EFFECTS OF UNIVERSAL FALSEHOOD. 



Ill 



iclute ignorance of the existence and the attri 

 butes of God, of the moral relations of intelligent 

 beings to their Creator, and to one another, and 

 of the realities of a future state. For it is only, 

 or chiefly, through the medium of testimony, com 

 bined with the evidence of our senses, that we 

 acquire a knowledge of such truths and objects. 



in the next place, all confidence among intel 

 ligent beings, would be completely destroyed. 

 Disappointment would invariably attend every 

 purpose and resolution, and every scheme we 

 wished to execute, if it depended in the least de 

 gree upon the direction or assistance of others. 

 We durst not taste an article of food which we 

 received from another, lest it should contain poi 

 son ; nor could we ever construct a house to shel 

 ter us from the storm, unless our own physical 

 powers were adequate to the work. Were we 

 living in Edinburgh, we could never go to Mus- 

 selburgh or Dalkeith, if we were previously ig 

 norant of the situation of these places ; or were 

 we residing in London, it would be impossible 

 for us ever to find our way to Hommerton or 

 Hampstead, unless, after a thousand attempts, 

 chance should happen to direct us ; and when we 

 arrived at either of these villages, we should still 

 be in as much uncertainty as ever whether it was 

 the place to which we intended to direct our 

 steps. Confidence being destroyed, there could 

 be no friendship, no union of hearts, no affection 

 ate intercourse, no social converse, no consola 

 tion or comfort in the hour of distress, no hopes 

 of deliverance in the midst of danger, and no 

 prospect of the least enjoyment from any being 

 around us. In such a case, the mind would feel 

 itself as in a wilderness, even when surrounded 

 by fellow intelligences, and wherever it roamed 

 over the vast expanse of nature, or among the 

 mass of living beings around it, it would meet 

 with no affectionate interchange of feelings and 

 sentiments, and no object on which it could rest 

 for solace and enjoyment. Every one would feel 

 as if he were placed in the midst of an infinite 

 void, and as if he were the only being residing 

 in the universe. In such a case we would flee 

 from the society of men as we would do from a 

 lion or a tiger when rushing on his prey ; and 

 hide ourselves in dens, and forests, and caverns 

 of the earth, till death should put a period to a 

 cheerless and miserable existence. 



All social intercourses and relations would 

 cease ; families could not possibly exist ; nor 

 any affectionate intercourse between the sexes ; 

 for truth, and the confidence which is founded 

 upon it, are implied in all the intercourses of 

 husbands and wives, of brothers and sisters, 

 and of parents and children ; and consequently, 

 the human race, dropping into the grave, one 

 after another, like the leaves of autumn, without 

 any successors, would, in a short time, be extir 

 pated fiom the earth. In such a state, kindness 

 and affection would never be exercised ; trade 



and commerce, buying and selling,sociat compacts 

 and agreements would be annihilated ; science, 

 literature, and the arts, could not exist ; and con 

 sequently, universities, colleges, churches, aca 

 demies, schools, and every other seminary of in 

 struction would be unknown. No villages, towns, 

 nor cities would be built ; no fields cultivated ; 

 no orchards, vineyards, nor gardens planted ; no 

 intercourse would exist between different regions 

 of the globe ; and nothing but one drerfry barren 

 waste would be presented to the eye, throughout 

 the whole expanse of nature. So that were 

 truth completely banished from the earth, it 

 would present a picture of that dark and dismal 

 region where &quot; all liars have their portion !&quot; 

 where all are deceivers and deceived, and where 

 the hopeless mind roams amidst innumerable 

 false intelligences, for one ray of comfort, or one 

 confidential spirit in which it may confide, but 

 roams in vain. 



In short, were truth banished not only from 

 this world, but from the universe at large, c r ea- 

 tion would be transformed into a chaos ; the 

 bond which now connects angels and archangels, 

 cherubim and seraphim, in one harmonious union, 

 would be forever dissolved; the inhabitants of all 

 worlds would be thrown into a state of universal 

 anarchy , they would shun each other s society, 

 and remain as so many cheerless and insulated 

 wretches, amidst the gloom and desolations of 

 universal nature ; all improvements in know 

 ledge, and all progressive advances towards moral 

 perfection, would be forever interrupted ; and 

 happiness would be banished from the whole in 

 telligent system. Every mind would become the 

 seat of terror and suspense, and would be haunt 

 ed with frightful spectres and dreadful expecta 

 tions. The government of the Eternal would 

 be subverted, the moral order of the intelligent 

 system overturned ; all subordination would 

 cease, and misery would reign uncontrolled 

 throughout every region of intellectual existence. 

 For truth is implied in the principle of love ; it 

 is essential to its existence ; so that the one can 

 not operate except on the basis of the other : and 

 we have already shown, that the destruction of 

 love would be the destruction of all order, and ot 

 all happiness among intelligent beings. 



Such are some of the dreadful effects which 

 would inevitably follow, were the law under con 

 sideration reversed or universally violated. In 

 our world this law has, hitherto, been only/wr- 

 tially violated ; yet what dreadful mischiefs, be 

 yond calculation, and even beyond conception, 

 has its frequent violation created ! Ever since 

 that moment when &quot; the father of lies&quot; deceived 

 the first human pair, how many thousands of 

 millions of liars have trodden in his footsteps ! 

 and what a host of falsehoods has followed in 

 their train, which have destroyed the harmony of 

 the moral system, and robbed the werld of hap 

 piness and repose ! Yet how litt e are we affect- 



