VIOLATIONS OF TRUTH. 



109 



(hers ; when we sit mute, and refuse to vindi 

 cate his character when it is unjustly aspersed ; 

 when we endeavour to aggravate the circum- 

 tances which may have accompanied any crimi 

 nal action ; when we make no allowances for the 

 force of temptation, and the peculiar circum 

 stances in which the criminal may have been 

 placed ; when we fix upon an insulated act of 

 vice or folly, and apply it to our neighbour as a 

 general character; when we rake up, with a 

 malevolent design, an action which he has long 

 since reprobated and repented of; when his cha 

 racter is made the subject, of jest or merriment, 

 and when, by smiles, and noddings, and gestures, 

 we insinuate any thing injurious to his reputa 

 tion. It is violated in promises when we pro 

 mise, either what we have no intention of per 

 forming, or what we had no right to promise, or 

 what is out of our power to perform, or what 

 would be unlawful for us to execute. It is vio 

 lated in threatening*, when we neglect to put 

 them in execution, or we threaten to inflict what 

 would be either cruel or unjust. It is violated 

 in history, when the principal facts are blended 

 with doubtful or fictitious circumstances ; when 

 the conduct of liars and intriguers, of public rob 

 bers and murderers, is varnished over with the 

 false glare of heroism and of glory ; and when the 

 actions of upright men are, without sufficient 

 evidence, attributed to knavery, or to the influ 

 ence of fanaticism ; when the writer construes 

 actions and events, and attributes to the actors 

 motives and designs, in accordance with his own 

 prejudices and passions, and interweaves his 

 opinions and deductions, as if they were a por 

 tion of the authenticated records of historical fact. 

 It is violated in the invention of fictitious nar 

 ratives, and in the relation of marvellous stories, 

 when the system of nature is distorted, historical 

 facts caricatured, misrepresented, and blended 

 with the vagaries of a romantic imagination ; 

 when scenes, events, and circumstances, &quot; which 

 never did nor can take place,&quot; are presented to 

 the view, merely to convey a transient gratifi 

 cation to trifling and indolent minds. 



It is violated by men of science when they give 

 an inaccurate statement of the results of their 

 observations and experiments ; when, either 

 through carelessness or design, they give an un 

 fair representation of the facts and principles in 

 nature, in order to support a favourite system or 

 hypothesis ; and when they studiously keep out 

 of view the various circumstances in which every 

 fact should be contemplated. It is violated in 

 the literary vxtrld, when the editor of a magazine 

 or a review writes an article, and addresses it to 

 himself, as if it came from the pen of another ; 

 when, for the sake of&quot; filthy lucre,&quot; or to gratify a 

 friend, he bestows encomiums on a work which is 

 unworthy of the attention of the public; or when, 

 to gratify a mean, or revengeful passion, he mis- 

 represents or abuses the literary productions of his 



opponents ; or when an author writes a leview 

 of his own work, and imposes it on the pub jc, 

 as if it were the decision of an impartial critic- 

 It is violated by controversialists, when thoj 

 bring forward arguments in support of any pos 

 tion which they are conscious are either weak ol 

 unsound ; when they appear more anxious to dis 

 play their skill and dexterity, and to obtain a 

 victory over their adversaries, than to vindicate 

 the cause of truth ; when sneers, and sarcasms, 

 and personal reproaches, are substituted in th 

 room of substantial arguments ; when they mis 

 represent the sentiments of their opponents, by 

 stating them in terms which materially alter their 

 meaning; and when they palm upon them the 

 doctrines and opinions which they entirely dis 

 avow. 



It is violated in commercial transactions, when 

 deteriorated goods are varnished over with a fair 

 outside, and puffed off as if they were saleable 

 and sound ; when a merchant asks more than 

 he is willing to take for any commodity ; when he 

 depreciates the commodities of his neighbour ; 

 when he undervalues whatever he is purchasing, 

 and makes an overcharge for the articles of which 

 he is disposing ; when he denies the goods he 

 has in his possession, when there is the prospect 

 of an advancing price, and in a thousand other 

 ways, best known to the nefarious trader. It is 

 violated by persons in every department of life, 

 not only when they utter what they know to be 

 false, but when they profess to declare the whole 

 truth, and keep back part of it with an intention 

 to deceive ; when they make use of a proposition 

 that is literally true, in order to convey a false 

 hood ;* when they flatter the vanity of weak 

 minds; when they ascribe to their friends or to 

 others good qualities which do not belong to 

 them, or refuse to acknowledge those accomplish 

 ments of which they are possessed; when they 

 endeavour to cajole children into obedience, by 

 promising what they never intend to perform, 

 and threatening what they never intend to inflict ; 

 and when they indulge in a habit of exaggeration, 

 in the account they give of their adventures, and 

 of the things which they have seen or heard. 



Truth is violated by signs, as well as by words, 

 as, when we point with our finger in a wrong 

 direction, when a traveller is inquiring about the 

 road he should take ; when a British ship hoists 



The following fact will illustrate this and simi 

 lar pieces of falsehood: A person, when selling a 

 watch, was asked by the purchaser if it kept time 

 correctly? He was told by the owner, that neither 

 the hour nor the minute hand had required to be alter 

 ed for more than a twelve-month. This was literally 

 true ; but the watch was, nevertheless, a very bad 

 regulator of time. When hung in a perpendicular po 

 sition, it went too slow, and, when laid in a horizon 

 tal position, it went too fast : but by alternately shift- 

 in? these positions, and thus modifying the rates of 

 motion, the hands did not require to be altered. Such 

 assertions, however, are to be considered as direct 

 lies, when they are intended to convey a false 01 er 

 roneous conception, as in the instance now stated. 



