Lastly. The vices which you censure are light; but do you add nothing of your own to them? Do you faithfully exhibit them as they are? In their relation, do you never mingle the malignity of your own conjectures? Do you not place them in a point of view different from their natural state? Do you not embellish your tale? And, in order to make the hero of your ridicule agreeable, do you not fashion him to the wish of the company, and not such as in reality he is? Do you never accompany your speeches with certain gestures, which allow all to be understood; with certain expressions which open the minds of your hearers to a thousand suspicions equally rash as dishonourable? Even with a certain silence, which permits more to be imagined than any thing you could have possibly said? For, how difficult is it to confine ourselves to the bounds of truth when we are no longer within those of charity! The more what we censure is light, the more is calumny to be dreaded; we must embellish, to attract attention; and we become calumniators, where we did not suppose ourselves even censurers.
Behold the circumstances which regard you; but if, on their account, the slanders which you think light, be highly criminal, will they be less so with respect to the individuals whom they attack?
In the first place, it is a person, perhaps of a sex, to whom, especially on certain points, the slightest stains are important; to whom it is a dishonour to be publicly spoken of; to whom raillery becomes an insult, and every suspicion an accusation; in a word, a person, whom not to praise, becomes an outrage and a disgrace to their station. Thus St. Paul would have every woman to be adorned with bashfulness and modesty; that is to say, he would wish those virtues to be as conspicuous in them as the ornaments with which they are covered; and the highest eulogy which the Holy Spirit makes on Judith, after speaking of her beauty, youth, and great wealth, is, that in all Israel not a person was to be found who had aspersed her conduct, and that her reputation corresponded with her virtue.
Secondly. Your censures are perhaps pointed toward your superiors; or against those whom Providence has established above you, and to whom the law of God commands you to render that respect and submission to which they are entitled. For the pride which hates inferiority, always recompenses itself by finding out weaknesses and foibles in those to whom it is under the necessity of yielding obedience; the more they are exalted, the more they are exposed to our censures. Malignity is even more quick-sighted in regard to their errors; nothing in their actions is pardoned; the very persons most loaded with their kindnesses, or most honoured by their familiarity, are frequently those who most openly publish their imperfections and vices; and besides violating the sacred duty of respect, they likewise render themselves guilty of the mean and shameful crime of ingratitude.
Thirdly. It is a person, perhaps consecrated to God, and established in the church, whom you censure; who, engaged by the
