"I sold the cotton at twelve cents a pound," was the reply. "Nothing
was said about the quality."

"Twelve cents is the price of a prime article. If you had been asked
by Peterson if the cotton were in good condition, would you have
answered affirmatively?"

"Do you think I would tell a lie?" asked Mr. Rowley, indignantly.

"Our acts are the most perfect expressions of our intentions,"
replied Mr. Lane. "You were deceived in your purchase of the cotton;
the article proved so near valueless, as not to be really worth
three cents a pound. You discovered this, as I have the best reasons
for knowing, almost as soon as it came into your possession; and yet
you offered it to Peterson, who, not suspecting for a moment that
any thing was wrong, bought it at the regular market-rate as good.
You saved yourself; but Peterson, though not a professor of
religion, was too honest to put his bad bargain off upon another.
Now, if that act, on your part, was loving your neighbour as
yourself, I must own to a very perverted understanding of the sacred
precept. I, though no church member, would have put my head into the
fire rather than do such an act."

Mr. Rowley, much confused by so direct a charge, attempted to
explain the matter away, alleging that he did not think that the
article was so badly damaged--that he sold as he bought--that it
wasn't right that he should bear all the loss, with much more to the
same purpose; to all of which Lane opposed but little. He had
presented the case already strong enough for all to see how far it
comported with Christian morality. But he had more to say:--