and not with swelling or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.[1]
To pass from theological and philosophical truth, to the truth of civil business; it will be acknowledged even by those that practise it not, that clear and round[2] dealing is the honour of man's nature; and that mixture of falsehood is like allay[3] in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth[4] it. For these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent; which goeth basely upon the belly,[5] and not upon the feet. There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious. And therefore Montaigne[6] saith prettily, when he inquired the reason, why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace and such an odious charge? Saith he, If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth,
- ↑ "The basis of all excellence is truth." Dr. Samuel Johnson. Life of Cowley. Edited by Mrs. A.. Napier. Bohn. 1890. p. 8.
- ↑ Round. Plain, downright, straightforward. "I will a round, unvarnish'd tale deliver
Of my whole course of love."Shakspere. Othello. i. 3.
- ↑ Allay. Old form of 'alloy,' an inferior metal mixed with one of greater value."For fools are stubborn in their way,
As coins are harden'd by th' allay."Samuel Butler. Hudibras. Part III. Canto II. 481-482.
- ↑ Embase. To reduce from a higher to a lower degree of worth or purity; to debase.
- ↑ "And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." Genesis iii. 14.
- ↑ Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, the celebrated French essayist, was born in 1533 and died in 1592. The first edition of the Essais appeared in 1580. Montaigne's thought will be found in the Essais, II. 18, where he quotes Plutarch's Life of Lysander.
