“My sin, Ismenus, has wrought all this ill:
And I beseech thee to be warned by me,
And do not lie, if any man should ask thee
But how thou dost, or what o’clock ’tis now;
Be sure thou do not lie, make no excuse
For him that is most near thee; never let
The most officious falsehood ’scape thy tongue,
For they above (that are entirely Truth)
Will make the seed which thou hast sown of lies,
Yield miseries a thousand-fold
Upon thine head, as they have done on mine.”
_A TIME TO WEEP, AND A TIME TO LAUGH._
ECCLESIASTES iii. 4.
As to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the
sun,—for as Shakspeare words it, “How many things by season seasoned are
to their right praise and true perfection!”—be sure that the Wise King
includes laughter and weeping in the list. “A time to weep, and a time to
laugh.” Acquainted with grief, he had also been familiar with merriment.
He had said in his heart, Go to, now, I will prove thee with mirth; but
the result was that he said of laughter, It is mad; and of mirth, What
doeth it?—For all this, he freely recognises a time to laugh, so that one
keep to the time. So much depends, here, on the due observance of times
and seasons. It is with the frivolous habit of laughing out of season,
and at all seasons, that the following notes are concerned.