nay, nay.' If you are asked
whether you are cold, hungry, tired, never, for fear of giving trouble,
say the contrary of what you feel. Decline giving the trouble if you
like, by all means; but do not assign any false reason for so doing.
These are trifles, you will say; and so they are. But it is only by
austere regard to truth, even in trifles, that we shall keep the love of
it spotless and pure. 'Take care of the pence' of truth, 'and the pounds
will take care of themselves.'

"Not only let your utterance be simple truth, as you apprehend it, but
let it be decisive and unambiguous, according to those apprehensions.
Some persons speak as falteringly as if they thought the text I have
cited ran, 'Let your yea be nay, and your nay, yea.' And so they are apt
to assent or dissent, according to the tenor of the last argument:
'Yes--no--yes--no.' It is just like listening to the pendulum of a
clock.

"It is a great aggravation of the misuse of 'yes' and 'no,' that the
young are apt to lose all true apprehension of their meaning, and think,
in certain cases, that 'yes' cannot mean 'yes,' nor 'no' 'no.'

"I have known a lad, whose mother's 'no' had generally ended in 'yes,'
completely ruined, because when his father said 'no' in reply to a
request for unreasonable aid, and threatened to leave him to his own
devices if he persisted in extravagance, could not believe that his
father meant what he said, or could prevail on justice to turn nature
out of doors. But his father meant 'no,' and stuck to it, and the lad
was ruined, simply because, you see, he had not noticed that father and
mother differed in their dialects--that his father's 'no' always meant
'no,' and nothing else. You have read 'Rob Roy,' and may recollect that
that amiable young gentleman, Mr. F. Osbaldistone, with less reason,
very nearly made an equally fatal mistake; for every word his father had
ever uttered, and every muscle in his face, every gesture, every step,
ought to have convinced him that his father always meant what he said.

"In fine, learn to apply these little words aright and honestly, and,
little though they be, you will keep the love of truth pure and
unsullied.

"Ah me! what worlds of joy and sorrow, what maddening griefs and
ecstacies have these poor monosyllables conveyed! More than any other
words in the whole dictionary have they enraptured or saddened the human
heart; rung out the peal of joy, or sounded the knell of hope. And yet
no