as well as our own general merit, and we expect to have the price of things adjusted, and all the affairs of the world arranged, according to this falfe view of the matter which we have taken ; and of course we in the fame degree under-rate the labor, fkill, and merit of other people. Inor dinate selfishnefs is one of the most common and natural difpofitions of man, and this selfishness, by producing a conftant partiality to our own fide, is the neceffary fource of frauds innumerable; and it is worthy of remark, that while this spirit of selfishness reigns in us, we fhall not only be always trying to wrong others of their due, but we shall also be trying to wrong them without knowing that we do fo.

And now what a view does this confideration give us of the ftate of the world in respect to all matters of property! What wrongs are all men committing, naturally, as it were, on their neighbor, without being fenfible of it; or at least what wrongs are they attempting to commit, though unable each to execute his purpose; for undoubtedly it will often happen that the unreafonable claims of one fide, being oppofed by the unreasonable claims of the other, the two parties may hit on a pretty fair medium in confequence of the ftruggle, and whenever fortunately things are fettled fairly in this way, it is well if both fides do not go away complaining how hardly they have each of them been used. Such are the effects of that partiality to ourselves which has been fpoken of.

Would we then lay the axe to the root of the tree, and avoid habitual injuftice, we must cure this selfishness of fpirit. But how is the cure to be effected? I anfwer, that our Saviour has inftructed us in the very point in question, by giving us the following golden rule, "whatsoever ye would that men fhould do unto you, do ye even fo unto them." Let then the buyer put himfelf in place of the feller, and the feller in that of the buyer; let the mafter fuppofe himself the fervant, and the fervant imagine himself the mafter; let each put himself in the place of him with whom he has to deal; let him, as it were, plead before himself the caufe of his opponent or rival; let him become counsel for a while on that fide, and he will find his partiality for himself wonderfully corrected. Let it, in short, be a rule with all of us never to determine a cafe between ourselves and our neighbors, till we have very deliberately and difpaffionately weighed it in this manner.

NINTH COMMANDMENT.

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."

To bear falfe witnefs againft our neighbor, means, ftrictly speaking, to fwear falfely againft another in a court of juftice. How careful fhould every one be who is called up as an evidence in a public court to speak "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." He fhould

recollect himself before he begins to give his information; he should speak without heat or malice, and without prejudice or partiality; and he fhould remember that even a fmall error in his evidence, a mistake, for inftance, in a place or date, may poffibly be the means of fixing an unjuft charge, and of taking away the reputation or property, nay, even the life, of a fellow-creature. A witness ought neither to speak falsely in favor of the accufed perfon, nor falfely again him. To do the one, is to bear false witnefs against the person accused, and to do the other, is to bear a fort of false witness against the profecutor, and perhaps alfo, against other witneffes in the caufe. To do either is to hurt the public, who are all of them our neighbors, and who are more interested than is commonly conidered, in having a fair and full testimony given In every cafe.

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My readers no doubt will very readily agree, that we ought to take the utmost care thus to peak truth in a court of juftice. I am afraid, however, there are few people who confider that xactly in the fame manner, it is our duty to peak truth of our neighbor in private company. This commandment is againft all forts of false eftimony. It condemns the private flanderer and tale-bearer, and the magnifier of stories gainft his neighbor, as well as the perjured erfon.

Some people are apt from the very levity of eir character, to take up every light rumor

against another. "Somebody has told the (but they cannot exactly recollect who) that the is fome very bad ftory against fuch a perfon tho' they scarcely know what it is, they proceed tell it, and they fupply, by their own inventio fuch parts as feem neceffary in order to mal the tale hold together, and then the whole go abroad on the fame authority.

Some are apt to grow warm as they are tellin a ftory, and are continually led by this warmth theirs to overstate a fact, and often, therefore, charge guilt much too heavily on him who they cenfure.

Again, vanity is a motive which leads ma into falfeloods. They find they cannot exci attention unless they magnify what they fay, an they are very ambitious of being able to furpriz to intereft, and to entertain their hearers; th prefer wit to truth, and they cannot refift t pleasure of uttering a farcaftic jeft, and of d tinguishing themselves by a lively turn of speec though at the expence of candor and of justice

But, perhaps, the most fruitful of all the fou ces of falfe teftimony and mifrepresentation, that spirit of envy and malice, and of jealou and pride, and felf-preference, which unless it clofely watched, is apt to be inceffantly at wor in every human breaft. Some one is fuppof either to have injured us, or to be now against u or in fome refpect or other to ftand in the wa of our advancement, or fome one is thought claim the fuperiority over us, and feems to po

sess a greater share of the affection and countenance of one with whom we wish to be the chief favorite. We are prepared to believe an evil ftory against fuch a man on very flight evidence, and not only to believe it, but to spread it eagerly, and to exaggerate it exceedingly. On the other hand, we extol him that is on our fide, for this is indirectly to praise ourselves; but let a man be our enemy, or let him only be of a contrary fect to us in religion, or of an oppofite party to us in politics, how ftrong then is our difpofition to become partial in all our judgment, and through the prevailing power of this prejudice, to be continually bearing falfe teftimony against him!

Now, in many of these cafes, it may poffibly happen, that it is only fome flight exaggeration that is made, or fome little fact that is added, and yet, that thefe little matters will make a world of difference, for they may constitute even the whole of the guilt. It is to be recollected alfo, that ftories circulate through many hands; and that if a little addition is made by each, an anecdote, which was hardly worth notice at first, may foon grow up into a moft mischievous and fcandalous falfhood.

How numberlefs are the lies which are in this manner spread abroad in the world, and how enormous is the evil of which we are now speaking! Who then is the perfon on whom the guilt ought to be fixed? Undoubtedly, all are guilty who have had a fhare in the exaggeration. All

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