Harmony

( Mr. ), a general peace-maker. When he found persons at variance, he went to them separately, and told them how highly the other spoke and thought of him or her. If it were man and wife, he would tell the wife how highly her husband esteemed her, and would apply the “oiled feather” in a similar way to the husband. “We all have our faults,” he would say, “and So-and-so-knows it, and grieves at his infirmity of temper; but though he contends with you, he praised you to me this morning in the highest terms.” By this means he succeeded in smoothing many a ruffled mind.—Inchbald, Every One has His Fault (1794).