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pise those whom want of taste or spirits suffers to grow rich. It were happy if the prisons of the kingdom were filled only with characters like these, men whom profperity could not make useful, and whom ruin cannot make wife but there are among us many who raise different sensations, many that owe their present misery to the feductions of treachery, the strokes of casualty, or the tenderness of pity; many whofe fufferings ditgrace fociety, and whofe virtues would adorn it: of thefe, when familiarity shall have enabled me to recount their stories without horror, you may expect another narrative from,

T

SIR,

Your moft humble fervant,

MISA GYRUS.

Religio

No. LIV. Saturday, May 12, 1753.

Senfim labefacta cadebat

CLAUDIANUS.

His confidence in heav'n

Sunk by degrees-

Ir a reclufe moralift, who fpeculates in a cloyster, fhould fuppofe every practice to be infamous in proportion as it is allowed to be criminal, no man would wonder: but every man who is acquainted with life, and is able to íubstitute the discoveries of experience for the deductions of reafon, knows that he would be miftaken.

Lying is generally allowed to be less criminal than adultery; and yet it is known to render a man much more infamous and contemptible; for he who would modeftly acquiefce in an imputation of adultery as a compliment, would refent that of a lie as an infult, for which life only could atone. Thus are men tamely led hoodwinked by custom, the creature of their own folly, and while imaginary light flashes under the bandage which excludes the reality, they fondly believe that they behold the fun.

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Lying, however, does not incur more infamy than it deferves, though other vices incur lefs. I have before remarked, that there are some practices, which, though they degrade a man to the lowest class of moral characters, do yet imply fome natural fuperiority; but lying is, on the contrary, always an implication of weakness and defect. Slander is the revenge of a coward, and diffimulation his defence; lying boasts are the stigma of impotent ambition, of obfcurity without merit, and pride totally deftitute of intellectual dignity and even lies of apology imply indifcretion or rufticity, ignorance, folly, or indecorum.

But there is equal turpitude, and yet greater meannefs, in those forms of fpeech which deceive without direct falfehood. The crime is committed with greater deliberation, as it requires more contrivance; and by the offenders the ufe of language is totally perverted: they conceal a meaning oppofite to that which they exprefs; their fpeech is a kind of riddle propounded for an evil purpofe; and as they may, therefore, be properly diftinguished by the name of Sphinxes, there would not perhaps be much caufe for regret, if, like the firft monfter of the name, they fhould break their necks upon the folution of their enigmas.

Indirect lies more effectually than others destroy that mutual confidence, which is faid to be the band of fociety they are more frequently repeated, because they are not prevented by the dread of detection: and he who has obtained a virtuous character is not always believed, because we know not but that he may have been perfuaded by the fophiftry of folly, that to deceive is not to lie, and that there is a certain manner in which

truth

truth may be violated without incurring either guilt or fhame.

But lying however practifed, does, like every other vice, ultimately disappoint its own purpose: "A lying 66 tongue is but for a moment." Detraction, when it is discovered to be falfe, confers honour, and diffimulation provokes refentment; the false boast incurs contempt, and the falfe apology aggravates the offence.

Is it not, therefore, aftonishing, that a practice, for whatever reason, fo univerfally infamous and unfuccefsful, fhould not be more generally and fcrupulously avoided? To think, is to renounce it and, that I may fix the attention of my readers a little longer upon the fubject, I shall relate a story, which, perhaps, by those who have much fenfibility, will not foon be forgotten.

Charlotte and Maria were educated together at an eminent boarding-fchool near London : there was little difference in their age, and their perfonal accomplishments were equal: but though their families were of the fame rank, yet, as Charlotte was an only child, the was confiderably fuperior in fortune.

Soon after they were taken home, Charlotte was addreffed by Captain Freeman, who, befides his commif fion in the guards, had a small paternal estate: but as her friends hoped for a more advantageous match, the Captain was defired to forbear his vifits, and the lady to think of him no more. After fome fruitless struggles they acquiefced; but the difcontent of both was fo apparent, that it was thought expedient to remove Miss into the country. She was fent to her aunt, the Lady Meadows, who, with her daughter, lived retired at the family feat, more than one hundred miles distant from the metropolis. After she had repined in this dreary fo

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litude from April to Auguft, fhe was furprised with a vifit from her father, who brought with him Sir James Forrest, a young gentleman who had juft fucceeded to a baronets title, and a very large estate in the same county. Sir James had good-nature and good-fense, an agreeable person, and an easy address: Mifs was infenfibly pleafed with his company; her vanity, if not her love, had a new object; a defire to be delivered from a ftate of dependence and obfcurity, had almoft abforbed all the reft; and it is no wonder that this defire was gratified, when scarce any other was felt; or that in compliance with the united folicitations of her friends, and her lover, fhe füffered herself within a few weeks to become a lady and a wife. They continued in the country till the beginning of October, and then came up to London, having prevailed upon her aunt to accompany them, that Mifs Meadows, with whom the bride had contracted an intimate friendship, might be gratified with the diverfions of the town during the winter.

Captain Freeman, when he heard that Mifs Charlotte was married, immediately made propofals of marriage to Maria, with whom he became acquainted during his vifits to her friend, and foon after married her.

The friendship of the two young ladies feemed to be rather increafed than diminished by their marriage; they were always of the fame party both in the private and public diverfions of the feafon, and vifited each other without the formalities of meffages and drefs.

But neither Sir James nor Mrs. Freeman could reflect without uneafinefs upon the frequent interviews which this familiarity and confidence produced between a lover and his mistress, whom force only had divided;

and

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