Page:Elegant extracts.pdf/18

 ingenuous behaviour. An honest unsuspicious disposition diffuses a serenity over life, like that of a fine day, when no cloud conceals the blue sky, nor a blast ruffles the stillness of the air. But a crafty and designing bosom is all tumult and darkness, and may be said to resemble a misty and disordered atmosphere in the comfortless climate of the poor Highlander: the one raises a man almost to the rank of an angel of light, the other sinks him to a level with the powers of darkness; the one constitutes almost a terrestrial heaven in the breast, but the other deforms and debases it, till it becomes like, the bottomless pit.

2. A free and ingenuous mind furnishes a man with the courage and generosity of the lion; but a sly, crafty person, has only the pitiful cunning of a fox. The open disposition is truly consistent, having a pleasant outside, and the inside the same; so that the man is nearly transparent; but the crafty person, while he puts on an affected smile, or speaks in an assumed, soft, and affectionate manner, has a heart as dark and as foul as the abysses which constitute the abodes of the evil spirits. The open and honest disposition has no need of disguise, and carries on no plots; but the crafty are continually plotting disguises, and laying schemes, and no combination of conspirators, or confederacy, of thieves, can be carried on with more artifice.

3. An open and ingenuous disposition is not only beautiful and most conducive to private happiness, but is productive of many virtues for the good of society; because it recommends sincerity and integrity, and also