HOW TO TREAT SLANDER

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 10, 1856

HOW TO TREAT SLANDER.

Plato, hearing that certain persons had asserted that he was a very bad man, replied,—"I shall take care to so live that nobody will believe them." And Plato did so live. Over two thousand years have passed by since he lived, yet Plato is an honored name wherever learning and virtue are held in esteem. Nobody believes the slanders of his envious contemporaries.

Slander can not live, if let alone. It loves opposition, and thrives upon the excitement it makes. Take no notice of it, and it will soon starve. The backbiter loses his pains, when the object of his spite appears unsensible of his attacks. He only bites a file, and destroys his own teeth.

If one wishes to suffer from slanderous attacks, he has only to fly into a passion, endeavor to trace out the author of the stories told to his injury, and thus make the matter a common talk. It is just what the author desired. His shafts have hit the mark, and he is pleased. Whether his stories are true or false, they have produced a fluttering, and there will be enough to believe them. Plato's method was far better. A good life will not long suffer from false accusations.