The indirect and collateral effects of deception are often manifest in a family of children. Its influence extends beyond the mind and character of the deceived child. If the other children witness the deception, what hinders them from believing that their parents can deceive them also whenever it suits their convenience? And if they do not witness it, the sick child will remember it when he recovers, and the rebellion which he has, in consequence, in his bosom towards an authority that rules by deceit, and is therefore deemed with good reason oppressive, is of course communicated to the other bosoms of the little flock. Many a parent, who supposed that he was doing nothing that would last beyond the present moment, has thus sown the seeds of rebellion among the little band of subjects, over whom God has placed him; and who can tell what the fruits will be, or to what extent or length of time they will grow! I need barely say in concluding my remarks on this consideration, that the momentary good which occasionally results to _individual_ cases from deception, is not to be put in comparison, for one moment, with the vast and permanent evils of a _general_ character, that almost uniformly proceed from a breach of the great law of truth. And there is no warrant to be found for shutting our eyes to these general and remote results, in our earnestness to secure a particular and present good, however precious that good may be—a plain principle, and yet how often it is disregarded. Sixthly. If it be adopted by the community as a common rule, that the truth may be sacrificed in urgent cases, the very object of the deception will be defeated. For why is it that deception succeeds in any case? It is because the patient supposes that all who have intercourse with him deal with him truthfully—that no such common rule has been adopted. There is even now, while the policy on this subject is unsettled and matter of dispute, enough distrust produced to occasion trouble. And if it should become a settled policy under an acknowledged common rule, the result would be _general_ distrust, of course defeating deception at every point. And yet if it be proper to deceive, then most clearly is it proper to proclaim it as an adopted principle of action. Else we are driven to the absurd proposition, that while it is right to practice deception, it is wrong to say to the world that it is right. It is in vain to say that the evil result which would attend this adoption of occasional deception, as the settled policy of the medical profession, would find a correction in the very terms of the rule which should be adopted, viz. that the case must be an urgent one to warrant deception, and there must be a fair prospect that it can be carried through without discovery. For every patient, that was aware of the adoption of such a rule, might and often probably would suspect that his own case is considered as coming within the terms of the rule.