Il faut qu'un menteur ait bonne memoire, a liar ought to have a good memory. When a transaction is related exactly as it occurred, there is no probability that the relater should at any time vary in his account. The circumstance must for ever dwell in his mind, in the very manner he described it. But if a fictitious story is told, he must have a good memory to be able at all time to tell it in the same manner. The liar therefore has little chance that his fiction shall remain long undiscovered, for should no other circumstance lead to the detection of it, he will, by not adhering always to the same story, betray the imposition he has practised; and it is well that it is so, as there is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame, as to be detected in telling a lie. «Clear and round dealing», Lord Verulam says, «is the honour of man's nature, while a mixture of falsehood, is like allay in coin of gold or silver, which may make the metal work better, but it embaseth it». Montaigne says, very happily, «To accuse a man of lying, is as much as to say, he is a brave towards God, and a coward towards man».

Poverty has, at times, the power of destroying even the affection of a parent to his off spring. When poverty comes in at the door, love flies out at the window. In extreme poverty, the mind is too intensely employed in procuring sustenance, to have leisure to attend to the wants of others, even our nearest relatives. When Mrs. Thrale reproved a poor girl, who was sitting, while her mother was on her legs, and employed; Johnson excused the girl, as not owing that attention to her mother, from whom she only inherited misery and want. But poverty is not without its advantages. If the poor man has not the conveniences, so neither has he the cares that riches never fail to bring with them. His wants are few, and the labour necessary to supply them, preserves him in health, and gives him that composed and quiet sleep, which does not often attend the pillow of the wealthy. The wise man therefore says, «give me neither poverty nor riches».

«Would you be free? 'tis your chief wish, you say;
Come on, I'll shew thee, friend, the certain way.
If to no feasts abroad thou lov'st to go,
Whilst bounteous God does bread at home bestow;
If thou the goodness of thy clothes dost prize,
By thine own use, and not by others' eyes;
If (only safe from weather) thou jeanst dwell
In a small house, but a convenient shell;
If thou, without a sigh, or golden wish,
Canst look upon the beechen bowl and dish;
If in thy mind such power and greatness be,
The Persian king's a slave compared to thee».
(I.Walton and C.Cotton, The Complete Angler)