Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. Trust ye not in a friend - These times will be so evil, and the people so wicked, that all bonds will be dissolved; and even the most intimate will betray each other, when they can hope to serve themselves by it.
On this passage, in the year 1798, I find I have written as follows: -
"Trust ye not in a friend. - Several of those whom I have delighted to call by that name have deceived me.
"Put ye not confidence in a guide. - Had I followed some of these I should have gone to perdition.
"Keep the door of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. - My wife alone never deceived me."
It is now twenty-seven years since, and I find no cause to alter what I then wrote.