Page:The Works of Samuel Johnson ... A journey to the Hebrides. The vision of Theodore, the hermit of Teneriffe. The fountains. Prayers and meditations. Sermons.v. 10-11. Parliamentary debates.pdf/489

 *mation of what is false, or the suppression of what is true; for no man willingly wrongs himself. He must he deceived, either by false appearances of the present, or by false promises of the future, by a display of fictitious advantages, or an artful concealment of certain inconveniencies.

As it often happens, that in committing a fraud, or persuading a man to injure himself, a considerable degree of skill and dexterity is required; the fraudulent are often considered, by themselves and others, as possessing uncommon powers of understanding, so that, though the act itself is blamed, the artifice is admired. Conscience is overpowered by vanity, and the shame of guilt is lost in the pride of subtilty and acuteness.

It is to be feared, that the science of overreaching is too closely connected with lucrative commerce. There are classes of men, who do little less than profess it, and who are scarcely ashamed, when they are detected in imposture. Such men live, indeed, without reputation. They are considered as exercising dishonourable employments, but they are still tolerated; and, however they may be despised, are very rarely punished. The whole practice of buying and selling is indeed replete with temptation, which even a virtuous mind finds it difficult to resist. "A merchant shall hardly keep himself from doing wrong, and an huckster shall not be freed from sin," Ecclesiasticus xxvi. 29. "Many have sinned for a small matter; and he that seeketh for abundance, will turn his eyes away. As a nail sticketh fast between the joinings of the stones, so doth sin stick close between buying and selling," Eccl. xxvii. 1, 2.

Such is the censure of the Son of Sirach, which surely cannot be heard without alarm and terrour.

It is, however, by no means to be admitted, that all trade is necessarily fraudulent, or that all traders are dishonest. Every kind of life has its peculiar dangers, which the negligent incur, and the wise escape. The danger of a trader, like that of others, may be avoided by resolution, vigilance, and prayer, by a constant reference of his actions