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The Beauty Of Silence

The Beauty Of Silence image
Parent Issue
Day
12
Month
March
Year
1880
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Did you ever sit down, Telemacbus, and contémplate for an houror two, the beauty of silence? You will appreciate its beauty and its blessing, my sou, as yougrow older. Sometime, whi.11 you want 10 thiuk and tho bore who s with you wants to talk ; sometíale, when yourears have bcendinncd into partial paralysis by the man who always will talk to you in the raüroad car; sometinie, when a man has been talking joliticsto you when he knows you hate politics; somolimo, when lie hacheen telling you all about himself, or trying to find out all about yourself, then you will know, my son, how OMtttil'ul is silence. IIow likeabenison iteomes to sooth your rufflod spirit ; lalling on your tortured 8oul softly asthe twilightshadows, and you love her with a love tliat is adoration, and on the allars of your grateful heart, you burn bef'ore her noiseless shrine the voicelewi incensé oí' your worship. All through your lile, my boy, cultivate flashes of silence. Now and then, an houlrofoontrmpl.uiiui is worth ¦ week of talk. The frieüd you love is all the doarer lo you when you sit and hold bis hand (if that is bis LM'ndcr, my son), and eau say nothing to him. When you meet a stranger, my son, who can talk eleven hoursaday, avoid him ifyou can, and don't shoot him if'you (¦an ios.-ili]y get rid of him ly any lawful meana. And, onc parling word, Telemauhus: Don't talk to a man in a railroad car. He is never, at lea.st rarely, thankful to you. Bailway oonvtnatioo is always tiresome ; tlio listener has to strain bis ears to hcar, the talkcr bas to straiu bis voiue to speak ; U'yea speak too loud, everybody can hcar you; ifyou speak too iow, you can't hear cach other. Never talk to peoplo on the train, gtlVBgen or l'i iends, unless you have somethinf; to s:iy, and then say it and close your shell. Don't, don't, don't talk in the mere effori to pais awaythe time. You will only make tbc hours infinitely heavior. Of coursü, circumstances and the peoplo you meet, their habits and varying dispositions, will show you when and where to make liberal excepiions to these rules ; but don't talk, never, never on the train to the man who doesn't want to talk, and mily keepa up bis part of the conversatiou l'rom tcsy. And if you can't teil when a man doesn't really want to talk witli you, my son, you had botter get a position as teach er in sonio asylum for the deaf and dunib, and learn to lose your voice entirely. as fast as you