Lesson:

1. Speak gently; it is better far

To rule by love than fear:

Speak gently; let no harsh words mar

The good we might do here.

2. Speak gently to the little child;

Its love be sure to gain;

Teach it in accents soft and mild;

It may not long remain.

3. Speak gently to the aged one;

Grieve not the careworn heart:

The sands of life are nearly run;

Let such in peace depart.

4. Speak gently, kindly, to the poor;

Let no harsh tone be heard;

They have enough they must endure,

Without an unkind word.

5. Speak gently to the erring; know

They must have toiled in vain;

Perhaps unkindness made them so;

Oh, win them back again.

6. Speak gently: ’tis a little thing

Dropped in the heart’s deep well;

The good, the joy, which it may bring,

Eternity shall tell.

George Washington Langford.

McGuffey’s Third Eclectic Reader by William Holmes McGuffey