" said my father, "you are willing to incur
the guilt of falsehood, for you cannot perform your promise to him and
myself, and in the end you must disappoint one of us; and, maybe,
seriously injure our interests and your reputation."

Nothing, surely, is more common, it is believed, than this heedless
manner of making promises which cannot be fulfilled. The modes in which
such promises are made are multitudinous, but it is not within the
compass of this article to specify them. That they are utterly wrong,
and indicate, on the part of those who make them, a light regard for
truth, is obvious. Besides, they often lay the foundation for grievous
disappointments, they thwart important plans, derange business
calculations, give birth to vexatious feelings, cause distrust between
man and man, and sap the foundations of morality and religion. Promises
should always be made with due caution and due reservation: "If the Lord
will," "if life is spared," "if unforeseen circumstances do not
interpose to prevent." It is always easy to state some conditions, or
make some such reservations. Or, rather, it would be easy, were it not
that one is often urged beyond all propriety, to make the promise, as if
the making of it, of course insured its fulfillment, although a
thousand circumstances may interfere to prevent it.

This is a subject of vast importance to the community. There are evils
also connected with it of alarming magnitude, and which all needful
efforts should be made to remove. Especially should this subject attract
the attention of parents. The mischief often begins with them and around
their own hearths. How common it is for parents to make promises to
their children, while the latter are yet tottering from chair to chair,
which are never designed to be fulfilled. And, at length, the deception
is discovered by the little prattlers, and often much earlier than
parents imagine. Often, too, is the parent reminded of his promise and
of its non-fulfillment. And, sometimes, this is done days and weeks
after the promise has been made and neglected. The consequence is, that
the child comes to feel that his parent has little or no regard to truth
himself, and that truth is a matter of minor importance. So that child
grows up. So he goes forth into society, and enters upon business. Will
he be likely to forget the lessons thus early taught him, and the
example thus early set him?

I am able to illustrate this subject by an incide