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quered by the Saracens, was visitedby thousands of pilgrims. The town of Badku, one of the largest and finest ports on the Caspian Sea, is situated in the Peninsula of Abscharon, lat. 42o 22 north. The land round the town is impregnated with naphta. The inhabitants of Badku have no other combustible nor any other light than what they obtain from this substance. The black petroleum, made into little round pieces mixed with sand, serve them instead of combustible. Three of these pieces are sufficient to heat an oven hot enough to bake bread, but the bread has a disagreeable taste and smell. This substance supplies the place of lamps and fire to the lower class of people; and serves also to cover flat roofs of houses and keeps out the rain.

About ten miles north-east of the town, there are still to be seen the ancient temples that the Guebres built. The spiritual retreat where the devout adore their God, under the image of fire, is a place of about 60 feet, surrounded by a little wall and contains a great many places for lodging. In each of these is a little volcano of sulphurous fire, coming out of the earth, through a furnace, in the form of an Indian altar. This fire serves for the purpose of cooking as well as religious worship. Shutting up the furnace extinguishes the flame. The flame is of a pale colour, without smoke, and emits a sulphurous smell. The Guebres have a wan complexion, and are oppressed with a consumptive cough. The earth in this enclosure is full of subterraneous fire, which is emitted from artificial channels, but which cannot be lighted without the assistance of another flame.

Besides these fires in the apartments of the Guebres, another large fire, issuing from a rock in an open place, burns continually. Several of these volcanos may be seen inside the wall, and resemble, lime kilns. The space, which contains this volcanic fire, is about one mile in cireumference. All the country round Badku appears sometimes enveloped in flames, and as if the fire descended on great masses of mountains with incredible quickness.

This fire does not burn, and if any one were in the middle of it he would not feel heat. All the earth, for two miles round this large fire, has the singular property of being inflamed by a hot coal, when it is only put in two or three inches deep, but it does not communicate the fire to the adjoining earth. If a hole is made in the ground with a shovel and a torch applied to it, a great fire soon appears. If a hollow stick or only a roll of paper is put into the ground two inches, and if some one blows through it on a lighted coal placed at the other end, a light flame will issue, which will burn neither the stick nor the paper. This method is employed by the inhabitants to illuminate houses which are not paved, and by means of these hollow sticks, whence the fire comes out, they boil their water in their coffee-pots, and even cook several kinds of food.

To extinguish the flame it is only necessary to stop up the orifice. The ground that has the most pebbles, emits the most brilliant and active flame. The smell of the naphta spreads very far, but custom makes it less disagreeable. The inhabitants even employ this fire to calcine lime. The stones are placed one upon another in an open place, and in less than three days they are perfectly calcined. Sulphur is found where there are fountains of naphta. In bad weather, when the sky is covered with thick clouds, the fountains emit a great deal of fire, and the naphta, which often takes fire spontaneously on the surface of the earth, flows burning into the sea, to an incredible distance.

When the sky is serene and the weather fine, the depth of the fountain does not exceed three feet. The

purest and whitest naphta is found in the peninsula of Apscharon. It is more fluid and volatile than any other kind, but it is obtained in very small quantities. The Russians drink it as a stomachic, but it does not intoxicate them. Taken inwardly it is thought to be useful in the cure of several diseases, to which the Persians and Russians are more peculiarly subject.

OBSERVATIONS ON LYING.

WHAT constitutes lying? I answer, the intention to deceive. If this be a correct definition, there must be passive as well as active lying; and those who withhold the truth, or do not tell all the truth, are guilty of lying as well as those who utter a direct falsehood. Lies are many, and various in their nature and in their tendency, and may be arranged under their different names thus: Lies of vanity-Lies of fearLies of benevolence-Lies of flattery-Lies of first-rate malignity Lies of second-rate malignity-Lies of interest-Lies of convenience Lies of mere wantonness; of a depraved love of lying, and contempt for truth: there are others, perhaps, but I believe that this list contains those which are of the most import ance. There are also practical lies, that is, lies acted, not spoken, but of those I shall treat hereafter. I will give a slight illustration of each sort of lie in its turn, (lies for the sake of lying excepted; these I should find it a difficult matter to define.) Suppose, to give myself consequence, I were to say I was actually acquainted with certain great and distinguished persons, whom I had merely met in Society, and were also to mention being at Ch- --Vy-House, or the Marchioness of

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sexes. This is a lie which persons not only think themselves privileged to tell, but one which does not expose the utterer to severe animadversion, because all mankind have such a dislike to be thought old, that the wish to be considered younger than the truth warrants meets with complacent sympathy, even when it shews itself in a notorious falsehood, and that years are annihilated at the impulse of vanity. Yet if vanity be a despicable passion, this its darling lie is despicable also.

