others.
This, we think, is partly the case with our heroes. Their acknowledgment
of their disregard of truth, while prosecuting illegal measures, is,
indeed,--so inconsistent is human nature,--some guarantee for the
fidelity of their narratives. A solitary vice is a thing unknown; as
Lillo expresses it, in his tragedy of George Barnwell,--"One vice as
naturally begets another, as a father begets a son." Who, then, could
believe a practised villain, if he professed himself untainted by
mendacity? But if, after a plain avowal of his constant resort to it, we
find nothing contradictory in his relation, we may reasonably yield a
qualified assent to it; since, as Lord Bacon remarks in his Essays,
which "come home to men's business and bosoms," a liar had need possess
a good memory to prevent his contradicting himself. Where he is
consistent throughout a long narrative, the natural deduction is, that
he has mainly depended on his memory, rejecting, for the occasion, his
temptation to beguile.[13]

After these preliminary considerations, the relevancy of which is
obvious, we proceed to furnish our readers with a few extracts; not
doubting, that to such of them as lead domestic, retired lives, it will
afford gratification to learn something of the ways of others, who are
entirely opposite in their habits,--as opposite as the two electric
poles, and, like them, "repelling and repelled." One of the most
observable points in these volumes, is the contamination of jails. When
men are thrown together in a place where reputation is valueless, they
have no inducement to conceal their vices. What is the consequence? They
delight in recounting to each other their nefarious exploits: thus
conscience is more and more corrupted, and the young and inexperienced
are initiated into the skilful manoeuvres of adepts. Whoever has read
the _first_ edition of Ellwood's Life, (for the subsequent editions do
not contain the passage,) may remember the amusing account he has given
of the state of the common side of Newgate in the reign of Charles II.
Ellwood was imprisoned in that persecuting reign, for adherence to his
religious convictions as a Quaker, and had an opportunity of becoming
acquainted with the ordinary behaviour and conversation of thieves in
jail. He saw and lamented the evils incident to a promiscuous assemblage
of old and young, of hardened villains and juvenile delinquents; but the
remedy was reserved for the present age. That the r