is not unfrequently met with in public
meetings. Especially is he heard in "moving votes of thanks," and
"drinking toasts." Fulsome praises and glowing eulogiums are poured out
by him in rich abundance, which, as soon as the meetings are over, are
eaten up again by the same person, but of course in the absence of his
much-admired gods.

It would not be difficult to go on with instances illustrative of these
double-tongued exercises. They are almost as universal as the
multifarious phases of society. They are met with in the street, in the
shop, in the family, in the church, in the court, in the palace and
cottage, among the rich and poor.

Addison, in writing of this fault in talking in his times, gives a
letter which he says was written in King Charles the Second's reign by
the "ambassador of Bantam to his royal master a little after his arrival
in England." The following is a copy, which will show how in those days
the double-tongued talked, and how the writer, a stranger in this
country, was impressed by it.

"MASTER,--The people where I now am have tongues further from their
hearts than from London to Bantam, and thou knowest the inhabitants
of one of these places do not know what is done in the other. They
call thee and thy subjects barbarians, because we speak what we
mean, and account themselves a civilized people because they speak
one thing and mean another; truth they call barbarity, and
falsehood politeness. Upon my first landing, one, who was sent by
the king of this place to meet me, told me that he was extremely
sorry for the storm I had met with just before my arrival. I was
troubled to hear him grieve and afflict himself on my account; but
in less than a quarter of an hour he smiled, and was as merry as if
nothing had happened. Another who came with him told me, by my
interpreter, he should be glad to do me any service that lay in his
power; upon which I desired him to carry one of my portmanteaux for
me; but, instead of serving me according to his promise, he
laughed, and bid another do it. I lodged the first week at the
house of one who desired me to think myself at home, and to
consider his house as my own. Accordingly I the next morning began
to knock down one of the walls of it, in order to let in the fresh
air, and had packed up some of the household goods, of which I
intended to have made t