* * * * *

Original.

PROMISES.

  “And though to his own hurt he swears,
  Still he performs his word.”

I was yet a boy, when one day a gentleman came into the lot where my father was superintending the in-gathering of his hay crop, and addressing himself to a mower in my father’s employment, inquired whether he would assist him the following day.  He replied, “Yes.”  “How is this,” said my father; “are you not engaged to mow for me?” “O yes,” said the man.  “Why, then,” continued my father, “do you promise to mow for Gen. K——?” “Why,” said the man, “I wish to oblige him; I love to oblige everybody.”  “And so,” 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?