SPEAK GENTLY

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 13, 28 March 1907, Page 37

SPEAK GENTLY

•Kind words are more plentiful - 'than persistently kind and gentle voices, and yet. love loses much of its power when the voice- is sharp and. hard. Try, therefore, most earnestly, to acquire, the -right tone i n speaking, and guard yourself "carefully from- falling int 0

careless and bad habits, of voice. Often a sharp voice shows- far more ill will than the heart feels, but people do not know that the speaker's * bark is worse than her bite,' and they -believe her to be ill tempered and disagreeable. It is so easy to pick up a sharp and snappish maUner of Very often \t is acquired in mirth and in the give and take battles of words in which boys and girls delight. There is mo malice in their sallies and a great deal ot fun, but meanwhile the voice is often acquiring a sharp and shrewish tone which sticks through life, making it stir N up strife and ill will among its listeners. So" watch the tone in which you speak and take care that it is gentle and sweet. A kind voice is like music in the home," and is to the heart what light and beauty are to the eye.