The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1905-10-07
PHILOSOPHY OF FALsEHOoD.

set with dlthcultleS SO appalling as to
discourage the most courageous. It
is found that nature herself throws
many obstacles in the way by implant-
ing instincts and providing means for
deception. Every farmer knows how
the domestic animals will resort to
tricks and various cunningly devised
schemes to mislead. The cow will
hide her calf in the tall grass or
bushes. The turkey hen, discarding
the comfortable boxes made for her,
goes into the woods to make nest
Of leaves. The goose carefully COW
ers up her eggs to prevent their dis
covery. Many of the wild animals
exhibit that curious trait called
mimicry' by biological science, which
IS a provision ofnature to enable them
Il throw pursuers off the scent.
Some are enabled closely to initiate
leaves or shrubs or even plants and are
able to resemble stones for the same
end, which is to escape detection by
enemes. The pheasant and quail
pretend to be wounded and go limp
ing away on apparently broken wing
III order to lead the pursuer away
from the nest of eggs or young.
The fox aas many tricks to fool the
hounds and it is for the same purpose,
as we'll as to cool off, that the deer
plunges into the flowing stream.
The changeof fur by animals in the
arctic, from dark colors in summer to
pure white in winter, so Identifies
them with the surrounding snow that
they are rendered more difficult to be
seen and attacked. The chameleon's
changes Of color so identify the crea-
ture with the tree or log or grass to
which it clings that sharp eyes are
needed to disclose its presence. This
protective resemblance, which certain
animals and plants exhibit to other
animals and plants or to the natural
objects among which they live is
simply a form of what with men is
called falsehood. The latter consists
not only in the suppression of the
truth but in the suggestion of the
false. Lying, therefore. is not mere
" an acquired vice but part of the
natural order. The little child, de.
tected by its mother in an act of dis
honesty or disobedience instinctively
saws. IT didn't do it." The lie,
which rises spontaneously to its lips,
is its natural as indeed its only meth
cd of defense. 1t is questionable
whether man could exist in the So
cial state without those thousands of
harmless hvpocricies and complaisant
insincerities which are constantly
practiced in daily intercourse. None
actually are exactly what they seem.
There is more or less mask, more or
less pretense, putting on for appear
ance, a concealment of motive and
opinion among the best of US. Ly-
ing is the cohesive principle which
keeps society together. A perfectly
candid person, one who blurted out
on all occasions his actual thoughts
and opinions, would be an intolerable
nuisance in the social circle. The
world is more influenced by its facts.
Half our beliefs are but chimeras of
the imagination, mere children OF
fancy and delusion. Much so called
history is the product of legend and
fable, a description of things that
never happened, an affirmation OF
things not so. What we believe, so
far as it influences our conduct, is
equally potential whether based on
truth or falsehood.
The absolute truth is unattainable
| and it is much to be doubted whether
man, as at present constituted, could
bear it if disclosed. 1t would destroy
all our illusions, shatter many of our
most cherished images, change many
ideals into forbidding realities. View
ed in this light, sicence must be re-
garded as an iconoclast of high de-
gree. Carried out to its cold, logical
consequences, it must inevitably de-
story all that class of belief which ex-
tend beyond the visible universe
Science recognizes no fairyland; it
refuses to discuss the unknowable +; 1t
turns a cold glance at the whole
realm which is peopled bv our fancy
with forms supernal and creations
ethereal. 1t insists upon a logic
of inductive reasoning, upon demon.
stration, upon results only to be an
nounced after careful experiments
ton. AS Santa Claus disappears with
youth, so many of the cherished Wis
| ions must dissolve before the re-
morseless advance of science. A civil
ization purely intellectual, one from
which is excluded all ficticious fan
cies, has long been the dream OF phil
osophers from whose realization we
NAV well shrink. We might well
spare most of our superstitions,
which at best are but perpetuation:
of. ignorance, but could we spare
those things hoped for which are bas'
ed on evidence not seen? Could we
survive social world converted into
veritable Palace of Truth, in which
all spoke their inmost thought, dis.
couraged all delusions and fanced al
occasions with cold unvarnished anC
hideously naked facts ?-Ame'ioa'
Fatnaey.
A LADY sent her colored servant t
the dry goods store and the proprie
tor was surprised to hear her ask tn
clerk: "Hes you got any hath I!
ANY what p asked the merchant
"Hair p ventured he. eyes, sur
hath lax you got on yo' haid." INC
aunty, this is no hair store, this a is DIR.
goods store" explained the proprie
tor. Oats what 1 lowed, boss
but de misses she done tole me 7
cum heah and git free yahds mo hal
like she done got yesterday" "Oh
you mean 'mohair. "Yassuh
mo- hair that's what l sade.
A BEAUTIFUL woman, said the sen
i n1pan n