4. _Remember that you have your own weak points_ and failings, as well as he of whom you may utter slanderous things. Were you to use the mirror of reflection, and look into your own life honestly, you would probably see faults which would make you think, "Well, I have plenty of failings of my own, without saying anything about those of others. I have a beam in my own eye to take out, before I attempt to take the mote out of my brother's. I see that I live in a glass house myself, and must be careful at whom I throw stones. I must wash my own hands in innocency before I complain of others being unclean." 5. _Consider that, as you value your character_, other people value their character. As you do not like to be slandered, neither do they. Do, therefore, unto them as you would have them do unto you. 6. _Think of the consequences of slander_, and if you have a spark of beneficence in your nature, you will avoid the practice of it. 7. It will be as well for you _not to imagine yourself of so great importance in the world, and others of such insignificance_. Be not high-minded, but fear. It is generally from an eminence of self-importance that the slanderer speaks of those who occupy a position of real and given eminence. If he would step down from that cloudy pedestal, and occupy his own place, he would probably think less of himself and more of others. 8. _Give no countenance to the slanderer._ Keep your patronage for some one of nobler worth: some one more generous and charitable, more philanthropic and Christian. Give him no entrance into your house. Prefer his room to his company. Write over the doorway of your residence, "No admission for slanderers." And in case he should find an entrance, inscribe upon the walls of your rooms what St. Augustine inscribed upon his,-- "He that doth love on absent friends to jeer May hence depart, no room is for him here." Close your ears to his slanders whenever and wherever you meet him. "Lend not your ears," says an old writer, "to those who go about with tales and whispers; whose idle business it is to tell news of this man and the other: for if these kind of flies can but blow in your ears, the worms will certainly creep out at your mouth. For all discourse is kept up by exchange; and if he bring thee one story, thou wilt think it incivility not to repay him with another for it; and so they chat over the whole neighbourhood; accuse this man, and condemn another, and suspect a third, and speak evil of all." XII. _THE VALETUDINARIAN._ "Some men employ their health, an ugly trick, In making known how oft they have been sick; And give us, in recitals of disease, A doctor's trouble, but without his fees." COWPER.