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Them up to scorn, nor through my tongue

Shall good or evil folk be stung.

Let all and each their burdens bear,

And each and all confess them where

It please them, or confess them not,

The case is none of mine, God wot.

No lust have I to say or do

Such things as folly lead unto.

Although to keep a silent tongue

May be small merit, yet among

The foulest crimes it is to say

Things it behoves us hide away.

The tongue hath sorely need of rein,

As Ptolemy doth well explain

In that fair book, the ‘Almagest’;

For in its opening he addressed

Himself to show that those do well

Who keep their tongues beneath the spell

Of silence, saving when they raise

Loud voice to God in prayer or praise,

For then need men seek no excuse

However much their tongues they loose,

For never yet was tongue too free

In praising God’s high majesty.

Of due obedience, love, and fear

No mortal who life’s bark doth steer

E’er gave his God too much; his gift

It is that man from earth may lift

His soul to heaven.

Great Cato said

The same, as those well know who’ve read

His book, for we therein may find

He hath the highest praise assigned