This shews us the ill consequence of giving ear to a gossiping
double-tongued neighbour. Many sociable well-disposed families have
been blown up into a perpetual discord, by one of these wicked
go-betweens; so that whoever would avoid the imputation of being a
bad neighbour, should guard both against receiving ill impressions by
hearsay, and uttering his opinions of others, to those busy bodies,
who, to gratify a malignant disposition, or gain some selfish end
of their own, can magnify a gnat to the size of a camel, or swell a
mole-hill to a mountain.
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