Page:King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care (2).djvu/283

274 sorge ne geiecen mid ðy ðæt hie hiera tungan gehealden. Eac hie sint to manianne, gif hie hiera nihstan lufien swæ swæ hie selfo, ðæt hie him ne helen forhwy hie hie tælen on hiera geðohtum [geðohte], forðæm sio spræc cymð hiera ægðrum to hælo, forðæmþe hio ægðer ge ðæt gehwelede on ðæm oðrum geopenað & utforlætt, ðæt he wierð ðonan gehæled, ge ðone oðerne gelærð, & his unðeawa gestierð. Se þe ðonne hwæt yfles ongitt on his nihstan, & hit forswigað, he deð swæ swæ se læce þe gesceawað his freondes wunde, & nyle hie ðonne gelacnian. Hu, ne bið he ðonne swelce he sie his slaga, ðonne he hiene mæg gehælan, & nyle? Forðæm is sio tunge gemetlice to midlianne, nalles ungemetlice to gebindanne. Be ðæm is awriten: Se wisa swugað, oð he ongitt ðæt him bið bettre to sprecanne. Nis hit nan wundor, ðeah he swugige, & bide his timan, ac ðonne he nytwyrðne timan ongit to sprecanne, he forsiehð ða swiggean, & sprycð eall ðæt he nytwyrdes ongiet to sprecanne. Ond eft hit is awriten on Salomonnes bocum, ðæm þe Ecclesiastis hatton, ðætte hwilUm sie spræce tiid, hwilum swiggean. Forðæm is gesceadwislice to ðenceanne hwelcum tidum him gecopust sie sprecanne, ðætte, ðonne ðonne he sprecan wille, he his tungan gehealde ðæt hio ne racige on unnytte spræce, ne eft ne aseolce ðær he nytt sprecan mæg. Be ðæm swiðe wel cwæð se psalmscop: Gesete Dryhten hierde minum muðe & ða duru gestæððignesse. Ne bæd he no ðæt he hiene mid ealle fortynde mid gehale wage, ac he bæd dura to, ðæt he meahte hwilum ontynan, hwilum betyman. Đy we sculon geleornian ðæt we swiðe wærlice

ought to be must also know that they are not to increase their trouble by holding their tongue. They are also to be admonished, if they love their neighbours as themselves, not to conceal from them the reason of their blaming them in their mind, since speech is beneficial to both of them, because it both opens and lets out the inflammation in the one, and heals him, and teaches the other and restrains him from vices. He, then, who perceives any evil in his neighbour, and keeps silent about it, acts like the surgeon who looks at his friend's wound and will not cure it. How, is he not as it were his murderer, when he can cure him and will not ? Therefore the tongue is to be moderately bridled, not to be bound immoderately. Of which it is written : "The wise man is silent, till he perceives that it is more profitable for him to speak."