Australian Tales - Setis

gooseberry.
“I don't think that was speaking a word in season,” I quietly remarked
to my friend, as we seated ourselves on a skylight; “quite the contrary; I
think it was decidedly out of season, and may have the effect of making
that man think unfavourably of religion, or that those who profess it are
troublesome bores. It was very unlikely that he would keep his crew
standing idle, while he told you his religious experience before them; but
had he been sitting quietly on the booms smoking his after-dinner pipe,
your question might not have been inopportune, though even then, I
think, it would have been more effective if put in a less direct form. You
would be more likely to impress a sailor with a few good words
judiciously infused into your cheerful conversation during an hour's walk
with him on deck in the middle watch on a quiet night, than you would
by preaching to him while he is putting the ship about, or hauling up the
main-sail in a squall.”
The same principle is applicable to landsmen as well as sailors.
Suitable times must be selected for speaking good words, otherwise your
good words may be worse than useless, for, like fruit, they are
unpalatable, and sometimes positively unwholesome, when “out of
season.”
I do not think my reasoning convinced my eccentric — though very
worthy — little friend, for he had much to say in favour of his system of
“sowing beside all waters,” notwithstanding his palpable failure to
impress the busy mate with a solemn sense of the important question he
had just put to him, with the kindest of motives, though with illtimed
precipitancy.
I could give numberless instances, if necessary, of similar lack of
judgment, exhibited by well-intentioned persons, which have come under
my notice. I have often heard, too, the motives of such persons unjustly
impugned, and themselves ridiculed or abused, simply because they
failed to make themselves understood by those whom they were kindly
endeavouring to benefit. While I have of course deprecated such
ingratitude, I have not been surprised at it, and could not but lament that
the subjects of it had not, in addition to their other studies, studied human
nature a little more.
Few readers will be likely to mistake the meaning of my remarks. It is
far, indeed, from my wish to discourage any humble-minded person from
endeavouring to comfort or edify his needy fellow creatures around him;
on the contrary, I would encourage him in every way in my power. I
simply wish to urge the policy of studying to do good in the most
effectual way, and prevent good from being spoken evil of.