fraudulently bereaving them of it, do them no less wrong than if we
should rob or cozen them of their substance; yea, than if we should
maim their body, or spill their blood, or even stop their breath.
If they as grievously feel it, and resent it as deeply, as they do
any other outrage, the injury is really as great, to them. Even the
slanderer's own judgment and conscience might tell him so much; for
they who most slight another's fame, are usually very tender of
their own, and can with no patience endure that others should touch
it; which demonstrates the inconsiderateness of their judgment, and
the iniquity of their practice. It is an injustice not to be
corrected or cured. Thefts may be restored, wounds may be cured;
but there is no restitution or cure of a lost good name: it is
therefore an irreparable injury.

Nor is the thing itself, in true judgment, contemptible; but in
itself really very considerable. "A good name," saith Solomon
himself (no fool), "is rather to be chosen than great riches; and
loving favour rather than silver and gold." In its consequences it
is much more so; the chief interests of a man, the success of his
affairs, his ability to do good (for himself, his friends, his
neighbour), his safety, the best comforts and conveniences of his
life, sometimes his life itself, depending thereon; so that whoever
doth snatch or filch it from him, doth not only according to his
opinion, and in moral value, but in real effect commonly rob,
sometimes murder, ever exceedingly wrong his neighbour. It is often
the sole reward of a man's virtue and all the fruit of his industry;
so that by depriving him of that, he is robbed of all his estate,
and left stark naked of all, excepting a good conscience, which is
beyond the reach of the world, and which no malice or misfortune can
divest him of. Full then of iniquity, full of uncharitableness,