much; modesty will usually gain more than is demanded; but arrogance will gain less. Modest, unassuming manners conciliate esteem; bold, obtrusive manners excite resentment or disgust.

25. As mankind are all one family, the rule of loving our neighbor as ourselves, extends to the performance of all duties of kindness to persons of all nations, and all conditions of men. Persons of all nations, of all ranks and conditions, high and low, rich and poor, and of all sects or denominations, are our brethren, and our neighbors in the sense which Christ intended to use the word in his precept. This comprehensive rule of duty cannot be limited by any acts of our own. Any private association of men, for the purpose of contracting the rule, and confining our benevolence to such associations, is a violation of the divine commands. Christ healed the sick and the lame, without any regard to the nation or sect to which they belonged.

26. One of the most important rules of social conduct is justice. This consists, positively, in rendering to every person what is due to him, and negatively, in avoiding every thing that may impair his rights. Justice embraces the rights of property, the rights of personal liberty and safety, and the rights of character. 27. In regard to property, you are to pay punctually all your just debts. When a debt becomes payable to another, you cannot withhold or delay payment, without a violation of his right. By failure or delay of payment, you keep that which belongs to another. But the rule of justice extends to every act which can affect the property of another. If you borrow any article of your neighbor, you are to use it with care, and not injure the value of it. If you borrow a book, or any utensil, and injure it, you take a portion of your neighbor's property. Yet heedless people, who would not steal twenty five cents from another, often think nothing of injuring a borrowed utensil, to twice or five times that amount.

28. In like manner, one who takes a lease of a house or land, is bound to use it in such a manner as to injure it as little as possible. Yet how often do the lessees of real estate strive to gain as much as possible from the use of it, while they suffer the buildings and fences to go to ruin, to the great injury of the owner! This is one of the most common species of immorality. But all needless waste, and all diminution of the value of property in the hands of a lessee, proceeding from negligence, amounts to the same thing as the taking of so much of the owner's property without right. It is not considered as stealing, but it is a species of fraud that is as really immoral as stealing.

29. The command of God, "Thou shalt not steal," is very comprehensive, extending to the prohibition of every species of

fraud. Stealing is the taking of something from the possession of another, clandestinely, for one's own use. This may be done by entering the house of another at night, and taking his property; or by taking goods from a shop secretly, or by entering upon another's land and taking his horse or his sheep. These customary modes of stealing are punishable by law.

30. But there are many other ways of taking other men's property secretly, which are not so liable to be detected. If a stone is put into a bag of cotton, intended for a distant market, it increases the weight, and the purchaser of that bag, who pays for it at its weight, buys a stone, instead of its weight in cotton. In this case, the man who first sells the bag, knowing it to contain a stone, takes from the purchaser, by fraud, as much money as the weight of the stone produces, that is, as much as the same weight of cotton is worth. This is as criminal as it would be to enter his house and steal so much money.

31. If butter or lard is put up for a foreign or distant market, it should be put up in a good state, and the real quality should be such as it appears to be. If any deception is practiced, by covering that which is bad by that which is good, or by other means, all the price of the article which it brings beyond the real worth, is so much money taken from the purchaser by fraud, which falls within the criminality of stealing. If a buyer of the article in Europe or the West Indies is thus defrauded, ke may never be able to know who has done the wrong; but God knows, and will punish the wrong-doer. It is as immoral to cheat a foreigner as to cheat a neighbor.

32. Not only property in money and goods is to be respected; but the property in fruit, growing in orchards and gardens. A man's apples, pears, peaches, and melons, are as entirely his own, as his goods or his coin. Every person who climbs over a fence, or enters by a gate into another's inclosure without permission, is a trespasser; and if he takes fruit secretly, he is a thief. It makes no difference that a pear, or an apple, or a melon,,is of small value: a man has as exclusive a right to a cent or a melon, as he has to a dime, a dollar, or an eagle.

33. If in a country where apples are abundant, men do not notice the taking of a few apples to eat, yet this indulgence is not to be considered as giving a right to take them. Where the injury is trifling, men in neighborhoods may do such things by consent. But there are many species of fruit so rare, as to be cultivated with much labor, and protected with care. Such fruit is often valued even more than money. The stealing of such fruit is one of the most common crimes, and as disgraceful to a civilized and christian people as it is common. Let every man or boy who enters another's inclosure and steals fruit, be

assured he is as guilty as one who enters another's house, and takes the same value in money.

34. If in making payment, or counting money, a mistake occurs, by which a sum falls into your hands, which belongs to another person, you are as much bound by moral duty to correct the mistake, and restore the money to the rightful owner, as you would be not to take it by theft. If persons suppose that because this money falls into their hands by mistake, and the mistake may never be known to the person who has a right to the money; this makes no difference in the point of morality; the concealment of the mistake and the keeping of the money are dishonest, and fall within the command, "Thou shalt not steal."

35. When a man is hired to work for another by the day, the week, or the month, he is bound to perform what he undertakes; and if no particular amount of labor is promised, he is bound to do the work which is ordinarily done in such cases. If a man, hired to do a day's work, spends half the day in idleness, he defrauds his employer of a part of his due; that is, of one half the value of a day's labor. If the price of labor is one dollar for the day, then to waste half the day in idleness is to defraud the employer of half a dollar; this is as dishonest as to take half a dollar from his chest.

