e bringing
forth obscure and unrecognised worth from the shades in which it lay
hid! What a world should we live in, if all men were thus prompt and
fearless to do justice to all the worth they knew or apprehended to
exist! Justice, simple justice, if it extended no farther than barely
to the faculty of speech, would in no long time put down all
misrepresentation and calumny, bring all that is good and meritorious
into honour, and, so to speak, set every man in his true and rightful
position. But whoever would attempt this, must do it in all honour,
without parade, and with no ever-and-anon looking back upon his
achievement, and saying, See to how much credit I am entitled!--as if
he laid more stress upon himself, the doer of this justice, than upon
justice in its intrinsic nature and claims.

But we not only owe something to the advantage and interest of our
neighbours, but something also to the sacred divinity of Truth. I am not
only to tell my neighbour whatever I know that may be beneficial to him,
respecting his position in society, his faults, what other men appear to
contemplate that may conduce to his advantage or injury, and to advise
him how the one may best be forwarded, or the other defeated and brought
to nothing: I am bound also to consider in what way it may be in my
power so to act on his mind, as shall most enlarge his views, confirm
and animate his good resolutions, and meliorate his dispositions and
temper. We are all members of one great community: and we shall never
sufficiently discharge our duty in that respect, till, like the ancient
Spartans, the love of the whole becomes our predominant passion, and we
cease to imagine that we belong to ourselves, so much as to the entire
body of which we are a part. There are certain views in morality, in
politics, and various other important subjects, the general prevalence
of which will be of the highest benefit to the society of which we are
members; and it becomes us in this respect, with proper temperance and
moderation, to conform ourselves to the zealous and fervent precept of
the apostle, to "promulgate the truth and be instant, in season and out
of season," that we may by all means leave some monument of our good
intentions behind us, and feel that we have not lived in vain.

There is a maxim extremely in vogue in the ordinary intercourses of
society, which deserves to be noticed here, for the purpose of exposing
it to merited condemnation. It is ver