Note, 1. The way to preserve peace among relations and neighbours is to
make the best of every thing, not to tell others what has been said or
done against them when it is not at all necessary to their safety, nor
to take notice of what has been said or done against them when it is
not at all necessary to their safety, nor to take notice of what has
been said or done against ourselves, but to excuse both, and put the
best construction upon them. "It was an oversight; therefore overlook
it. It was done through forgetfulness; therefore forget it. It perhaps
made nothing of you; do you make nothing of it." 2. The ripping up of
faults is the ripping out of love, and nothing tends more to the
separating of friends, and setting them at variance, than the repeating
of matters that have been in variance; for they commonly lose nothing
in the repetition, but the things themselves are aggravated and the
passions about them revived and exasperated. The best method of peace
is by an amnesty or act of oblivion.