36. When a mechanic contracts to build a house or a ship, he is bound to perform the work in the manner which is promised. If he performs the work slightly, and with workmanship inferior to that which is promised and understood at the time of contracting, he defrauds his employer. Neglect of duty, in such a case, is as essentially immoral, as the positive act of taking property from another without his consent.

37. The adulteration of liquors and drugs is extremely criminal. By adulteration, the value of a thing is diminished; and if an adulterated liquor or drug is sold for that which is genuine, a fraud is committed on the purchaser. The adulteration of wines is one of the most common and flagrant immoralities in commercial countries. The adulteration of drugs may be even more iniquitous, for then the physician cannot rely on their effects in healing the sick. All classes of people, but especially the common people, are continually subjected to frauds by such adulterations. A glass of genuine, unadulterated wine, is scarcely to be found; and foul mixtures are often used as medicines, for no pure wine is to be had in the neighborhood.

38. The modes used to defraud men in the kind, or in the quantity or quality of commodities offered for sale, are almost innumerable. They extend to almost every thing in which fraud is not easily detected. This is a melancholy picture of

the state of society; exhibiting unequivocal evidence of the depravity of men. It shows that the love of money is the root of all evil,- -a principle so powerful in the human heart, as to overcome all regard to truth, morality, and reputation.

39. In all your dealings with men, let a strict regard to veracity and justice govern all your actions. Uprightness in dealings secures confidence; and the confidence of our fellowmen is the basis of reputation, and often a source of prosperity. Men are always ready to assist those whom they can trust; and a good character in men of business often raises them to wealth and distinction. On the other hand, hypocrisy, trickishness, and want of punctuality and of fairness in trade, often sink men into meanness and poverty. Hence we see that the divine commands, which require men to be just, are adapted to advance their temporal as well as their spiritual interest.

40. Not only are theft and fraud of all kinds forbidden by the laws of God and man, but all kinds of injury or annoyance of the peace, security, rights, and prosperity of men. The prac tice of boys and of men, who do mischief for sport, is as wrong in morality as it is degrading to the character. To pull down or deface a sign-board; to break or deface a mile-stone; to cut and disfigure benches or tables, in a school-house, court-house, or church; to place obstacles in the highway; to pull down or injure fences; to tarnish the walls of houses or the boards of a fence; and similar tricks, that injure property or disturb the peace of society, are not only mean, but immoral. Why will rational beings indulge in such feats of mischief and folly? Men are not made to injure and annoy one another, but to assist them; not to do harm, but to do good; not to lessen, but to increase, the prosperity and enjoyments of their fellow-men.

41. But you are required to be just, not only to the property, but to the reputation, of others. A man's reputation is dearer to him than his property; and he that detracts from the good name of another, is as criminal as the thief who takes his property. Say nothing of your neighbor maliciously, nor spread reports about him to lessen his reputation. On the other hand, vindicate his conduct in all cases, when you can do it with a clear conscience. If you cannot defend it, remain silent.

42. Nor are you to be less careful of the rights of others, than of their reputation and property. By the laws of creation, and by our civil constitution, all men have equal rights to protection, to liberty, and to the free enjoyment of all the benefits and privileges of government. All secret attempts, by associations or otherwise, to give to one set of men, or one party, advantages over another, are mean, dishonorable, and immoral. All secret combinations of men, to gain for themselves, or their party, advantages in preferments to office, are trespasses upon the rights of others.

43. In every condition of life, and in forming your opinions on every subject, let it be an established principle in regulating your conduct, that nothing can be honorable, which is morally wrong. Men who disregard or disbelieve revelation, often err from the true standard of honor, by substituting public opinion, or false maxims, for the divine laws. The character of God, his holy attributes, and perfect law, constitute the only models and rules of excellence and true honor. Whatever deviates from these models and rules, must be wrong and dishonorable. Crime and vice are therefore not only repugnant to duty, and to human happiness, but are always derogatory to reputation. All vice implies defect and meanness in human character.

44. In whatever laudable occupation you are destined to labor, be steady in an industrious application of time. Time is given to you for employment, not for waste. Most men are obliged to labor for subsistence; and this is a happy arrangement of things by divine appointment; as labor is one of the best preservatives both of health and of moral habits. But if you are not under the necessity of laboring for subsistence, let your time be occupied in something which shall do good to yourselves and your fellow-men. Idleness tends to lead men into vicious pleasures; and to waste time, is to abuse the gifts of God.

45. With most persons, the gaining of property is a primary object, and one which demands wisdom in planning business, and assiduous care, attention, and industry in conducting it. But it is, perhaps, more difficult to keep property than to gain it; as men, while acquiring property, are more economical, and make more careful calculations of profit and loss, than when they hold large possessions. Men who inherit large possessions are particularly liable to waste their property, and fall into poverty. The greatest hereditary estates in this country are usually dissipated by the second or third generation. The sons and grandsons of the richest men, are often hewers of wood and drawers of water to the sons and grandsons of their father's and grandfather's servants.

46. As a general rule, in the expenditure of money, it is safest to earn money before you spend it, and to spend every year less than you earn. By this means, you will secure a comfortable subsistence, and be enabled to establish your children in some honest calling; at the same time, this practice will furnish the means of contributing to the wants of the poor, and to the promotion of institutions for civilizing and christianizing heathen nations. This is a great and indispensable duty.

47. In your mode of living, be not ambitious of adopting every extravagant fashion. Many fashions are not only inconvenient and expensive, but inconsistent with good taste. The