no; not at
all!' Now that was a very unneighbourly act of the tongue, thus to set
at nought the eye; the selfish thing must have forgotten that 'if one
member suffer, all the others must suffer with it.' My dear, never
sacrifice your eyes to any organ whatever; at all events, not to the
tongue,--least of all when it does not tell the truth. Of the two, you
had better be dumb than blind.

"Now, if I had not interposed, and said that you _were_ suffering,
whether you knew it or not, you would have played the martyr all the
evening to a sort of a--a--what shall I call it?--it must out--a sort of
fashionable fib. You may answer, perhaps, that you did not like to make
a fuss, or seem squeamish, or discompose the company; and so, from
timidity, you said 'the thing that was not.' Very true; but this is the
very thing I want you to guard against; I want you to have such presence
of mind that the thought of absolute truth shall so preoccupy you as to
defy surprise and anticipate even the most hurried utterances.

"The incident is very trifling in itself; I have noticed it because I
think I have observed on other occasions that, from a certain timidity
of character, and an amiable desire not to give trouble, or make a fuss,
as you call it (there, now, Mary, I am sure the medicine is nicely
mixed--that spoonful of syrup ought to make it go down), you have
evinced a disposition to say, from pure want of thinking, what is not
precise truth. Weigh well, my dear girl, and ever act on, that precept
of the Great Master, which, like all His precepts, is of deepest import,
and, in spirit, of the utmost generality of application, 'Let your yea
be yea, and your nay, nay.'

"Let truth--absolute truth--take precedence of everything; let it be
more precious to you than anything else. Sacrifice not a particle of it
at the bidding of indolence, vanity, interest, cowardice, or shame;
least of all, to those tawdry idols of stuffed straw and feathers--the
idols of fashion and false honour.

"It is often said that the great lesson for a young man or a young woman
to learn is how to say 'no.' It would be better to say that they should
learn aright how to use both 'yes' and 'no,'--for both are equally
liable to abuse.

"The modes in which they are employed often give an infallible criterion
of character.

"Some say both doubtfully and hesitatingly, drawling out each
letter--'y-e-s,' 'n-o,'--that one might swear to their indecision of
character