TELLING THE TRUTH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XIII, Issue 768, 17 March 1860, Page 5

TELLING THE TRUTH.

■n tliP day when, an urchin of six years old, I Fr°noved under the surveillance of a stern SSded schoolmaster, in fashioning the letters aud dieadea s fc j h been con . in conning the lesson placed before tinUlfoSSg how very" oddly mankind act re"ml this honourable virtue. gltfeb on pulled by the fact of the seem ng ■ , wrf unon it by those who, having accepted value placed upon it »y depths of a well, isf n ?t b 6e°p S eery neighbour** bucket ought seem toexpt f their own share in the !lSben S f very minor importance. Not. that b ntwonlQ for a moment repudiate the possesS£3»S£«rf honored a quality; but finding cumSoS, awkward, and not easy toaecommo--I£*ta.the requirements of politeness, or the good Sing of modern intercourse, they gloss poor X with a thousand 'flatteries, reservations and ?r LS till she is lost amid the glitter of her Sad bears as much resemblance to her unadorned self as a modern ball-room belle to ■ the **t&££the difference between the "theory and practice of the world in general might not- so forcibly strike me were it not for a propensity mherent in my natiire-a propensity^ which. I know, morally speaking, ought to be cherished and; encVurVed, but which, alas! from some clumsiness m mv use of it, or want of ability to adapt it to circumstances, has been my stumbling block. through life has caused my acquaintance to shun, my real friends to pity me, and lias rendered me so nervous in mv intercourse with the world that I fear to open my lips in society lest a fit of my propensity should overtake me, and should incur some penalty by Tlam Ssure my Ufriend Mrs..Flutter would be. inexpressibly shocked.at the idea of being guilty of a dereliction from truth; it would be, in- her opinion, low and vulgar in the extreme: so she spreads out her pet faults, her ' shocking extravagances,' her < horrid rudenesses,' &c, &c, before your eyes, and you are charmed at her frank expression of her errors and her strong deprecation of them; perhaps you are surprised that she does not, forsake them, as you find her lament over them is never changed; tut you would be more surprised, perhaps, to learn that the faults lamented have no existence save in her imagination, and that some which are pretty palpable never seem to trouble her conscience: yet, may be, she does think herself the slave '.oi those she so eloquently condemns'; but I fear—l fear—she knows better. •■;.-' ■;•..:.. '.' ■;■ .. Now I have a great horror of pets —not that I have not pets of my own—but I have a dread of other people's, for lam an invariable offender by.my inability to praise the puny, vacant babies, the waddling lapdogs, and the loves of cats, offered to my admiration. . -•• ' . ■' ■'.':.; ■'■■■ ■' ■■ : ■■•';' ■'-

I have seen Arthur "W-ildish, who, I know, juates the whole tribe worse than 1 do, assent rapturously to some mother's enquiry whether her child wag not a "little beauty" or a paragon of sense. I'have seen him wait upon a hideous poodle and agree with its mistress in all her folly respecting it; have heard him utter the most untrue of compliments, make the most flattering of speeches, and all without a falter or a blush. Yet Arthur piques himself upon his honor, and boasts of his word being true gold—so it is, in some things; he would, I believe, die rather, than falsify the character of any man; you can trust him in all things till you ask him some question about yourself, your child, your horse, your house, or dog—and behold! this most candid and honourable of men, without hesitation or remorse, offers at the altar of your vanity a string of (white), lies! I cannot do it—l never couldi I don't claim any honour for my veracity or believe I am more conscientious than other people. I confess that I have tried to use the ambiguous form of general conversation, have endeavoured to assent to what I didn't believe, to praise what I couldn't admire, to withhold censure where it was deserved ;V but my effortsj have signally failed; for/ while pausing to invent some well turned sentence, as genuine sounding as possible, the truth with all its rough edges and sharp corners has somehow escaped me—to my confusion and utter discomfiture. '

I have a friend, an old friend, a merchant, whom for many years I considered quite a pattern truth worshipper. Notonly did he insist on conversational truth, but he would not allow his family to wear counterfeits of any description, or his house to contain them, and even went the length of banishing a very splendid picture from his walls, because it professed to be the work of a great master and it was discovered, to .be only a copy. His children are ignorant of Goody Twoshoes and all her sister tales, nor have their young minds revelled in the golden hght of fairy land. True tales, history, and accounts oi the earth's realities and wonders, are the solid substitutes; and much as I might dissent from my mends system of inculcating truth',l could not but respect so pure and high a motive. * : - One day.l stood with him in his warehouse, which }fas crowded with a. late heavy consignment of ">«ngn goods, the quality and value of some of ynicn were debated in my hearing. I had noted some ) curious little expressions on my friend's party wiicn sounded odd from his lips; and while musing JL\,J a ™stomer entered, the goods were disPlayed and I heard my friend launch out into a nooa ot recommendation of gome of the very articles mffi? i^ card dis Paraged. When the order for the vent™ i 6e v entered ' and the bu>'er had g°ne, I anZ cd' t onthe strength of our friendship, to utter a remonstrance. My good friend laughed heartily.--faIsPhLTT H U fellow'" said hc> Ido ™t call th<* do in k ■ l said no more than we are obliged to belipv« /?i ess> and every one knowa how much to of w.,4° « c praise a man bestows on the articles al W av ß fia? C- "BllV'said I_« truth."-" Truth »Sr ui>m advoca. te in me !" said my friend, Jove an i »Tlt 1S said>' stratagem is allowable in also:" War ' am Sure tney migu * a<id, in business

Q T have nnTv 1*! 80 on; amon S my acquaintance someto chpr Z cloak for-truth, which they profess itwS 'v meanother- J flon't see, myself, why of «i t2 •? ; but- as all ™Qm to think the face "ate of oJef v UV 8 tO°h^ d-featuredforour Present decree \n f if y'isuPPoselmas(; bow to the general divinitvhf be t thankfulifthe veil which' hides the gether w* Eo thick as to extinguish her altoits disfirw ranSxP arent eno«gh to let us see, through *aje 5S g folds ' of the original dJesty and beauty beneath.- ' - T.-M. W.