their enemies in battle, and brought the loftiest low; still, (I must venture to assert,) he who can dare, for the sake of conscience, to speak and act counter to the prejudices and passions of the world at the risk of losing his standing in society, such a man is a hero in the best sense of the word; his is courage of the most difficult kind; that moral courage, founded indeed on fear, but a fear that tramples firmly on every fear of man; for it is that holy fear, the FEAR OF GOD.

CHAPTER XIII.

LYING THE MOST COMMON OF ALL VICES.

I HAVE observed in the preceding chapter, and elsewhere, that all persons, in theory, consider lying as the most odious, mean, and pernicious practice. It is also one which is more than almost any other reproved, if not punished, both in servants and children;-for parents, those excepted, whose moral sense has been rendered utterly callous, or who never possessed any, mourn over the slightest deviation from truth in their offspring, and visit it with instant punishment. Who has not frequently heard masters and mistresses of families declaring that some of their servants were such liars that they could keep them no longer? Yet, trying and painful as intercourse with liars is universally allowed to be, since confidence, that necessary guardian of domestic peace, cannot exist where they are; lying is undoubtedly, THE MOST COMMON OF ALL VICES. A friend of mine was once told by a confessor, that

it was the one most frequently confessed to him; and I am sure that if we enter society with eyes open to detect this propensity, we shall soon be convinced, that there are few, if any, of our acquaintance, however distinguished for virtue, who are not, on some occasions, led by good and sufficient motives, in their own opinion at least, either to violate or withhold the truth with intent to deceive. Nor do their most conscious or even detected deviations from veracity fill the generality of the world with shame or compunction. If they commit any other sins, they shrink from avowing them; but I have often heard persons confess, that they had, on certain occasions, uttered a direct falsehood, with an air which proved them to be proud of the deceptive skill with which it was uttered, adding, "but it was only a white lie, you know," with a degree of self-complacency which showed that, in their eyes, a white lie was no lie at all.

And what is more common than to hear even the professedly pious, as well as the moral, assert that a deviation from truth, or, at least, withholding the truth, so as to deceive, is sometimes absolutely necessary? Yet, I would seriously ask of those who thus argue, whether, when they repeat the commandment," thou shalt not steal," they feel willing to admit, either in themselves or others, a mental reservation, allowing them to pilfer in any degree, or even in the slightest particular, make free with the property of another? Would they think that pilfering tea or sugar was a venial fault in a servant, and excusable under strong temptations? They would answer "no ;" and be ready to say in the words of the apostle, "whosoever in this respect shall offend in one point, he

is guilty of all." Yet, I venture to assert, that little lying, alias white lying, is as much an infringement of the moral law against "speaking leasing," as little pilfering is of the commandment not to steal; and I defy any consistent moralist to escape from the obligation of the principle which I here lay down.

The economical rule, "take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves," may, with great benefit, be applied to morals. Few persons, comparatively, are exposed to the danger of committing great crimes, but all are daily and hourly tempted to commit little sins.

Be

ware, therefore, of slight deviations from purity and rectitude, and great ones will take care of themselves; and the habit of resistance to trivial sins will make you able to resist temptation to 'errors of a more culpable nature; and as those persons will not be likely to exceed improperly in pounds, who are laudably saving in pence, and as little lies are to great ones, what pence are to pounds, if we acquire a habit of telling truth on trivial occasions, we shall never be induced to violate it on serious and important ones.

I shall now borrow the aid of others to strengthen what I have already said on this important subject, or have still to say; as I am painfully conscious of my own inability to do justice to it; and if the good which I desire be but effected, I am willing to resign to others the merit of the suc

cess.

CHAPTER XIV.

EXTRACTS FROM LORD BACON, AND OTHERS.

In a gallery of moral philosophers, the rank of Bacon, in my opinion, resembles that of Titian in a gallery of pictures; and some of his successors not only look up to him as authority for certain excellences, but, making him, in a measure, their study, they endeavour to diffuse over their own productions the beauty of his conceptions, and the depth and breadth of his manner. I am, therefore, sorry that those passages in his Essay on Truth which bear upon the subject before me, are so unsatisfactorily brief;-however, as even a sketch from the hand of a master is valuable, I give the following extracts from the essay in question.

"But to pass from theological and philosophical truth-to truth, or rather veracity, in civil business, it will be acknowledged, even by those who practise it not, that clear and sound dealing is the honour of man's nature, and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. For these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent, which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice that does so overwhelm a man with shame, as to be found, false or perfidious; and therefore Montaigne saith very acutely, when he inquired the reason, why the giving the lie should be such a disgraceful and odious charge, “If it be well weighed," said he "to

say that a man lies, is as much as to say, that he is a bravado towards God, and a coward towards man. For the liar insults God, and crouches to man." Essay on Truth.

I hope I have derived considerable assistance from Addison; as he ranks so very high in the list of moral writers, that Dr. Watts said of his greatest work, "There is so much virtue in the eight volumes of the Spectator, such a reverence of things sacred, so many valuable remarks for our conduct in life, that they are not improper to lie in parlours, or summer-houses, to entertain one's thoughts in any moments of leisure." But, in spite of his fame as a moralist, and of this high eulogium from one of the best authorities, Addison appears to have done very little as an advocate for spontaneous truth, and an assailant of spontaneous lying; and has been much less zealous and effective than either Hawkesworth or Johnson. However, what he has said is well said; and I have pleasure in giving it.

"The great violation of the point of honour from man to man is, giving the lie. One may tell another that he drinks and blasphemes, and it may pass unnoticed; but to say he lies, though but in jest, is an affront that nothing but blood can expiate. The reason perhaps may be, because no other vice implies a want of courage so much as the making of a lie; and, therefore, telling a man he lies, is touching him in the most sensible part of honour, and indirectly calling him a coward. I cannot omit, under this head, what Herodotus tells us of the ancient Persians; that, from the age of five years to twenty, they instruct their sons only in three things; -to manage the horse, to make use of the bow, and to speak the truth."-SPECTATOR, Letter 99.