“Tell us one,” said Royal.
“Why, there is your old riddle of the carpenter cutting the door. He cut it, and cut it, and cut it, and cut it too little; then he cut it again, and it fitted.”
“Is that an equivocation?” said Royal.
“Yes,” said Miss Anne; “the equivocation is in the word little. It may mean that he cut too little, or that he cut until the door was too little. Now, when you give out that riddle, you mean that the person whom you are talking with, should understand it in the last sense; that is, that he cut until the door was too little, and then that he cut it more, and it was just right. But it cannot be true in that sense. It is true only in the other sense; that is, that he did not cut it enough, and then, when he cut it more, he made it fit. So that he cut it too little, has two senses. The words are true in one sense; but you mean to have them understood in the other sense, in which they cannot be true. And that is an equivocation.
“But, then,” continued Miss Anne, “equivocations in riddles are certainly not wrong; but equivocations in our dealings with one another certainly are.”
“I don’t think that the boy that said there was a dog up garret did any thing wrong,” said Royal.
“I do,” said Lucy, putting down her little foot with great emphasis. “I think he did very wrong indeed.”
“O no, Lucy,” said Miss Anne, “not very wrong indeed. Perhaps it was not quite right. But it is certainly wrong to gain any advantage from any person in your dealings with them, by equivocation.”
“Did I?” said Royal.
“Yes, I think you did, a little. You told Lucy that the flowers would keep fresh as long as she would water them. You meant her to understand it absolutely; but it is true only in another sense.”