The Mountaineer. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1859-1861, 1860-03-24


honest and honorable man, and 4 ration.
a individual should respect. L You
have made every person whom You have
spoken TO, fear you and shnn you, You
have shown that you know not what The
value Of q good name is, and have forfeit
Cd your own, II yon ever had any. You
have shown that you are stranger to SELF
respect; that you have probably every
one Of the faults, fOIIies, and errors, which
You impute to others; aud desire to bring
them down to your own level. Thus you
have broken that law which commands
you to do no evil to yourself. 2. You
have violated that principle Of natural law
which commands you to do no injustice to
your fellow.mer. You know not what
opinions yon may entertain Of the party
you have slandered, if circumstances Gas
they may) should bring you into connec-
ton with him, You may find him to be-,
on d better knowledge Of him, an amiable
and worthy person You may End all
that you have said, and helped to Circu-
late, utterly gronndless. II be be one
whom You occasionally meet, md even
ask TO partake Of your hospitality, how
can you meet him, and manifest towards
him every sentiment Of respect and esteem,
when you have sospoken Of him2 One Of
two things must be true: either you dct d
lie, when you meet him in such d manner;
or You spoke q lie, when you Represented
him as you did 10 others 3. You have
broken the law OF God. TO this law,
perhaps, you are q stranger, aud know
not what wrong You have done II so,
the kindest thing that any one can doyou
is, TO urge you to find out what tits, and
to learn there the sentence Of the Sian
derer.
II may be asked, whether one Is to b.
entirely sileut at all times, and on oil oc
casions, rs TO the character and conduct
of Others? Certainly moi. There arr
many occasions for speaking of others, and
for speaking the truth Of them, whatever
that may be. All the members of any
community are interested in knowing The
true character Of each other. The know
ledge that this character may be known
is one OF the most salItary correctiyes 81
erroneous conduct, and one Of the strong.
eat inducements to pursue that which il
Icommendable. 1t is probably the case
thai the members of every community arc
pretty well understood BY oil who have
IN interest in knowing them. We know
not Of any law which holds it to be i'm
moral 10 speak Tie truth Of any one ffroa
good nIotirss, aud for jastifdbie ends. Il
is All-important that this principle shonl6
prevail in our country, where so much de
ponds on public opinion. Surely one:
arms are not to be folded, aud bis lip
closed, when he sees one bent on mischief
public or private. It may be one Of The
highest moral duties TO declare what ner
are, and what they are aiming at. in
many supposable cases. There can be nc
surer guide then the Diotire and the end.
Inquiries are sometimes made, in matters
OF greater or less interest, concerning
others, confdentially, and where the IN,
qairer needs to be truly Informed The
party inquired Of has right to be silent
il be thinks he has good reason TO be SO;
but if he answer, he is bound to state the
truth. If he chooses to speak, and viii
fully conceal tile truth, so that the inquirer
is deceived, he subjects himself TO the inl
lputation Of an intentional decciver.
There may he also, and there frequent,
are, confidential discussions Of character
especially concerning public men, ant
where perhaps there is no particular end IL
view. This does not seem to be wrong
such intercourse is not founded in mali
cious or unworthy motives. II iseyeI
sometimes instructive and philosophical
This, perhaps, is the extreme limit. j
all other imaginable cases, it is prohabl.
most consistent with ones own self-res
pect, and all truly respectable motives, {.
let other persons alone, and leave to then
the care Of their own characters.