though it is to be hoped, not among his intimate friends. The diligence and assiduity which they bestow on their work of impertinent meddling, are worthy of a better cause. One would suppose, when he witnessed their untiring exertions, that they had been constituted a general commission of inquiry into the faults and short-comings of their neighbours; a sort of "local board of health" appointed for the express purpose of removing nuisances, and suggesting private improvements; a staff of surveyors-general, who, quite at ease respecting their own dwellings, deem it their especial business to rush about in all directions to examine the security and stability of the houses around them. S. Peter, in describing such persons, makes use of a very remarkable and expressive word which in our English version is rendered "a busybody in other men's matters." 1 Now this rendering fails to convey to us the full force and expressiveness of the original word used by the Apostle. The word properly signifies "A Bishop who takes upon him to interfere in the management of a diocese which does not belong to him." It has often struck me in reading this verse from S. Peter's First Epistle, that no stronger proof could be given, of the criminality of busybodies, than the fact that Holy Scripture classes them with "evil-doers, with thieves, and with murderers." 66 'Every fool," says Solomon, "will be meddling."2 Busybodies are, beyond all doubt, a pest and a nuisance to the society in which they move by their rash and untimely interference they bring oil to fire," and heap on fuel to quarrels which, if let alone, would die out of themselves: they run to and fro 66 1 1 Peter, iv. 15. 2 Proverbs, xx. 3. through the city, and clothe baseless and unfounded suspicions in the garb of reality and truth.1 "Wretched, rash, intruding fools” is the language in which our Poet describes them. The misery which they cause is incalculable; infinitely more than they themselves intend to cause, or suppose, for one moment, that they are capable of causing, by their wicked and thoughtless interference with what does not concern them. One moment's thought on the subject would deter them from such impertinences, but they will not be at the trouble of thinking, until the mischief is done; the folly of their conduct then becomes as evident to the meddlers themselves, as it has been all along to those who have been silent and sorrowful observers of their conduct. The folly of Revenge, and the certainty of our wrath recoiling on our own heads, is shown by a reference to the History of the Three Saints who were cast by the Heathen monarch into a burning fiery furnace, and escaped unharmed; while the fierce flame burned up the executioners of the tyrant's decree.3 Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot That it do singe yourself.-Henry VIII., i. 1. It is Shakspere who tells us, that The silence often of pure innocence Persuades, when speaking fails.—Winter's Tale, ii. 2. In the same way S. Peter inculcates the duty of wives to be in subjection to their husbands, that if any obey not the word, they may, without the word, be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold their chaste 1 Proverbs, xxvi. 17; Ecclus., xi. 9, 10; xxi. 25. 2 Hamlet, iii. 4. 1 conversation coupled with fear. The word conversation being used here, as in other places where it occurs in our English translation, not in the sense in which we now use it, viz., as familiar discourse, but in its more primitive and extended sense, as signifying the ordinary course of our life; the whole system which we adopt in our daily practice. As also in Shakspere : But all are banish'd, till their conversations King Henry IV., Part II., v. 5. Our Poet speaks in another place of one Whose voice was ever soft, Gentle and low; an excellent thing in woman. King Lear, v. 3. Solomon had given utterance to the same sentiment more than two thousand years before, when he said, “A foolish woman is clamorous, she is simple and knoweth nothing." " And in his celebrated description of the virtuous woman, given by King Lemuel, we are told, that "when she openeth her mouth, it is with wisdom."4 Love and tongue-tied simplicity In least, speak most.—Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1. So that young ladies who are ridiculed by their acquaintance for having so little to say for themselves, may possibly, after all, be more solid and valuable members of society than their volatile and talkative neighbours. True it is, there is a medium in this, as in everything else; there is surely some pleasant resting-place between unsociable 1 1 Peter, iii. 1,2; cf. Ecclus., xxvi. 14. 2 Galatians, i. 13; 1 Timothy, iv. 12; 1 Peter, i. 15, 18, &c. 3 Proverbs, ix. 13; cf. Ecclus., xxvi. 27. * Proverbs, xxxi. 26. taciturnity and insufferable loquacity; to avoid being a chatterer one need not become a dummy. No one need be a silent and unprofitable listener in company; for each has it in her power to increase to some extent, the general stock of information; and indeed some young ladies might impart an immense amount of very profitable information; and would do so, were they not prevented by the incessant and frivolous prattle of their less sober companions. Pray, young ladies of the talkative class, do not give impertinent witticism occasion to ask you to what vegetable your tongue is most like do not run on so fast, and then you will have the satisfaction of knowing, that there is no resemblance whatever between your tongue and the vegetable alluded to except as regards its singularly beautiful and healthy colour; never speak without thinking; and do not consider yourselves bound to speak whatever first comes into your mind; speak for edification and improvement, and you will gain the respect and esteem of all around you. The separate destination of the body and of the soul after death, is clearly pointed out in the Book of Ecclesiastes.1 We are there told, that "the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." So Shakspere: Mount, mount my soul! thy seat is up on high; Thou hadst but power over his mortal body; His soul thou cans't not have.-King Richard III., i. 2. Cf. Matthew, x. 28. 1 xii. 7. Cf. 2 Corinthians, v. 4; Wisdom, ix. 15. A very common metaphor used by the Inspired Writers, to express the state of death, is Sleep. And just as in the repose which our bodies take in sleep, human consciousness is still preserved; so we have no reason to conclude that in the deeper sleep of death our faculties will be destroyed. So Shakspere says: He gave his honours to the world again, Again: To die,-to sleep ; To sleep!-perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub; Hamlet, iii. 1. So much indeed does Death resemble Sleep, that our Poet calls "Sleep, death's counterfeit."-Macbeth, ii. 3. And the broad area in which we bury the dead out of our sight, has, by a beautiful and significant euphemism, been designated a Cœmetery, that is to say, a place for sleep. This truly Christian idea1 has, within the last few years, been more than ever encouraged, by the salutary regulation which forbids interments in churchyards surrounded by the abodes of the living; and the bodies of the departed are now, for the most part, borne away to rest in quiet and sequestered places, such as common humanity suggests, and religion sanctions and approves. 1 Acts, vii. 60; 1 Corinthians, xv. 6, 18; 1 Thessalonians, iv. 13; 2 Peter, iii. 4, &c. |