the physical weakness of a pálsied old woman!" The indignant authoress was now penitent, subdued, and asham ed, and earnestly asked pardon for her unkindness; but the young offender, whose acted lie had exposed her to seem guilty of a fault which she had not committed, was in an agony to which expression was inadequate. But, to exculpate herself was impossible: she could only give her wounded victim tear for tear.

To attend to a farther perusal of the manuscript was impossible. The old lady desired that her carriage should come round directly; the authoress locked up her composition, that had been so ill received; and the young lady, who had been proud of the acquaintance of each, became an object of suspicion and dislike both to the one and the other; since the former considered her to be of a cruel and unfeeling nature, and the latter could not conceal from herself the mortifying truth, that her play must be wholly devoid of interest, as it had utterly failed either to rivet or to attract her young auditor's attention.

But, though this girl lost two valued acquaintances by ácting a lie (a harmless white lie, as it is called,) I fear she was not taught or amended by the circumstance; but deplored her want of luck, rather than her want of integ rity; and, had her deception met with the success which she expected, she would probably have boasted of her ingenious artifice to her acquaintance ;-- nor can I help believing that she goes on in the same way whenever she is tempted to do so, and values herself on the lies of SELFISH FEAR, which she dignifies by the name of LIES OF BE

NEVOLENCE.

It is curious to observe that the kindness which prompts to really erroneous conduct cannot continue to bear even a remote connexion with real benevolence. The mistaken girl, in the anecdote related above, begins with what she calls, a virtuous deception. She could not wound the feelings of the authoress by owning that she laughed at her mode of reading: she therefore accused herself of a much worse fault; that of laughing at the personal infirmities of a fellow-creature; and then finding that her artifice enabled her to indulge her sense of the ridiculous with impunity, she at length laughs treacherously and systematically

because she dares do so, and not involuntarily, as she did at first, at her unsuspecting friend. Thus such hollow unprincipled benevolence as hers soon degenerated into absolute malevolence. But, had this girl been a girl of principle and of real benevolence, she might have healed her friend's vanity at the same time that she wounded it, by saying, after she had owned that her mode of reading made her laugh, that she was now convinced of the truth of what she had often heard; namely, that authors rarely do justice to their own works, when they read them aloud themselves, however well they may read the works of others; because they are naturally so nervous on the occasion, that they are laughably violent, because painfully agitated.

This reply could not have offended her friend greatly if at all; and it might have led her to moderate her outré manner of reading. She would in consequence have appeared to more advantage; and the interest of real benevolence, namely, the doing good to a fellow-creature, woukl have been served, and she would not, by a vain attempt to save a friend's vanity from being hurt, have been the means of wounding the feelings of an afflicted woman; have incurred the charge of inhumanity, which she by no means deserved; and have vainly, as well as grossly, sacrificed the interest of Truth.

CHAPTER VI.

LIES OF CONVENIENCE.

I HAVE now before me a very copious subject: and shall begin by that most common lie of convenience; the order to servants, to say " Not at home;" a custom which even some moralists defend. because they say that it is not

lying; as it deceives no one. But this I deny 3-as I

know it is often meant to deceive. I know that if the person, angry at being refused admittance, says, at the next meeting with the denied person, "I am sure you were at home such a day, when I called, but did not choose to see me," the answer is, "Oh dear, no;-how can you say so? I am sure I was not at home ;-for am never denied to you" though the speaker is conscious all the while that "not at home" was intended to deceive, as well as to deny. But, if it be true that "not at home" is not intnded to deceive, and is a form used merely to exclude visiters with as little trouble as possible, I would ask whether it was not just as easy to say, "my master, or mistress, is engaged; and can see no one this morning." Why have recourse even to the appearance of falsehood, when truth would answer every purpose just as well?

But if not at home" be understood amongst equals, merely as a legitimate excuse, it still is highly objectionable; because it must have a most pernicious effect on the minds of servants, who cannot be supposed parties to this implied compact amongst their superiors, and must therefore understand the order literally; which is, "go, and lie for my convenience!" How then, I ask in the name of justice and common sense, can I, after giving such an order, resent any lie which servants may choose to tell me for their own convenience, pleasure, or interest?

