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Absalom hath slain all the king's sons - Fame never lessens but always magnifies a fact. Report, contrary to the nature of all other things, gains strength by going.

Virgil has given, in his best manner, a fine personification of Fame or Evil Report. - Aen. iv., 173.

Extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes;

Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum,

Mobilitate viget, viresque adquirit eundo, etc.

"Now Fame, tremendous fiend! without delay,

Through Libyan cities took her rapid way;

Fame, the swift plague, that every moment grows,

And gains new strength and vigor as she goes," etc.

Jonadab was as guilty of Ammon's death, as of his sin; such false friends do they prove, who counsel us to do wickedly. Instead of loathing Absalom as a murderer, David, after a time, longed to go forth to him. This was David's infirmity: God saw something in his heart that made a difference, else we should have thought that he, as much as Eli, honoured his sons more than God.