“Yet _Brutus_ is an honourable man: So are they all: all honourable men!” And some of them, had in esteem for religion; accounted patterns both of honesty and piety! But God _seeth not as man seeth_. He _shall repay them to their face_. Perhaps, even in the present world. For that scripture is often still fulfilled, _This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth. I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief_, (such he is and no better, in the eyes of God, no whit honester than a highwayman) _and it shall remain in the midst of the house, and shalt consume it, with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof_. ♦ “secret” replaced with “secrete” per Errata 24. And is not _truth_, as well as _justice_, _fallen in our streets_? For who _speaketh the truth from his heart_? Who is there, that makes a conscience of speaking the thing as it is, whenever he speaks at all? Who scruples the telling of _officious lies_? The varying from truth, in order to do good? How strange does that saying of the ancient fathers, found in modern ears, “I would not tell a lie, no, not to save the souls of the whole world.” Yet is this strictly agreeable to the word of God; to that of St. _Paul_ in particular, if any say, _let us do evil that good may come_, their _damnation is just_. But how many of us do this evil, without ever considering, whether good will come or no? Speaking what we do not mean, merely out of _custom_, because it is _fashionable_ so to do? What an immense quantity of falshood does this ungodly _fashion_ occasion day by day? For hath it not over run every part of the nation? How is all our language swoln with _compliment_? So that a well-bred person is not _expected_ to speak as he thinks: we do not _look for it_ at his hands. Nay, who would thank him for it? How few would suffer it? It was said of old, even by a warrior and a king, _He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight_: But are we not of another mind? Do not we rather say, _He that telleth not lies, shall not tarry in my sight_? Indeed the trial seldom comes; for both speakers and hearers are agreed, that form and ceremony, flattery and compliment should take place, and _truth_ be banished from all that _know the world_.