12th, 1880.]

A correspondent of the _Inter-Ocean_ not long since sent the following
comment upon Ingersoll's claim that Benjamin Franklin was an infidel:

"As Col. Ingersoll appears to be trying to appropriate our old and
esteemed friend, Benjamin Franklin, as a recruit for his infidel
doctrine, let me call his attention, through your widely circulated
journal, to the following epitaph, written by himself for himself:

"'The body of
Benjamin Franklin,
Printer,
Lies here food for worms,
Like the cover of an old book,
Its contents torn out and stripped
Of its lettering and gilding;
But it will
(As he believed)
Appear again, in a
New and more beautiful
Edition, corrected and
Amended by
THE AUTHOR.'"

HONESTY, OR THE INNER-SELF.

I have thought that the inner-self upon the surface both in words and
actions is necessary to the existence of an honest man. The conclusion
forces itself upon me in such a manner that I can not forbear expressing
it, and yet, if this be true, how few are strictly honest. But it is not
intended that this conclusion shall be applied beyond its proper limits;
that is to say, to those elements of thought which should, in
righteousness, be kept forever in the heart. But it is intended that the
remark shall be applied to all that is said and done. The surface man
should always find his prototype, or counterpart, in the inner-self,
otherwise there is a want of harmony between the outer and the
inner-self. This want of harmony is dishonesty; so dishonesty is always
hypocrisy. There is much more hypocrisy in the world than men are
accustomed to think.

What an immense distance there is between the inner and the outer self.
The distance is not always measured, for men often keep much in their
hearts that is not known by others, and which they themselves do not
counterfeit. In this we can not charge them with _necessary_ dishonesty.
Men may be dishonest in keeping a secret, but keeping a secret is not
necessarily dishonesty. The distance between the heart, the inner-self
and the outward-man, is very great, even as respects the secrets of the
heart which may be honestly kept as secrets, and it is certainly very
great as respects those secrets; which should not be kept as secrets.

It is a fact, so well known in our time that we need not argue the
question.