LIARS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4929, 9 January 1877, Page 3

LIARS.

■ (From-the TTurtd) -- ' ' We have grown so mealy-mouthed in our modern manner of talking that people rarely use the plain Saxon epithet"which denotes one who is untruthful.- That milk-and-water euphemism which nowadays tones' down all vigorous speech forbids our calling a man a. liar except inextrenie cases. ' The expression is looked upon a&an ultimatum, a' casus belli ; the word that is instantly followed by a blow. So we have invented a dozen 'circumlocutory ( phrases to express the simple spade. Thus,i the child tells fibs; women say more than their prayers ; grown men are given to drawing the long-bow ; a politician who. Beeks to baffle an opponent by misleading statements speaks diplomatieally ; a friend who skilfully manipulates his facts to serve his purpose is merely.a master of finesse, or one who sails rather close to the wind..- Are we;"therefore, to infer that lying is really on' the decrease? Would the Psalmist if he lived in these days'withdraw his dictum that all men are liars ? . Falsehood has become more rampant than ever.' There .ate, of course, liars and liars ; all are not equally to blame. Perhaps from the moral standpoint there is little fo choeae between the T sujppressio veri and the suggestio falti ; yet we mete but different measures, to the wilful falsifier who weaves snares and sets pitfalls, and to the simple liar de circonsfance who drifts into misstatements as he does inW nipping sherry or dozing after dinner in his chair. We smile good-humouredly< at 'the latter; but the other we cut dead, or w6rse;' if worse there be., Liars of the other class are merely Bobadils or modern Munchausens, who hurt nobody so much as themselves. The. world is full of them ; of such we all number one or more among our acquaintances, some' man who, according to his own accounts, has done more, seen more, read more, than any other man since Adam 1 sinned.; We are never angry with him even when we have found him out; to state that So-and-so is " such a liar,", is by no means considered a damnatory criticism. Why I are we so considerate ? Possibly bepause this harmless feeble Ananias sometimes affords us, distinct ■ amusement; more probably because, we 'do not dare, any of us, to cast, the first stone. We* are all more or less in the same boat. We are surrounded with so much falsehood,, we mix so much with men to whom lying is a habit, that we are carried away, and lie. also only too readily. . The fact *'4s, the world encourages lying. Often enouph a person who is outspoken, and who gives: us fearlessly the white, and naked truth, is branded as an ass. Falsehood is bo much more agreeable, so much more artistic and symmetrical. Everything is improved by embroidery and color. Strictly veracious hisr:, tory interpreted by painstaking students is far less attractive than romance. Any raconteur who adheres strictly to fact, and tells us a plain unvarnished tale, 5b thought duller than ditchwater ; while the more unscrupulous gossip, who fiHs up gaps by the detail he invents, is certain always of dozens of dinners, and an admiring audience wherever he goes. And we hate so much to hear the truth about ourselves. We may know in our own heart of hearts that all our geese are geese, and yet we do not contradict those who call them swans. We are secretly certain that our singing would silence screech-owls ; yet we smirk with satisfaction when our friends compare us to Mario or Lablache in his best days. The daubs we perpetrate om canvas are not good enough for the cellars of Burlington House ; nevertheless we are grateful for the compassionate critics who assure us they should have been hung upon the line. We like to be complimented on our commercial astuteness, and yet, if the truth were known, we are at the moment committed and bound hand and foot to some bubble bank or speculative Bcheme which will some day ruin our reputation and our fortune together. ... There are people whose whole lives are lies from beginning to end—men who by dint of chicanery gain high places they are really un--fitted to fill—who yet manage to hoodwink possible detractors, who suck the brains of their subordinates. and strut before their audience

in borrowed plumes; others who, by dint of persistent hypocrisy, have put on the robe of godliness, which cloaks conduct systematically immoral and There are liars in every'walk of life—such is the statesman who for power and the loaves and fishes of office pawns his convictions and forswears his early creed —such the lawyer who lures on his client to litigation, even when there is but a shadowy foundation for a case—suph the doctor who fobs our fees and prescribes breadpills for imaginary disease. Are women to be exonerated from the charge of lying ? Guile and deceit are with many a woman her natural arms—weapons to which she instinctively has recourse, and which the trainin« and education of her life have too often taught her to, wield' with consummate skill and effect. For wounding-by halfstatement, or staving off judgment by wily evasion of the exact and unembroidered truth, commend us t 6; a woman's art. What is the seemingly' innocent debutante who accepts •with pretty blushing encouragement the attentions of an excellent but repulsive /parti; what 'her mother, that intriguing chaperone, who with brazen effrontery denies to the poor " detrimental" that he has touched her daughter's heart ; what is the white-veiled bride who, throwing truth and constancy to the; winds, jilts her first love, and swears ,to honor and obeyaman she secretly loathes? what is,the wife who stoops to maintain questionable relations with gallants whose'very devotion; is, a stain upon the spotless purity of her marriage-vows ? Of a truth it is a lying life, and we who live in it cannot hope to shake off easily an attribute we have inherited like original sin ; our only consolation is that the offence is one of degree. '.We may perhaps take credit for the fact that; .'untruthfulness of the basest blackest sort •is not a very prevailing vice in, the land. It As, hot too much to claim for an" English gentle,Wn that he finds'his f'acerather hot \i hebe forced to and* thaffjoar highest ■■; praise for a loyal friend fc' ; the.phrase, "He never told a'lie." Yet the' ,of trial comes to all; our edde "ot, honor indeejl lays down that we must sometimes wander from the. truth—we are supposed to lie to save a female reputation, we must lie sooner, than betray the secret of a friend or State; or fone occasion nppn which"'the sin : almoSt imperative 'there *f* tKbtisands''on' which there; can be no excuse. And yet it is only an angel that could hope to keep his wings immaculate and pure. ; -i; ■'■'-'"