work, it works miracles, as detailed by that fine old forgotten poet, Decker:— “It is the greatest enemy to law That can be, for it doth embrace all wrongs, And so chains up lawyers and women’s tongues; ... And last of all, to end a household strife, It is the honey ’gainst a waspish wife.” This reminds us of a passage in “The Gordian Knot,” where the gentle laying of a husband’s hand in an irritated wife’s, or _vice versâ_, is recommended (by example) as a good plan to adopt in conjugal discussions when differences arise. The tongue, says our author, is very proud, abominably proud and sulky, and often refuses to say what the heart desires should be said; but the fingers know their duty, and are ready to convey an apologetic or forgiving pressure, which, he makes bold to assert, “will stop ninety-nine quarrels out of a hundred, if the parties love one another.” The greatest, widest, deepest of all observers of human nature puts into the mouth of one of the sagest of kings this counsel to a younger son, in respect to his bearing towards the elder:— ... “Blunt not his love; ... For he is gracious, if he be observed;[39] Yet notwithstanding, being incensed, he’s flint: As humorous as winter, and as sudden As flaws[40] congealed in the spring of day. His temper, therefore, must be well observed: Chide him for faults, and do it reverently, When you perceive his blood inclined to mirth: But being moody, give him line and scope; Till that his passions, like a whale on ground, Confound themselves with working.” In a later one, again, of his noble series of English history plays—indeed the latest—Shakspeare makes a ducal politician, astute in practical psychology as well as in politics, utter this apophthegm, of his own coinage:— “Anger is like A full-hot horse, who being allowed his way, Self-mettle tires him.” _A TWICE-TOLD TALE OF YEARS._ ECCLESIASTES vi. 6.