The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-11-12


sooner than be q part 10 such de-
ception he preferred torosign his u-
cradve and important appointment.
This he did then and there, sailing
for China by the next steamer. and
under the public imputatlon of hav.
ing 1uarreled with one Of the most
popular heroes IN England by at
tempting TO force him to write a lie.
Had IL not been for this dispute
Gen. Gordon would probably have
served out his term Of Office I'm India
with Lord Ripon, and might never
have been sent to Khartoum and to
his death there at the hands Of the
Deryishes FIVE years later.
Sir William Scott entertained the
same conscientious objections to lies
no matter how innocent they might
be, and resorted to all sort of verbal
iuggles to escape telling them. When,
for instance, an ugly baby was brought
to him he knew full well that he was
expected to admire it. Therefore, in
the kindness of his heart, he invari-
ably exclaimed, as though overwhelm-
cd with a sudden blaze of infantile
beauty.
We'll, | am sure, that is a baby!"
with n great emphasis on the lis"
Constantly taxed with the author
ship of the Waverley novels, the
anonymity of which he was anxious,
for a number of reasons, to preserve,
he had recourse to similar sophistry;
with so much success that his non
committal replies were generally con-
strued as a denial. Indeed, he never
formally admitted the authorship of
the Waverley novels until 1872, when
he accepted the responsibility for
their parentage in a memorable
speech at the Charitable Fund Dinner
in Edinburgh, thereby divesting of
much literary credit a number of un-
scrupulous persons who had taken
advantage of his reticence to en-
courage the authorship to be ascribed
to themselves.
OF course Sir Walter Scott cannot,
in the matter of truthfulness, be put
in the same class as such stern moral
iClS ub GChs SnlllGoC 6OA hOA anu
as Lord Guthrie. For If he did not
actually tell lie, he at any rate man
aged tC convey a wrong impression.
In yet another category belong peo-
pie such as the great painter Consta-
BILE. The latter had expressed his
opinion that a certain landscape art
lists pictures looked like putty. This
criticism came to the mans ears, and
some time afterward on meeting Con-
stable, he exclaimed. 81 am told that
you say my pictures look like putty!"
If the Royal Academician had adj
hered strictly to the truth, he would
have told him his objections to the
paintings in question. But being a
kind hearted man, and unwilling to
give unnecessary pain and offense, he
responded. We'll, what of that? 1
like putty!"
1t is hardly necessary to point out
that Constable did not, and could not,
like putty in pictures. But his ex-
cuse saved the feelings of his fellow
artist
Nine-tenths of the lies such as that
of which Constable rendered himself
guilty owe their existence to a de-
sire to avoid giving pain. Without
them life, as constituted today, would
be weii-nigh impossible.
How for instance, could we put up
with servants who declined to utter
the time-honored formula of not at
home when we do not find it con-
venient to receive a visitor? And
what a number of disagreeable invi-
tations we should be forced to accept
did we not have at our beck and call
the conventional lie with regard to
previous engagement"
How, when demanded by your host
for your opinion with regard to his
children, his wines, or his cigars, can
you tell him the plain, unvarnished,
and in nine times out of ten intensely
disagreeable truth?
In fact, our success inthe world and
our popularity in society end by de-
pending to a great extent upon the
talent which we display in artistically
and agreeably disfiguring the truth,
in pretending enthusiasms which we
do not feel in squeezing the hand of a
painter, of a singer, with a look OF
hypocritical rapture in his eva, in
lieu of telling him that his daub is eX-
ecrable and that the song to which
we have just listened has inflicted pain
in lieu of giving pleasure.
True, we have not yet reached the
stage where man can boast of his
successes as a liar, where he can taste
the sweets of fame by thOuching one
of his victims and saying. you think
me an honest and respectable man.
am not. l am an accomplished liar.
Gaze at me and admire!" But we are
getting there, and the translation OF
the solemn words. "Requiescat in
pace" which figure on so many tomb
stones are gradually acquiring a new