when the telling of it is convenient; but when it is not, give me a bouncing lie.  But that one lie, object the advocates of uniform veracity, will require twenty more to make it good:  very well, then, tell them.  Ever have a due regard to the sanctity of oaths; this you will evince by never using them to support a fiction, except on high and solemn occasions, such as when you are about to be invested with some public dignity.  But avoid any approach to a superstitious veneration for them:  it is to keep those thin-skinned and impracticable individuals who are infected by this failing from the management of public affairs, that they have been, in great measure, devised.

Never break a promise, unless bound to do so by a previous one; and promise yourselves from this time forth never to do anything that will put you to inconvenience.

Never take what does not belong to you.  For, as a young pupil who formerly attended these lectures pathetically expressed himself, he furnishing, at the time, in his own person, an illustration of the maxim—­

  “Him as prigs wot isn’t his’n,
  Ven ’a’s cotch must go to pris’n!”

But what is it that does not belong to you?  I answer, whatever you cannot take with impunity.  Never fail, however, to appropriate that which the law does not protect.  This is a duty which you owe to yourselves.  And in order that you may thoroughly carry out this principle, procure, if you can, a legal education; because there are a great many flaws in titles, agreements, and the like, the knowledge of which will often enable you to lay hands upon various kinds of property to which at first sight you might appear to have no claim.  Should you ever be so circumstanced as to be beyond the control of the law, you will, of course, be able to take whatever you want; because there will be nothing then that will not belong to you.  This, my friends, is a grand moral principle; and, as illustrative of it, we have an example (as schoolboys say in their themes) in Alexander the Great; and besides, in all other conquerors that have ever lived, from Nimrod down to Napoleon inclusive.

Speak evil of no one behind his back, unless you are likely to get anything by so doing.  On the contrary, have a good word to say, if you can, of everybody, provided that the person who is praised by you is likely to be informed of the circumstance.  And, the more to display the generosity of your disposition, never hesitate, on convenient occasions, to bestow the highest eulogies on those who do not deserve them.

Be abstemious—­in eating and drinking at your own expense; but when you feed at another person’s, consume as much as you can possibly digest.

Let your behaviour be always distinguished by modesty.  Never boast or brag, when you are likely to be disbelieved; and do not contradict your superiors—­that is to say, when you are in the presence of people who are richer than yourselves, never express an opinion of your own.