The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-31


| to them in its naked simplicity they would
| Indignantly repudiate it. Many of our readers
| doubtless remember Pascaps delicious story,
in the ''Provincial Letters, " of the quarrel be-
! tween the Jesuit, Father Abby, and N. Puys,
priest of parish near Lyons. NJ. Pays
published little book, intoxicating the duty
Of attending ones own parish church, instead
of running about after strange preachers. The
Jesuits were then preaching a good deal, and
Father Abby thought the book was aimed at
them. So he denounced NJ. Puys, who was
an old and respected clergyman of un-
blemished reputation, from the pulpit, as a
man of lcentious habits, whose intrgues with
women were notorious, who was suspected of
being an impious heretic, and who deserved to
be burnt at the stake. NJ. Puys was overcome
by these accusations, and after some negotia-
tion, finding what the trouble was, formally
declared that nothing was further from his
intention than to attack the Society OF Jesus,
which, on the contrary, he honored and
loved. Whereupon Father Abby said that
it was his belief that NJ. Puys meant to
attack the Jesuits which had led him to use
the language complained of, but that "know-
ing better what his intention was he declared
there was nothing to hinder him from hold
ing M. Puys to be a man Of enlightened intel
lect, of profound and orthodox learning, of
irreproachable manners, and, in a word, a
worthy pastor of his church."
Now, this sounds very c0mical, but the
principle on which the worthy father acted
has by no means completely fallen into dsuse.
1t is seen in very coarse and brutal form in
the campaign lies of the newspapers about the
candidates-in, for instance, the WOrld'S daily
contradiction within the last three or four
months of what it said three years ago of
Grants talents and character, the facts, ex-
cept his nomination for the Presidency, re-
naming precisely the same. But it is also
found in quarters where more attention is paid
to moral distinctions. On many of the reform
platforms there is very little trouble taken to
ascertain whether stories which are being cir
culated by the NE mbers to the disad vantage of
men considered unfaithful or unfriendly to the
cause are true or false. We would not charge
these gentlemen with inventing ISLANDERS, but
they certainly give little sign of caring
whether they are ISLANDERS or not before they
pass them on. Between the circulation of
such stories as they spread abroad a year ago,
OF Grants having been drunk in the streets of
Washington, and the invention OF them, there
is doubtless a distinction of which human
critics are bound to take notice; but il it b5
distinction to which toe Divine Iutelli gence
will attach much importance, either our logic
or theology is at fault.
We might multiply illustrations of the same
sort indefinitely from the columns of the
''organs" of various reform movements.
good biting story against an ''enemy of the
cause" is generally published cheerfully and
without inquiry; If his acts admit of two con-
structions, the worse is put upon them, cir
cumstances which tell in his favor are carefully
concealed, or his refutation passed over with
out notice. A striking illustration of this
particular form of lying was afforded after the
impeachment trial, when the accounts given
OF Trumbull, Fessenden, and others were in
such ludicIous contrast with the accounts which
the same organs would have given of the same
gentlemen the week before the verdict, in
controversy with a Democratic opponent,
that osso could nlnaoet fancy in ro"ains
them that one heard the joyous wagging of the
DEVILS tall In the temperance agitation,
there is visible the same tendency to "help on
the work" by loosening the obligation of
truth telling. The rules of evidence are not
so strictly enforced in examining into charge
OF drunkenness against moderate drinker as
they would be in an inquiry conducted by the
same persons on any other subject; and we
fear presumptions are adopted against uube-
levers by good Christians with laxity which
they would not display if it was the fair fame
of brother believer that was at stake. The
tendency TO be untruthful is, in fact, in such
partly involuntary, and the victim is often en-
tirely unconscious of it himself.
That the world is growing worse in this
respect we do not mean to say. On the con-
trary, considering the prodigious increase of
temptation, and of population, we think it is
growing better. We doubt, for instance,
whether any campaign has ever been con-
Quoted in this country with so great regard
to truth and decency as the Republicans are
displaying in the conduct of this one. What
ever indications of deterioration there may be
are found not in the fact that the number Of
liars increases, but that the liars are a better
kind of people, and that the bad effects of
lying on society at large are being hidden by
the good use made of lying in particular cases.
But we cannot consider the effects of lying for
the right fairly without remembering that
modern society is weakest on the side of the
virtues which are covered by the term bona
fdeS. 1t is gaining prodigiously in humanity
and sympathy, but whether it is gaining, or
seems likely to gsin in honesty, truthfuness
scrupuousness, and candOr is still disputed
question; and it is to this side, therefore, the
attention of moralsts should be directed.
One other thing ought not to be overlooked,
and that is, that cOntining the term education
| to the training children get in schools is a
| dangerous abuse of language. Children get
very small part of their education in schools;
| OF their moral training, so called, hardly any
| thing. Their notions of truth and Justice they
| get from what goes on around them in society
from the conversations and the speeches they
listen to, the newspapers they read, the acts
they see their relatives commit; and those
| who flatter themselves that the injurious in
tluences of a canvass filled with lies and vitu-
peration, or of the spectacle of the use of i'm
moral agencies in the furtheIauce of a good
cause on the opening mind of boys, can be
| counteracted, on the whole and in the long
| run, by set lessons in morality or religion,
given by paid teachers or even by parents
deceive themselves. Every man who mounts
a platform or takes up pen, therefore, with