And justly, should recompense well doing, as well as be strict with an offender;
The laurel is cheap to the giver, but precious in his sight who hath won it,
And the heart of the soldier rejoiceth in the approving glance of his chief.
Timely given praise is even better than the merited rebuke of censure,
For the sun is more needful to the plant than the knife that cutteth out a canker.
Many a father hath erred, in that he hath withheld reproof,
But more have mostly sinned, in withholding praise where it was due:
There be many such as Eli among men; but these be more culpable than Eli,
Who chill the fountain of exertion by the freezing looks of indifference:
Ye call a man easy and good, yet he is as a two-edged sword;