them; and however true they may judge the Tenor of their Raillery, they confider it as the Produce of Envy, and feem unwilling to give that an Ear, which perhaps, they triumph in reporting to a fresh Company. In a Word, all Backbiting, Degrading, and Detraction, are Vices too mean for Men of Honour and Principles to think of, much more to practise: I would not rafhly rob a Man of his Reputation, even in my private Thoughts; or hold him in light Eftimation, for fuch Failings, as I expect every one fhould either overlook or pardon in myfelf. 'Tis the Charter of the Female Sex, to calumniate: Scandal is the Privilege of the Tea Table and Drawing-Room: And I would never have our Sex contend with them in that which they account a Pleasure, but we must efteem a falling from Honour. TALKATIVENESS. I Tis a troublesome and difficult Task which Philofophy undertakes in going about to cure the Disease, or rather Itch of intemperate Prating: For that Words, which are the fole Remedy against it, require Attention. But they who are given to prate, will hear no body; as being a Sort of People that loves to be always talking themselves. If we would define Loquacity, fays Theophraftus, it is an exceffive Intemperance of Words. The Prater will not fuffer any Perfon in Company to tell his own Story, but let it be what it will, tells you, you mistake the Matter: He only apprehends the Thing right; and if you please to hear him, he will make it very clear to you. The Interruptions of thefe impertinent Talkers, as they make them the Marks of Ridicule, fo are they moft unreasonable Methods of fupporting Converfation. P 2 verfation. They weary out a Man with the Volubility of their poor Rhetoric, and teize him into a Deteftation of Society in general, for fear of being worried.. I would as wil lingly fuffer the Torment and Gratings of a thousand difcordant Sounds, as to be run out of all Temper, and talked out of Patience, by these eternal Triflers. The principal Vice of loquacious Perfons, is that their Ears are ftopped to every Thing but their own Impertinences: This I take to be a willing Deafness in Men, controuling and contradicting Na ture, that has given us two Ears, though but one Tongue. As fedate and moderate People retain what is fpoken to them; fo, on the contrary, whatever is faid to talkative Perfons, runs through them as through a Cullender; and then they whisk about from Place to Place, like empty Veffels, void of Sense or Wit, but making a hideous Noife. We frequently talk with Impetuofity in Company, through Vanity or Humour, rarely with neceffary Caution; defirous to reply, before we have heard out the Question, we follow our own Notions, and explain them, without the leaft Regard to other Mens Reasons. Were a Man to hear and write down thefe Converfations, he would fee, perhaps, a great many many good Things fpoken, but with little Confideration and lefs Coherence. It must be acounted a fad Thing, when Men have neither Wit enough to fpeak well, nor Judgment enough to hold their Tongues; for this Want is the Foundation of all Impertinence. Where Garrulity a curable Vice in Natúre, one would think your great Talkers fhould be broke of that Faculty, by feeing the Uneafiness it puts their Hearers under: For when a Fool, full of Noife and Talk enters into a Room where Friends are met to difcourfe, to regale or be merry, the whole Company are hufhed of a fudden, and afraid of giving him any Occafion to fet his Tougue upon the Career. And if he once begin to open, they are glad to fheer off, and avoid the Perfecu tion: Like Seamen, that foreseeing an immediate Storm and rowling of the Waves, when they hear the North-Wind begin to whistle from an adjoining Promontory, make all the Sail they can and haften into Harbour. I must confefs when a Man expreffes himself well upon any Occafion, and his falling into an Account of any Subject arifing from a Defire to oblige the Company; or from Fullness of the Circumftance itself, fo that his fpeak P 3 fpeaking of it at large is occafioned only by the Openness of a Companion; I say, in fuch a Cafe as this, it is not only pardonable, but agreeable, when a Man takes the Discourse to himfelf: But when you fee a Fellow watch Opportunities for being copious, it is exceffively troublefome. It is an Obfervation of Plutarch, That there is no Member in human Bodies, which Nature has fo ftrongly inclosed within a double Fortification, as the Tongue, entrenched within with a Barricado of fharp Teeth, to the End that when he refuses to be ruled by Reason, that holds the Reins of Silence within, we fhould fix our Teeth in it till the Blood comes, rather than fuffer the inordinate and unreasonable Din. Γλάσσης του θησαυρὸς ἐν ἀνθρώποισιν ἄριστος fays Hefiod: A provident Tongue is a moft valuable Treasure in Man; and there is much Grace in ufing it with Difcretion, and obferving a Medium. But Men that let their Tongue run at random, rend and tear the Ears with their Tautologies; like thofe, that after Table-Books have been newly |