Page:Miscellaneous Writings.djvu/252

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226
MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS

But Mrs. Rawson said: —

“Give the child what he relishes, and doubt not that the Father of all will care for him.”

Thus, the unbiased youth and the aged Christian carried the case on the side of God; and, after eating several ice-creams, the clergyman's son returned home — well.


Perfidy and Slander

What has an individual gained by losing his own self-respect? or what has he lost when, retaining his own, he loses the homage of fools, or the pretentious praise of hypocrites, false to themselves as to others?

Shakespeare, the immortal lexicographer of mortals, writes: —

To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

When Aristotle was asked what a person could gain by uttering a falsehood, he replied, “Not to be credited when he shall tell the truth.”

The character of a liar and hypocrite is so contemptible, that even of those who have lost their honor it might be expected that from the violation of truth they should be restrained by their pride.

Perfidy of an inferior quality, such as manages to evade the law, and which dignified natures cannot stoop to notice, except legally, disgraces human nature more than do most vices.

Slander is a midnight robber; the red-tongued assassin of radical worth; the conservative swindler, who