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/492

 is due. Other considerations have here no weight. The amiable and the perverse, the good and the bad, have an equal right to the performance of their contract. He that has trusted the society with his money, cannot, without breach of faith, be denied that payment, which, when he payed his contribution, was solemnly stipulated.

It has been always observed by the wise, that it is every man's real interest to be honest; and he who practises fraud, to the injury of others, shows, at the same time, how fraud may be practised against himself. Those who have been forward in watching the steps of others, and have objected to payment when it was required, may live to be themselves watched, and excluded by a precedent, which their own fraudulence, or malice, has incited them to establish. They will then feel the folly of wickedness, and know the necessity of providing against the day of calamity by innocence and integrity; they will wish that they could claim the kindness of others, as a recompense for kindness formerly exhibited by themselves.

Fraud is the more hurtful, because the wrong is often without redress. As he that is wronged by fraudulent practices must always concur in the act that injured him, it is not always easy to ascertain the exact limits of his agency, so as to know precisely how far he was deceived. This, at least, is seldom to be done without an inquiry and discussion, liable to many legal delays, and eludible by many artifices. The redress, therefore, is often more pernicious than the injury; and while the robber lurks in secret, or flies for his life, the man of fraud holds up his head with confidence, enjoys the fruits of his iniquity with security, and bids defiance to detection and to punishment.

But this triumph, however he may escape human judicatures, must end with his life. The time will come, and will come quickly, when he that has defrauded his neighbour, must stand before the Judge of all the earth, a Judge whom he cannot deceive; and before whom, whatever he has taken wrongfully, without restitution, and without repentance, will lie heavy on his soul.