Here is, 1. The folly of passion. It makes men scatter causeless
curses, wishing ill to others upon presumption that they are bad and
have done ill, when either they mistake the person or misunderstand the
fact, or they call evil good and good evil. Give honour to a fool, and
he thunders out his anathemas against all that he is disgusted with,
right or wrong. Great men, when wicked, think they have a privilege to
keep those about them in awe, by cursing them, and swearing at them,
which yet is an expression of the most impotent malice and shows their
weakness as much as their wickedness. 2. The safety of innocency. He
that is cursed without cause, whether by furious imprecations or solemn
anathemas, the curse shall do him no more harm than the bird that flies
over his head, than Goliath's curses did to David, 1 Sam. xvii. 43. It
will fly away like the sparrow or the wild dove, which go nobody knows
where, till they return to their proper place, as the curse will at
length return upon the head of him that uttered it.