Lies of fear are confined chiefly, I trust, to weak and uneducated men and women, and to children-but of this I am far from certain. The motive to them is, most commonly, the wish to avoid punishment and anger, and sometimes the desire of not giving offence, or of forfeiting favour. For instance, a child or a servant breaks a glass, and denies having done it, to avoid punishment or anger-acquaintances forget to execute a commission intrusted to them, and either say it is executed when it is not, or make some false excuse for an omission which was the result of forgetfulness only. No persons are guilty of so many of these lies in a year as negligent correspondents, since excuses for not writing sooner are usually so many lies--and are lies of fear-fear of having forfeited favour by too long a silence. The lie of fear often proceeds from want of resolution to say no, when yes is more agreeable to the feelings of the questioner. not my new gown pretty? Is not my new hat becoming? Is not my coat of a good colour?" There are few persons who have courage to say no, though, in their opinion, no was truth, and yes would be falsehoodnor, again, to questions such as this

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bly on such a night, without adding that I was there, not as an invited guest, but only because a benefit concert was held at these houses, for which I had tickets. These would both be lies of vanity, but one would be an active, and one a passive lie. In the first I should assert a direct falsehood-in the second I should only withhold part of the truth, but both would be lies, because my intention in both was to deceive. There is another of the lies of vanity, which, as it is one of the most com- "Is not my picture too old for mon, I shall particularly mention; me? Is not my last work my best? namely, the violation of truth which Is not my daughter handsome? Is persons indulge in relative to their not my son a fine youth?" Fear of age an error very generally com- displeasing prompts an affirmative mitted by the unmarried of both answer, and perhaps this lie is one

*This passive lie is a very frequent one indeed in certain circles in London; and many ladies and gentlemen purchase tickets for benefits, held at certain great houses, merely that they may be able to say, "I was at lady such a one's on such a night!!!"

Eur. Mag. Vol. 82.

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of the least displeasing because it may proceed, for the most part, from a kind aversion to wound the feelings of the interrogator.

The lie of benevolence is still more decidedly kind in its nature. Benevolent persons withhold disagreeable truths, or speak agreeable falsehoods from a wish of giving pleasure. If you say that you are looking ill, they say you are looking well. If you express a fear that you are becoming too corpulent, they declare you are only just as fat as you ought to be. If you desire them to guess your age, they always guess you some years younger than you are. If f you are hoarse in singing, and painfully conscious of it, they assure you, you never sang better in your life; and all this not from the mean desire to flatter you, and the malignant one of making you ridiculous by trying to impose on your credulity, but from the really benevolent desire of making you pleased with yourself. There also are lies of benevolence which medical men tell a dying patient, and the friends and relatives on such occa sions, unless the patient and the persons interested are religious characters, and on principle desire to know the truth. It is, however, my firm conviction, that in no one instance, not even on these affecting occasions is the real truth to be violated or withheld but I know that in this opinion I am in a very small minority, which, however, as the gospel of truth is more spread, and more understood, will, I doubt not, become in time the opinion of the majority for how can a convinced, serious, and consistent Christian de fend lying, that is, deception, on any occasion; for is it not forbidden to do evil that good may come? and is not deception evil?

Lies of flattery are still more common, but never can, for one moment, be otherwise than unprincipled and disgusting. They are told, no doubt, merely to gain an ascendancy, and to conciliate good will. But the flat terer is often far from succeeding in his despicable attempt. His intend ed dupe frequently sees through his art, and he excites indignation, where he meant to gain regard; especially if the flattery be administered before other observers, for then the

objects of excessive flattery, if they know ought of human nature, must know that few persons hear with complacency compliments bestowed on another; and they feel assured, not only that the praise bestowed by the one person will provoke silence, if not uttered undervaluing of their pretensions, in others; but that they shall be accused, however wrongfully, of confiding in, and enjoying the gross incense offered to them.

