We had better be contented to keep our exploits to ourselves, than to
appear ridiculous by attempting to force a belief of that which is
improbable; and travelled gentlemen should have a care how they import
falsehoods and inventions of their own from foreign parts, and attempt
to vend them at home for staple truths. It cannot be too strongly
impressed upon the mind, that a lie is upon all occasions degrading
to the person who utters it, and should be most scrupulously avoided,
not only on account of its baseness, but because it is impossible to
foresee in how many troubles it may involve him who passes it off.
It will not always receive credit, and is ever liable to detection.
When it is calculated for wicked purposes, it will deservedly incur
punishment; and when it is of a harmless or insignificant nature, it
will even then often expose its author to contempt and ridicule; and
vanity never mistakes its end more grossly, than when it attempts to
aggrandize itself at the expence of truth.
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