In matters of fact, his regard to truth was so punctilious, that it was
observed he always talked as if he was talking upon oath; and he was
desirous of exacting the same preciseness from those over whom he had
authority or influence. He had, however, a practice that was not
entirely consistent with this love of veracity; for he would sometimes
defend that side of a question, which he thought wrong, because it
afforded him a more favourable opportunity of exhibiting his reasoning
or his wit. Thus when he began, "Why, Sir, as to the good or evil of
card-playing;" Garrick would make this arch comment on his proem; "Now
he is considering which side he shall take." It may he urged that his
hearers were aware of this propensity which he had

--To make the worse appear
The better argument,

and were therefore in no danger of being misled by it. But an excuse of
the same kind will serve for the common liar, that he is known, and
therefore disbelieved. It behoved him to be the more scrupulous in this
particular, because he knew that Boswell took minutes of his ordinary
conversation. Some of his idle sophisms, which thus became current,
have, I fear, led to serious mischief; such as the opinion that an
author may be at liberty to deny his having written a book to which he
has not affixed his name; his extenuation of incontinence in the master
of a family, and the gloss he put on the crime of covetousness; which
last error was not confined to his conversation, but mingled itself with
his writings, though no one could well be freer from any taint of the
vice in his own life. Many a man may have indulged his inclinations to
evil, with much less compunction, while he has imagined himself
sheltered under the sanction of the moralist who watches one side of the