" Neither did his own virtue make him uncharitable towards others.
He recognized how impossible it is for servants and many other people to
be always veracious, and claimed that the impostures practised by
Frederick in the Seven Years' War might be justified by the strait he
was in and the importance of the matter in hand. The main thing was to
do honest work. For careless, sleazy, or fraudulent work he had no
patience. He was greatly amused at the story of Dr. Francia ordering an
army contractor who had cheated the government of Paraguay to be
promenaded for an hour under the gallows, and he wished that more of
them might be treated in that manner. He thought the torrent of
mendacity which accompanies our presidential elections must have a bad
influence on the morals of the American people.
The question of veracity was once discussed at the Chestnut Street Club,
and Emerson said that Desdemona's lie seemed to him the best thing in
the play of Othello. But there is, as Plato remarks, a more insidious
evil than the deception of others and that is deceiving oneself. To
detect an intentional falsehood is not very difficult, but when people
tell lies with perfect assurance of their own sincerity the confusion
that results is endless. The wisest of men are some times misled in this
way. When we try to deceive others we have before us the danger of
public exposure, while in self-deception we have only our own
consciences to deal with.
Pages:
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161