detection of the fraud is sure to disparage the credit of all pretensions of the same nature. Christianity has suffered more injury from this cause than from all other causes put together." The love of truth considered in all its tendencies and effects is a virtue of inestimable worth. Truth is the first moral lesson that should be impressed on the mind of youth, as it is the everlasting basis of all that is good and great in science, morals, and religion. EXTRACTS. EXODUS, XXIII., 1. Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. PSALM, XII., 2 and 3. They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things.-XV., 1 and 2. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill ?-He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.-XXIV., 3 and 4. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?—He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.-XXXIV., 13 and 14. Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. -Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it. CI., 5. Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look, and a proud heart, will not I suffer.-7. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.-CXX., 2 to 4. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.-What shall be given unto thee? or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue ?-Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper. PROVERBS, X., 9. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.-XII., 13. The wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips: but the just shall come out of trouble.-19. The lip of truth shall be established for ever; but a lying tongue is but for a moment. 22. Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight.-XIX., 5. A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.—XXVI,, 28. A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin.-XXIX., 12. If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.-XXX., 7 and 8. Two things have I required of thee, and deny me not them before I die.8. Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me. ZECHARIAH, VIII., 16 and 17.—These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates :-And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord. ROMANS, XII., 9. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. EPHESIANS, IV., 25. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour; for we are members one of another. COLOSSIANS, III., 9. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. 1 Peter, III., 10. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. of man. CONFUCIUS.-A long experience is required to know the heart I imagined, when I was young, that all men were sincere ; that they always practised what they said; in a word, that their mouth always agreed with their heart: but now that I behold things with another eye, I am convinced that I was mistaken. At present, I hear what men say, but I never rely thereon. I examine whether their words are agreeable to their actions. ISOCRATES. As you ought to distrust the vicious, so you ought to believe the virtuous. Never reveal your secrets to any, except it is as much their interest to keep them, as it is yours that they should be kept. If an oath be tendered you, take it on two accounts-either to clear yourself from any crime laid to your charge, or else to free your friends from danger; but never, for the sake of riches, swear by any god, although you might do it with a safe conscience; for by so doing you will be thought perjured by some, while others think you avaricious. CICERO. Of all the properties and inclinations of men, there is none more natural and peculiar to them, than an earnest desire and search after truth. Hence it is that our minds are no sooner free from the thoughts and engagements of necessary business, but we presently long to be either seeing, or hearing, or learning something; and esteem the knowledge of things secret and wonderful as a necessary ingredient of a happy life. From whence it appears, that nothing is more agreeable and suited to the nature and minds of men, than undisguised openness, truth, and sincerity.—From that, for example, which is mentioned first, and under which prudence and wisdom are contained, arises the duty of seeking, contemplating, and finding out of truth, which is the proper and peculiar business of those virtues; for it is then, and then alone, that we justly esteem a man prudent and wise, when we find that he is able to see and discover the truth of things; and of an active, vigorous, and piercing mind, to give an account of the reasons of them; so that it is truth that is the proper object of both these virtues, and that about which they are only concerned.-For how are we all of us drawn and enticed with the desire of wisdom? How noble and glorious a thing do we imagine it to excel in knowledge? And how mean and reproachful do we count it, on the other hand, to slip, to be in an error, or to be ignorant, or to be imposed upon? In gratifying this so natural and virtuous inclination in the mind of man, there are two grand faults to be carefully avoided: the first is an over great hastiness and rashness in giving up our assent, presuming that we know things before we really do so. Whosoever desires (as I am sure all ought) to avoid this error, must in all his inquiries allow himself time, and diligently consider the matter with himself, before he proceeds to pass his judgment upon it. The second fault is, that a great many men bestow abundance of study, and a world of pains, upon very difficult and obscure subjects; and such as, perhaps, when they are found out, are but of very little or no concernment.-Is it reconcileable, then, with the character of such an one, to lie for the sake of his own advantage; to deceive, to raise false reports and misrepresentations of others; to seize that beforehand, which others have a right to as well as himself? certainly, nothing less. And is there any thing, then, of such excellent worth? any profit or interest so very desirable, for the gaining of which one would forfeit the glory and reputation of a good man? Can that, which we call by the name of profitable, bring us any thing so good as what it takes away from us, if it spoil our being counted men of honesty and integrity?—The first thing, therefore, I would have in a truly courageous man is, that he be a follower of goodness and fair dealing, of truth and sincerity; which are the principal and constituent parts of justice. MAHOMET (the Koran).- Woe unto every slanderer and backbiter, who heapeth up riches, and prepareth the same for the time to come! He thinketh that his riches will render him immortal.-God loveth not the speaking ill of any one in public, unless he who is injured call for assistance; and God heareth and knoweth whether ye publish a good action, or conceal it, or forgive evil. Moreover, the hypocrites shall be in the lowest bottom of hell fire, and thou shalt not find any to help them thence. But they who repent and amend, and adhere firmly unto God, and approve the sincerity of their religion to God, they shall be numbered with the faithful; and God will surely give the faithful a great reward.-Make not God the object of your oaths, that ye will deal justly, and be devout, and make peace among men; for God is he who heareth and knoweth. God will not punish you for an inconsiderate word in your oaths, but he will punish you for that which your hearts have assented unto.-Whoever shall violate his oath, will violate the same to the hurt only of his own soul; but whoever shall perform that which he hath covenanted with God, he will surely give him a great reward. LESSON 5.-BENEVOLENCE. WE have seen that without the constant exercise of Industry and Economy we cannot be kept alive, and that unless Honesty and Truth be maintained there is no peace nor safety in society. Further observation and reflection inform us, that besides these stern moral duties, there is another which is equally indispensable for our preservation and happiness. This virtue shews itself in a sympathetic participation of the good or evil, the happiness or the misery of our fellow-creatures, and in identifying their welfare with our own: it is variously designated by the terms Benevolence, Charity, and Humanity. We find ourselves frequently exposed to dangers, from which we can only be preserved by the kindly and disinterested assistance of others. We are in danger of being run over, or of being drowned, or we fall down in a fit, or in consequence of some violence; but a sympathy immediately arises in the breasts of well-disposed lookers on, and hands are instantly stretched out for our relief, as though they were parts of ourselves. Our dependence on this benevolent interposition is, however, most strikingly manifested during the period of helpless infancy. If the natural support of our parents, or the benevolence of others, at that period fail us, we inevitably perish; so dependent is our existence upon the sympathies of our fellow-creatures. The strongest exemplification we have of this lifepreserving sympathy, is in the unremitting solicitude of a mother. In the strong feeling implanted in the maternal bosom, as well as in the sustenance for her infant with which nature provides her, we clearly see denoted the duties which the Almighty requires her to fulfil. This is a pure Benevolence. The infant can make her no return; no, her inducement must arise from a powerful, —we may say, a Divine impulse, to preserve a life which the Almighty has committed to her keeping. Similar necessities for the support of helpless infancy exist in the brute creation, and similar impulses to our own animate them; whence many philosophers are disposed to class parental affections with animal instincts, rather than with the moral affections. In this we cannot concur, nor need we offer a metaphysical argument against the distinction, the fact is evident, that the love of offspring is frequently seen to be quite as strong a feeling with the brute creation as among human beings. Self-pre |