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The great Duke of Marlborough, who was, perhaps, the most accomplished
gentleman of his age, would never suffer any approaches to obscenity
in his presence; and it was said, by Lord Cobham, that he did not
reprove it as an immorality in the speaker, but resented it as an
indignity to himself; and it is evident, that to speak evil of the
absent, to utter lewdness, blasphemy, or treason, must degrade not
only him who speaks, but those who hear; for surely that dignity of
character, which a man ought always to sustain, is in danger, when he
is made the confidant of treachery, detraction, impiety, or lust; for
he who in conversation displays his own vices, imputes them; as he who
boasts of a robbery to another, presupposes that he is a
thief.--_Hawkesworth_.
* * * * *
Silence in love bewrays more woe
Than words, tho' ne'er so witty;
A beggar that is dumb, you know,
May challenge double pity.
_Sir W. Raleigh_.
* * * * *