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JAY TO BENJAMIN KISSAM.
If by wanting to know how matters go on in the
office, you intend I shall tell you how often your clerks
go into it; give me leave to remind you of the old law
maxim, that a man's own evidence is not to be admitted in his own cause. Why ? Because 't is ten to one
he does violence to his conscience. If I should tell
you that I am all day in the office, and as attentive to
your interests as I would be to my own, I suspect you
would think it such an impeachment of my modesty
as would not operate very powerfully in favour of my
veracity. And if, on the other hand, I should tell you
that I make hay while the sun shines, and say unto
my soul,—" Soul, take thy rest, thy lord is journeying
to a far country ;" I should be much mistaken, if
you did not think the confession looked too honest to
be true.
When people in the city write to their friends in
the country, I know, it is expected that their letters
should contain the news of the town. For my part, I
make it a rule never to frustrate the expectations of
my correspondents in this particular, if I can help it;
and that as much for my own sake as for theirs : for
it not only saves one's invention a good deal of fatigue,
but fills up blank paper very agreeably. Things remain here, if I may speak in your own language,
pretty much in statu quo. Some, with reluctance,
shuffling off this mortal coil; and others solacing
themselves in the arms of mortality. The ways of
men, you know, are as circular as the orbit through
which our planet moves, and the centre to which they
gravitate is self: round this we move in mystic meas-
| Title | The correspondence and public papers of John Jay - 1 |
| Creator | Jay, John |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000036 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | JAY TO BENJAMIN KISSAM. If by wanting to know how matters go on in the office, you intend I shall tell you how often your clerks go into it; give me leave to remind you of the old law maxim, that a man's own evidence is not to be admitted in his own cause. Why ? Because 't is ten to one he does violence to his conscience. If I should tell you that I am all day in the office, and as attentive to your interests as I would be to my own, I suspect you would think it such an impeachment of my modesty as would not operate very powerfully in favour of my veracity. And if, on the other hand, I should tell you that I make hay while the sun shines, and say unto my soul,—" Soul, take thy rest, thy lord is journeying to a far country ;" I should be much mistaken, if you did not think the confession looked too honest to be true. When people in the city write to their friends in the country, I know, it is expected that their letters should contain the news of the town. For my part, I make it a rule never to frustrate the expectations of my correspondents in this particular, if I can help it; and that as much for my own sake as for theirs : for it not only saves one's invention a good deal of fatigue, but fills up blank paper very agreeably. Things remain here, if I may speak in your own language, pretty much in statu quo. Some, with reluctance, shuffling off this mortal coil; and others solacing themselves in the arms of mortality. The ways of men, you know, are as circular as the orbit through which our planet moves, and the centre to which they gravitate is self: round this we move in mystic meas- |
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