Year: 1866

LIARS.


We have no desire to sayin our haste
that "all men are liars" nor,--if you
will allow a little harmless play upon
the d,-that rery respectable portion
Of mankind are such. We do not in
tend to make any unqualified assertion


we will stick as close to the truth as
the intirmity of our style of saying
things will admit We are contented
to adopt the prosaic style, for it has al
ways been subject Of wonderment to
us how poets can avoid often sacrificing
the truth. They are so trammeed 10y
the demands of rhythm and thyme, that
mankind, who are generally not very
particular concerning the prOprieties OF
speech, allow them great license, called
poetic, When we are in a matter-of- fact
mood we regard epic poetry as musical
exaggeration.


In real or ordinary life as strange
things occur as have ever been recorded
by the pen of fiction. However, many
honest persons are unreasonable when
they set down all writer's Of fiction as
rogues or liars. Many ideal characters
are true to ite they may not be said to
be purely imaginary, for they have their
counterparts in actual observation. But
the mendacity OF literature is not the
most troublesome that can be conceived.
The Munchauzens and Gullivers do not
expect to be believed; and we need not
lose sleep on account of the inaccuracies
Of poesy, fiction, and general history.
But when our neighborS fail to tell the
truth we have annoyance, trouble, ineon-
venience, and distress nearer home.
Though we do not care to pursue the
process of inductive reasoning until we
reach the conception Of lying world ,
we do not fail to comprehend that one
liar is an abomination when he lies about
as. Then Just conceive what the world
would be if all men were like the one
unbluShing liar that you have in mind !,
and estimate his value accordingly.


ItiS a well known principle Of mental
philosophy that one seldom continues
the practice of lying deliberately. Not
that he suddenly or gradually becomes
virtuous, or becomes truthful on account
of disgust Of falsehood, but because his
conceptions become vitiated He lies
unconsciously. He believes his own
stories. He gradually contracts the
habit of telling great lies without think
ing of their absurdity, and is happy in
his Ignorance OF his reputation in the
community as a man whose word is not
to be trusted.


1t is one of the foolish regulations of
polite society that we are to receive the
statements of others and generally not
to indicate by word or sign that we dis
believe what another is saying, though
we kaOw that it is lie. The principle
that governs us is that a gentleman or
lady tells the truth-of course if we
manifest any incredulity, it is plain that
we ipY;each the character of one who, un-
der cover Of etiquette, is injuring the
reputation of others, is compelling us
to assume false countenance or to utter
evasive monoSyllables. We say it isnot
fair; no one has right to make us act
a lie, that we may pretend TO have faith
in him.


We have known men to lie when the
truth would answer their purpose better.
They have schooled themselves to place
no confidence in truth; it is insipid
They even do not lie with any judg-
ment. They are unskilled children of
the evil one-not wise in their genera
ton.


There are others, known as boosters.
comparatively harmless, except wherein
they make us think uncomtortably Of
our species. They are the subjects Of
their own lies. They can not trust
either the judgment or the justice of
their fellow men to determine their status
in society. They reiterate their estimate
of their own dimensions while mankind
quietly take their measure for small
clothes, and they never know the differ
ence.


Some are remarkably reckless con-
cerning magnitudcs and degrees, in the
deliverance Of their ideas. To get our
language up to their lofty conception,
we should say they would certainly
die" out of the region of social exaager-
alton. Some one, in rhetorical frenzy,
says of them, "Some of the feathers in
the wings Of their imagination ought to
be in the tail of their judgment" There
are too many sdperlatives in ordinary
use. They afford too great an oppor-
tunity for a class of liars to become
radiant behind vivid imagination.


We would not forget another class of
zuNoI -