The Sun Never Shines on the Perjured

THE SUN NEVER SHINES ON THE PERJURED

THERE appears to exist a very old superstition, to the effect that when a man has deeply perjured himself--especially if by his perjury he has sacrificed the life of a friend,--he not merely loses the enjoyment of the sunshine, but he actually loses all consciousness of its light or its warmth. Howsoever bright the sun may shine, the weather appears to him gloomy, dark, and cold.

I have recently been told of a man living in the western part of Cornwall, who is said to have sworn away the life of an innocent person. "The face of this false witness is the colour of one long in the tomb; and he has never, since the death of the victim of his forswearing, seen the sun." It must be remembered the perjured man is not blind. All things around him are seen as by other men, but the sense of vision is so dulled that the world is for ever to him in a dark, vapoury cloud.