The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-01

the discovery of lying. He prolongs
his game one day; he perceives that
we are the dupe of his fictions; he is
amused with our credulity. The lie
is revealed to him. He knows that it
is possible to lie; that he has a means
of deceiving people; that, If he finds
real facts disagreeable, he can sub
stitute for them a pleasant fiction.
The second stage is learning to lie
by example-the revelation of the lie
not only as possible, but as real, as
practiced by the parents themselves. l
do not here refer to families where the
parents are liars. Even in the most
honest families, where sincerity Is
loved, it often happens that the child
catches it's parents in fragrant abuse
of the truth.
There are a multitude of little lies
tolerated which we treat as pardon
able. We tell the domestic to say we
are not at home when we are; we
compliment people to their faces and
criticize them when they have gone;
we say we are happy to see some one
and directly after speak OF having
been annoyed. No more Is necessary.
The example has been given.
We lie to the child HIMSELF we are
pressed by his many embarrassing
questions and, in order to free our
with what is frequently a falsehood.
Some fine day he discovers the truth,
and the evil is done. The grayest
case is when the child is taken as an
accomplish in a lie or when his mother
tells him, "Above all, do not tell this
to your papa" This is the ruin of all
morality.
The third stage is the first encoun-
ter of the child with society-the first
shock with social life. The child who
tells all he knows, sees and hears, all
that he would better have left unsaid,
is called the "enfant terrible" His
parents do not tell him to lie, but
they tell him 1t is not necessary to
tell all that he thinks. This is ex-
tremely serious, as 1t teaches the child
that he cannot show himself as he is.
This is the revelation of the lie obliga-
tory. Above all, among his comrades
he quickly learns to dissimulate, be-
cause If he Is a naive-expresses all
his joys, pains, desires-they make
sport Of him-nay, worse, they abuse
his condolences; the hopes, projects
which he has conflded to them he some
day sees used against him.
Thus the impossibility of living with
out lying is revealed to him. Society
excuses certain forms of lying which
are inspired by feeling of politeness,
modesty. shame.
The child becomes liar because all
the world about him lies. The distinc-
ton between the liar and the man of
sincerity is only relative. There are in
reality only two categories-those who
content themselves with the lies ex-
acted by social life and those who have
Eabituated themselves to lying more
than society wishes-to lie because of
some personal interest
An MT in. I,a
ment of lying children is the employ
ment of excessive and ill-advised pun
ishments. The child who becomes q
liar is the one who lives in perpetual
terror of reproaches, humiliations or
strokes. The lie for him is a supreme
resource.
This is no less true among adults.
Observe the men and women about
you who lie, and you nearly always
see that they commenced with ir-cg-
ularity of conduct. When they go to
places they ought not to go. see things
they ought not to see. associate with
people with whom they ought not AS
sociate, they almost inevitably lie.
The first or second time they per-
haps declare the truth courageously,
but as soon as they find the confess
sion painful, perhaps to spare the feel
ings of those dear to them or to pre-
vent a GOODNESS, they take to habit
ual Justification in order 10 conceal
their conduct.
The old saying has II that lying is
the parent of all vices. This without
doubt is true, but the inverse would
be still more true. Habitual immoral
ity leads to habituaI lying. We lie to
preserve the appearance of virtue aft
er we have lost the reality Such, l
believe, is the common evolution of
the liar.