Thoughtless and injudicious (I do not like to add,) unprincipled persons, sometimes say to servants, when they have denied their mistress, " Oh fye! how can you tell me such a fib without blushing? I am ashamed of you! You know your lady is at home-well;-I am really shocked at your having so much effrontery as to tell such a lie with so grave a face! But, give my compliments to your mistress, and tell her, I hope that she will see me the next time I call;"-and all this uttered in a laughing manner, as if the moral degradation of the poor servant were an excellent joke! But on these occasions, what can the effect of such joking be on the conscious liars? It must either lead them to think as lightly of truth as their reprovers themselves, (since they seem more amused than shocked at the detected violation of it,) or they will turn

away distressed in conscience, degraded in their own eyes, for having obeyed their employer, and feeling a degree of virtuous indignation against those persons who have, by their immoral command been the means of their painful degradation ;-nay, their master and mistress will be for ever lowered in their servant's esteem; they will feel that the teacher of a lie is brought down on a level with the utterer of it; and the chances are that, during the rest of their service, they will without scruple use against their employers the dexterity which they have taught them to use against others.*

* As I feel a great desire to lay before my readers the strongest arguments possible, to prove the vicious tendency of even the most tolerated lie of convenience; namely, the order to servants to say "Not at home;" and as I wholly distrust my own powers of arguing with effect on this, or any other subject, I give the following extracts from Dr. Chalmers's Discourses on the Application of Christianity to the Commercial and ordinary Affairs of Life;"-discourses which abundantly and eloquently prove the sinfulness of deceit in general, and the fearful responsibility incurred by all who depart, even in the most common occurrences, from that undeviating practice of truth which is every where enjoined on Christians in the pages of holy writ. But I shall, though reluctantly, confine myself in these extracts to what bears immediately on the subject before us. I must however state, in justice to myself, that my remarks on the same points were not only written, but printed and published, in a periodical work, before I knew that Dr. Chalmers had written the book in question.

"You put a lie into the mouth of a dependant, and that for the purpose of protecting your time from such an enencroachment as you would not feel to be convenient, or agreeable. Look to the little account that is made of a brother's and sister's eternity. Behold the guilty task that is thus unmercifully laid upon one who is shortly to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. Think of the entanglement that is thus made to beset the path of a creature

But amongst the most frequent lies of convenience are those which are told relative to engagements, which they who make them are averse to keep. "Headaches, bad colds, unexpected visitors from the country," all these in their turn, are used as lies of convenience, and gratify indolence, or caprice, at the expense of integrity.

who is unperishable. That, at the shrine of Mammon such a bloody sacrifice should be rendered, by some of his unrelenting votaries, is not to be wondered at; but, that the shrine of elegance and fashion should be bathed in blood:--that soft and sentimental ladyship should put forth her hand to such an enormity ;-that she who can sigh so gently, and shed her graceful tear over the sufferings of others, should thus be accessary to the second and more awful death of her own domestics;-that one, who looks the mildest and loveliest of human beings, should exact obedience to a mandate which carries wrath, and tribulation, and anguish in its train. Oh! how it should confirm every Christian in his defiance of the authority of fash jon, and lead him to spurn at all its folly and all its worthlessness. And it is quite in vain to say that the servant, whom you thus employ as the deputy of your falsehood, can possibly execute the commission without the conscience being at all tainted or defiled by it; that a simple cottage maid can so sophisticate the matter, as without any violence to her original principles, to utter the language of what she assuredly knows to be downright lie;—that she, humble and untutored soul! can sustain no injury, when thus made to tamper with the plain English of these realms ;—that she can at all satisfy herself how, by the prescribed utterance of "not at home," she is not pronouncing such words as are substantially untrue, but merely using them in another and perfectly understood meaning-and which, according to their modern translation, denote that the person, of whom she is thus speaking, securely lurking in one of the most secure and intimate of its receptacles.

You may try to darken this piece of casuistry as you will, and work up your minds into the peaceable convic tion that it is all right, and as it should be. But, be very