Positive lepers of lying

You know that we are always suffering thirst—an agonising, burning thirst—ever longing for a drop of water to cool the tongue. No one, one would imagine, would willingly come to try and slake his thirst with the stagnant water of the horrible river; nevertheless there are some who do try it, quite secretly though, as if that could be kept a secret! For their whole body swells and is puffed out with the slimy falsehood, which, breaking through their every pore, turns them into positive lepers of lying. Having drunk once they always drink again, but their thirst is never quenched.

Letters from Hell, L. W. J. S., Richard Bentley & Son, London, 1889