Two things are here recommended to us, in dealing with others, as
likely means to gain our point:--1. Patience, to bear a present heat
without being put into a heat by it, and to wait for a fit opportunity
to offer our reasons and to give persons time to consider them. By this
means even a prince may be persuaded to do a thing which he seemed very
averse to, much more a common person. That which is justice and reason
now will be so another time, and therefore we need not urge them with
violence now, but wait for a more convenient season. 2. Mildness, to
speak without passion or provocation: A soft tongue breaks the bone; it
mollifies the roughest spirits and overcomes those that are most
morose, like lightning, which, they say, has sometimes broken the bone,
and yet not pierced the flesh. Gideon with a soft tongue pacified the
Ephraimites and Abigail turned away David's wrath. Hard words, we say,
break no bones, and therefore we should bear them patiently; but, it
seems, soft words do, and therefore we should, on all occasions, give
them prudently.