when he hires you for a good workman, is to sell him disease and death,
and take pay for it. Selling adulterated drugs and groceries is giving a
man a stone when he asks for and pays for bread. If, after we have done
our best to make or secure good articles, we are unable to avoid defects
and imperfections, then it is our duty to tell squarely just what the
imperfection is, and sell it for a reduced price. On no other basis than
this of making genuine goods, and representing them just as they are,
can exchange fulfill its function of mutual advantage to all concerned.

THE VIRTUE.

+Honesty looks people straight in the eye, tells the plain truth about
its goods, stands on its merits, asks no favors, has nothing to conceal,
fears no investigation.+--This bold, open, self-reliant quality of
honesty is what makes it a manly thing, or a virtue. To do thorough
work; to speak the plain truth; to do exactly as you would be done by;
to put another man's interest on a level with your own; to take under no
pretext or excuse a cent's worth more than you give in any trade you
make, calls out all the strength and forbearance and self-control there
is in a man, and that is why it ranks so high among the virtues.

THE REWARD.

+The honest man is the only man who can respect himself.+--He carries
his head erect, and no man can put him down. Everything about him is
sound and every act will bear examination. This sense of one's own
genuineness and worth is honesty's chief reward.

THE TEMPTATION.

+Every one-sided transaction dishonest.+--In fair exchange both parties
are benefited. In unfair exchange one party profits by the other's loss.
Any transaction in which either party fails to receive an equivalent for
what he gives is a fraud; and the man who knowingly and willfully makes
such a trade is a thief in disguise. For taking something which belongs
to another, without giving him a return, and without his full, free, and
intelligent consent, is stealing.

The temptation to take advantage of another's ignorance; to palm off a
poor article for a good one; to get more than we give, is very great in
all forms of business. Cheating is very common, and one is tempted to do
a little cheating himself in order to keep even with the rest. The only
way to resist it is to see clearly that cheating is lying and stealing
put together; that it is an injury to our fellow-men and to society;
that it is playing the part of a knave and a ra