’Tis a Hard Matter for a Man that Argues against the Truth, and the
Reason of a Thing, to Consist with Himself, for having no Rule to
Walk by, ’tis Forty to One but Some time or Other he will lose his
Way: Especially when he is to Accommodate his Story to the Various
Circumstances of Times, Persons, and Occasions. But it is One Thing to
forget Matter of Fact, and Another Thing to blunder upon the Reason of
it. It is however, well Worthy of a Sober Man’s Care, not to let anything
fall that may be turn’d upon him out of his Own Mouth. This Presence
of Mind, ’tis true, is not Every Bodies Talent; neither does this
Consideration Enter into Every Bodies Thought; but it were better if it
Were so, and so it Ought to be.