Gossip, Shoptalk, and Small Talk : Page 251

pany can reasonably wish we had rather left unsaid." This should be supplemented by the further notion that we ought never to say anything which anyone being talked about can reasonably wish had not been said of him. If a person applies this criterion honestly and determinedly, and if he is clever enough and willing to discourage others from violating it, too, then he may safely assume that the so-called gossip is harmless. Such talk of one's acquaintances, while it is not a high form of conversation, is yet a warm and natural one. It can well indicate a charitable and kindly interest in one's neighbors and fellow men.