1. Should you feel inclin’d to censure
Faults you may in others view,
Ask your own heart, ere you venture,
If that has not failings too.
Let not friendly vows be broken;
Rather strive a friend to gain;
Many a word in anger spoken
Find its passage home again.
2. Do not, then, in idle pleasure,
Trifle with a brother’s fame;
Guard it as a valued treasure,
Sacred as your own good name.
Do not form opinions blindly;
Hastiness to trouble tends;
Those of whom we tho’t unkindly,
Oft become our warmest friends.