The examples about to be given by me of exaggerated expressions, are only a few of the many that are constantly in use. Whether you can acquit yourselves of the charge of occasionally using them, I cannot tell; but I dare not affirm for myself that I am altogether guiltless.

"I was caught in the wet last night, the rain came down in torrents." Most of us have been out in heavy rains; but a torrent of water pouring down from the skies would a little surprise us, after all.

"I am wet to the skin, and have not a dry thread upon me." Where these expressions are once used correctly, they are used twenty times in opposition to the truth.

"I tried to overtake him, but in vain; for he ran like lightning." The celebrated racehorse Eclipse is said to have run a mile in a minute, but poor Eclipse is left sadly behind by this expression.

"He kept me standing out in the cold so long, I thought I should have waited for ever." There is not a particle of probability that such a thought could have been for one moment entertained.

"As I came across the common, the wind was as keen as a razor." This is certainly a very keen remark, but the worst of it is that its keenness far exceeds its correctness.

"I went to the meeting, but had hard work to get in; for the place was crowded to suffocation." In this case, in justice to the veracity of the relater, it is necessary to suppose that successful means had been used for his recovery.

"It must have been a fine sight; I would have given the world to have seen it." Fond as most of us are of sight-seeing, this would be buying pleasure at a dear price indeed; but it is an easy thing to proffer to part with that which we do not possess.

"It made me quite low spirited; my heart felt as heavy as lead." We most of us know what a heavy heart is; but lead is by no means the most correct metaphor to use in speaking of a heavy heart.

"I could hardly find my way, for the night was as dark as pitch." I am afraid we have all in our turn calumniated the sky in this manner; pitch is many shades darker than the darkest night we have ever known.

"I have told him of that fault fifty times over." Five times would, in all probability, be much nearer the fact than fifty.

"I never closed my eyes all night long." If this be true, you acted unwisely; for had you closed your eyes, you might, perhaps, have fallen asleep, and enjoyed the blessing of refreshing slumber; if it be not true, you acted more unwisely still, by stating that as a fact which is altogether untrue.

"He is as tall as a church-spire." I have met with some tall fellows in my time, though the spire of a church is somewhat taller than the tallest of them.

"You may buy a fish at the market as big as a jackass, for five shillings." I certainly have my doubts about this matter; but if it be really true, the market people must be jackasses indeed to sell such large fishes for so little money.

"He was so fat he could hardly come in at the door." Most likely the difficulty here alluded to was never felt by any one but the relater; supposing it to be otherwise, the man must have been very broad or the door very narrow.

"You don't say so!--why, it was enough to kill him!" The fact that it did not kill him is a sufficient reply to this unfounded observation; but no remark can be too absurd for an unbridled tongue.

Thus might I run on for an hour, and after all leave much unsaid on the subject of exaggerated expressions. We are hearing continually the comparisons, "black as soot, white as snow, hot as fire, cold as ice, sharp as a needle, dull as a door-nail, light as a feather, heavy as lead, stiff as a poker, and crooked as a crab-tree," in cases where such expressions are quite out of order.

The practice of expressing ourselves in this inflated and thoughtless way, is more mischievous than we are aware of. It certainly leads us to sacrifice truth; to misrepresent what we mean faithfully to describe; to whiten our own characters, and sometimes to blacken the reputation of a neighbor. There is an uprightness in speech as well as in action, that we ought to strive hard to attain. The purity of truth is sullied, and the standard of integrity is lowered, by incorrect observations. Let us reflect upon this matter freely and faithfully. Let us love truth, follow truth, and practice truth in our thoughts, our words, and our deeds.