I hope that I do not over-rate the goodness of human nature in asserting that lies of first-rate malignity, that is, lies designed to destroy the reputation of a man or woman, are less frequent than those which I have already enumerated-but it does not appear to me that such lies are, com paratively, rare. Slander is not rare, but inaccuracy, carelessness, want of attention, and an imperfect memory, are often the causes of a tale of un just slander, and not an intention to deceive, and lie with a view to injure.

There are men indeed who destroy the reputation of women by boasting of favours from them, which they never received; but these lies belong, I think, to the lies of vanity, and vanity in this case does not so much mean malevolence to injure another, as to exalt itself. There is also another reason why lies of first-rate malignity are not more decidedly frequent, namely, that the arm of the law defends reputations, and can punish the slanderer-but against lies of second-rate malignity, the law holds out no defence, and I know no tribunal of power sufficient to awe those who indulge in it, and protect their victims from their at tacks. A spirit of detraction is, I doubt not, more widely diffused than any other in society; and it gene rates satire, ridicule, quizzing, and lies of second-rate malignity, as cer tainly as a wet season does snailsand, like the snails, they leave a pernicious slime behind them, which disfigures and destroys whatever they prey upon.

The lies to which I allude are, tempting persons to do what they are incapable of doing well, by dint of flattery, and merely from the mean, malicious wish of leading them to expose themselves, in order that the flatterer may enjoy a hearty

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laugh at their expense. Persuading a man to drink more than his head can bear, by assurances that the wine is not strong, and that he has not drank as much as he thinks he has, in order to make him intoxicated, is a lie of second-rate malignity. Complimenting either a man or woman on the qualities which they do not possess, in hopes of imposing on their credulity; praising a lady's work or dress to her face, and then, as soon as she is no longer present, abusing not only both her dress and work, or person, but laughing at her weakness in believing the praise sincere, is one of those lies of second rate malignity, which cannot be exceeded in base and petty treachery.

Lies of interest are very various, and more excusable and less offensive than many others. The pale and ragged beggar who, to add to the effect of his or her ill looks, tells of the large family which does not exist, has a strong motive to deceive in the penury which does exist-and the tradesman, who tells you he cannot afford to come down to your price because he gave almost as much for the goods you are cheapening, is only labouring diligently in his calling, and telling a falsehood which custom authorizes, and which you may believe or not as you choose, It is not from persons like these that the worst, or most disgusting marks of falsehood are found. It is when habitual and petty lying profanes the lips of those, whom independence preserves from the temptation to vio late the truth, and whom education and religion ought to have taught to value it.

Lies of convenience are next in my list, and are super-eminent in extent and frequency. The order to your servant to say, "Not at home," is a lie of convenience; and one which custom authorizes, and which even some moralists defend, because, say they, it deceives no one, But this I deny-It is often meant to deceive but were it not so, and were it understood amongst equals as a simple and legitimate excuse, it still is very objectionable, because it must have a pernicious effect on the minds of our servants, who cannot be sup posed parties to this implied compact among their superiors, and must therefore understand the order à la

lettre, and that order is, "Go and tell a lie for my convenience." How then, I ask, in the name of justice and common sense, can I, after giving such an order, resent any lie which a servant may think proper to tell me for his convenience, or his pleasure, or his interest? But amongst the most frequent lies of convenience are those, which are told relative to engagements which they who make them are averse to keep. "Head-aches," ""bad colds,"

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expected visitors from the country." All these in their turn are used as lies of convenience, and gratify indolence or caprice at the expense of integrity. How often have I pitied the wives and children of professional men for the number of lies, which they are obliged to tell in the course of the year!" Dr. is very sorry, but he was sent for to a patient just as he was coming".

