LISTENING
People in deep trouble like somebody to hear them all through: even little children
are comforted by telling mother all about it. We are in such a hurry with poor
troubled spirits that we hasten them on to the end of the sentence, and try to make
them skip the dreary details. But to them this seems unkind, for their story is sacred;
and, therefore, they go slowly on with it, till we are quite tired. I have often hurried
on a poor despondent creature till I have seen the uselessness of it: it is always best
to let them spin on. It does them good. 1819.45