destroys its peace and harmony,—which nourishes bad and hard and unkind feelings, which rouses and stirs up angry passions, and is the cherisher of "envy, malice, and all uncharitableness"—it is the sin here forbidden, the sin of speaking evil of others. This sin is sometimes committed openly, and from wilful and malicious purpose; and then it is indeed a sin of the deepest dye. It may be said indeed almost to rank with the crime of murder; indeed, it is declared by the New Church Doctrine to be a species of murder; there is in it the principle of murder, for there is in it hate and malice, and hate is the soul of murder and is its parent. One who can deliberately go about traducing and defaming his neighbor, and seeking to destroy his character and good name, has in his heart that principle which might lead him at length, and under certain circumstances, to take his neighbor's life itself. Such criminality as this, however, is, it is to be hoped, comparatively rare.
But there is another species of this sin, which, though less heinous in its nature, is yet a great evil, and baneful in its effects; and that is the sin of contemptuously, or carelessly and recklessly, speaking evil of others. This sin, besides being referred to in this Commandment, is also forbidden in express language, in other parts of the Divine Word. It is written in the 101st Psalm, "Whoso privily slandereth his neighbor, him will I cut off." And in the 15th Psalm, it is thus written, "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness,