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Papa's compliments, and he is very sorry, but he was forced to attend a commission of bankruptcy, but will certainly come, if he can, bye and bye," when the chances are, that the physician is enjoying himself over his book and his fire, and the lawyer also congratulating themselves on having escaped that terrible bore, party, at the expense of teaching their wife and daughter, or son, to tell what they call a white lie! I would ask those fathers, I would ask mothers who make their children the bearers of similar excuses, whether they could conscientiously resent any breach of veracity committed by their children in matters of more importance. Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute, and I believe that habitual, permitted, and encouraged lying in little and unimportant things, leads undoubtedly to want of truth and principle in greater and serious matters. The barrier, the restrictive principle once thrown down, no one can presume to say where the inroads and the destruction will end; and however exaggerated, however ridiculously rigid my ideas and opinions may appear, I must repeat, it is my firm conviction, that on no occasion whatever is truth to be violated or withheld.

I come now to lies of wantonness, &c. There are some persons who, I am certain, lie from a love of lying ➡lie to shew their contempt of truth,

and for those scrupulous men or women of their acquaintance who look on it with reverence, and endeavour to act up to their principles. I know more than one person of this description, and I have listened with horror and disgust to lies apparently uttered without a motive-but, as all actions must have motives, I was forced to search for their's, and I could only find them in a depraved fondness for uttering and inventing falsehood. Not that these persons confine their lies to this sort of lying -on the contrary, it is to the having exhausted the strongly-motived and more natural sorts of lying, that I attribute these comparatively unnatural and weakly-motived indulgences in falsehood. For such as these, there is no more hope of amendment than there is of cure for the profligate who has exhausted life of its pleasure, and his constitution of its energy. Such persons must go despised and (terrible state of human degradation) untrusted, unbelieved in, to their grave!

I shall now treat of practical lies, not uttered, but acted, and dress will furnish me with most of my illustrations of this sort of falsehood.

It

has been said, that the great art of dress is to conceal defects, and heighten beauties; therefore, as concealment is deception, this great art of dress is founded on falsehood. -But if the false hair be so worn that no one can fancy it natural; if the cheek be so highly rouged that its bloom cannot be mistaken for nature; or if the person who thus conceals defects, and heightens beauties, openly avows the deceptions practised, then is the material false hood of the practice in a measure annihilated, and, consequently, its immorality; but, if the cheek be so artfully tinted that its hue is mis taken for natural colour; if the false hair be so judiciously woven and even, that it passes for natural hair; if the crooked person or a meagre form be so cunningly assisted by dress, that the uneven shoulder disappears, and that becoming fulness takes place of unbecoming thinness of figure, while the man or woman, so assisted by art, hopes and expects that these charms will be attributed to nature alone; then the aids of

dress partake of the nature of other lying, and become vicious in the eyes of the moralist, as well as of the religionist. I have said, the man or woman so assisted by art; and I trust, that in accusing the stronger, as well as the weaker sex, of having recourse to art in personal decoration, I have only been strictly just.

While men hide their baldness by gluing a piece of false hair to the top of their heads; while they pad their coats, in order to give their shoulders and chests the breadth which nature has denied them; while their boots are so constructed, that they add an inch or more to their height, and then, as is not unfrequently the case, a false calf gives muscular beauty to a shapeless leg, can the just observer, on human life and manners, do otherwise than include the wiser sex in the list, which tells of those who indulge in the permitted artifices and mysteries of the toilet?

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But still greater have been and are, daily I doubt not, the excursions, even of distinguished men, into the sacred mysteries of art, in personal admiration; for I have seen the cheek of a distinguished poet, glowing with the tint of art, and his grey eyebrow frowning with youthful black; and who is there that, during the last twenty or thirty years, has perambulated Bond-street, or joined the drive in Hyde Park, without seeing certain notorious men of fashion glowing in immortal bloom, and rivalling in tint the dashing belle beside them.

I shall now give another sort of practical lie.-The medical man, who desires his servant to call him out of church, or out of a party, in order to give him the appearance of the great business which he has not, is guilty not of uttering, but acting a falsehood; and the author also, who makes his publisher put second and third editions before a work, of which, perhaps, not even the first edition is sold.

But the most false of practical lies is that acted by men, who know themselves to be in the gulph of bankruptcy, but, either from wishing to put off the evil day, or from the visionary hope, that a sort of miracle will be worked to save them, launch out into new expenses and

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