TENTATORES. PROBERS. 6J 



man suspects every other; hence, a promise is nothing with- 

 out witnesses. Who would lend his best friend a hundred 

 pounds, without interest and good security ? An honest and 

 candid man cannot thrive among the traders and mammon- 

 worshippers of this Christian country. He is esteemed a 

 simpleton, a fool, an imbecile. If you are candid, and deter- 

 mine to remain so, expect not to be rich. They who differ 

 from you in politics or religion will not allow your cherished 

 virtue to be of any merit. Your neighbours will prey upon 

 you, when you are well off ; and when you are poor, should 

 any of them lend you a hand, he will, with the other, take 

 your watch from you. They say, " After all, honesty is the 

 best policy," — which means, they know nothing at all of 

 honesty ; for it has nothing to do with policy. 



The tricks of birds are very blameless compared with 

 those of men. The most amusing instance of cunning in a 

 bird, and of gullibility in an ornithologist, that I know, is of 

 the Lapwing, and some persons who have made a great 

 matter of it. That bird has a habit of very gently and 

 quickly patting its little feet on the ground, as it stands 

 looking around. The object of this movement is said to be 

 to cause the worms to emerge from their holes. Those in 

 the neighbourhood, sensible of a commotion in the ground, 

 imagine it to be caused by the poking of a mole, to escape 

 the voracity of which they suddenly emerge upon the surface, 

 to be instantly seized by the cunning and expectant Lap- 

 wing. Other birds pat the ground precisely in the same 

 manner, but certainly not with such an object. Gulls, when 

 resting on the sands, and not thinking of food, I have often 

 seen performing the same act. As to the Lapwing, its weight 

 is so small that its slight pattings could not cause any great 

 earthquake ; and, on the other hand, if you stand still and 

 observe the heavings of the ground caused by the progress of 

 a mole, you never see the worms in its course coming to the 

 surface. 



