The moral of one of Gay’s fables is to the purpose—that one, namely, in which a young dog, ignorant of game, gives tongue as lustily as if he knew all about it, and gets well lashed for his pains. To the astounded puppy’s remonstrance the whip-bearing huntsman replies:— “Had not thy forward noisy tongue Proclaim’d thee always in the wrong, Thou might’st have mingled with the rest, And ne’er thy foolish nose confess’d; But fools, to talking ever prone, Are sure to make their follies known.” So a French satirist of the last century bids _le sot_ remember, that by simply holding his tongue, he will acquire not a little respect—hopeless as the reminder in such a case may be; for you might as well counsel the coward not to tremble, as the fool not to expose himself in words, words, words: “Souvenez-vous qu’un sot doit garder le silence, Il serait respecté beaucoup plus qu’il ne pense; Mais vouloir le contraindre à ne jamais parler, C’est, sans espoir, défendre au poltron ne trembler.” Could it but be enforced, the one injunction to be laid upon the fool might be condensed into an applied line from Molière, where Orgon bids Dorine hold her tongue, and regard that as a standing order:— “Taisez-vous. C’est le mot qu’il vous faut toujours dire.” All silent people, Lord Lytton affirms, can seem conventionally elegant. And he tells the story of a groom married to a rich lady, and in consequent trepidation as to the probability of being ridiculed by the guests in his new home and her old one, to whom an Oxford clergyman gave this bit of advice: “Wear a black coat, and hold your tongue.” The groom took the hint, and, we are assured, was always considered the most gentlemanly man in the county. Elsewhere, again, the same author relates his meeting with a diplomatist of weighty name, a stock example of political success, but of whom he could make nothing whatever, except indeed that he was a preposterous numskull. When, therefore, the Prime Minister, some days later, spoke to our author of this “superior man,” he got for a reply, “Well, I don’t think much of him. I spent the other day with him, and found him insufferably dull.” “Indeed!” said the minister, with something of horror in his tone; “why then, I see how it is. Lord ⸺ has been positively talking to you!” Had he but altogether held his peace, it had been his wisdom.