Experimental truths: 1. Prudent reserve and foolish babbling
I. PRUDENCE HAS REGARD TO TIME, PLACE, AND PERSONS; FOLLY HAS NONE.
II. PRUDENCE KNOWS THAT THERE IS A TIME FOR SILENCE; THE FOOL WILL STILL BE TALKING. A quiet tongue shows a sound head.
III. ANXIETY TO MAKE KNOWN OUR OPINIONS MAY BE BUT ANXIETY TO EXALT OURSELVES. Great talkers are great nuisances. The ambitious aim to shine cannot be hidden. The fool talks as if he were ambitious to be known for a fool.
IV. SILENCE IS ALWAYS SEASONABLE IN REFERENCE TO SUBJECTS WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND. Were this rule observed, conversation would be generally more entertaining and more profitable. At the same time, a great many pulpits would be emptied, and publishers and printers would have a sorry time of it. Let us confess that there is a great deal of the fool in every one of us.—J.