You would do well to study the lesson, _When to talk, and when to be silent_. Silence is preferred by the wise and the good to superfluity of talking. You may read strange stories of some of the ancients, choosing silence to talking. St. Romualdus maintained a seven years' silence on the Syrian mountains. It is said of a religious person in a monastery in Brabant, that he did not speak a word in sixteen years. Ammona lived with three thousand brethren in such silence as though he was an anchoret. Theona was silent for thirty years together. Johannes, surnamed Silentarius, was silent for forty-seven years. I do not mention these as examples for your imitation, and would not have you become _such_ a recluse. These are cases of an extreme kind,--cases of moroseness and sullenness which neither reason nor Scripture justify. "This was," as Taylor observes, "to make amends for committing many sins by omitting many duties; and, instead of digging out the offending eye, to pluck out both, that they might neither see the scandal nor the duty; for fear of seeing what they should not, to shut their eyes against all light." The wiser course for you to adopt is the practice of silence for a time, as a discipline for the correction of the fault into which you have fallen. Pray as did the Psalmist, "Put a guard, O Lord, unto my mouth, and a door unto my lips." "He did not ask for a wall," as St. Gregory remarks, "but for a door, a door that might open and shut." It is said of Cicero, he never spake a word which himself would fain have recalled; he spake nothing that repented him. Silence will be a cover to your folly, and a disclosure of your wisdom. "Keep thy lips with all diligence." "A man that speaketh too much, and museth but little and lightly, Wasteth his mind in words, and is counted a fool among men: But thou when thou hast thought, weave charily the web of meditation, And clothe the ideal spirit in the suitable garments of speech." Note well the _discretion of silence_. What man ever involved himself in difficulties through silence? Who thinks another a fool because he does not talk? Keep quiet, and you may be looked upon as a wise man; open your mouth and all may see at once that you are a simpleton. Ben Jonson, speaking of one who was taken for a man of judgment while he was silent, says, "This man might have been a Counsellor of State, till he spoke; but having spoken, not the beadle of the ward." Lord Lytton tells of a groom who married a rich lady, and was in fear as to how he might be treated by the guests of his new household, on the score of his origin and knowledge: to whom a clergyman gave this advice, "Wear a black coat, and hold your tongue." The groom acted on the advice, and was considered a gentlemanly and wise man.