Friends in Council | Page 3

old Dame World can do for hers.
But what are we to have to-day for our first reading?
Milverton. An Essay on Truth.
Ellesmere. Well, had I known this before, it is not the novelty of the
subject which would have dragged me up the hill to your house. By the
way, philosophers ought not to live upon hills. They are much more
accessible, and I think quite as reasonable, when, Diogenes-like, they
live in tubs upon flat ground. Now for the essay.
TRUTH.
Truth is a subject which men will not suffer to grow old. Each age has
to fight with its own falsehoods: each man with his love of saying to
himself and those around him pleasant things and things serviceable for
to-day, rather than the things which are. Yet a child appreciates at once
the divine necessity for truth; never asks, "What harm is there in saying
the thing that is not?" and an old man finds, in his growing experience,
wider and wider applications of the great doctrine and discipline of

truth.
Truth needs the wisdom of the serpent as well as the simplicity of the
dove. He has gone but a little way in this matter who supposes that it is
an easy thing for a man to speak the truth, "the thing he troweth;" and
that it is a casual function, which may be fulfilled at once after any
lapse of exercise. But, in the first place, the man who would speak truth
must know what he troweth. To do that, he must have an uncorrupted
judgment. By this is not meant a perfect judgment or even a wise one,
but one which, however it may be biassed, is not bought--is still a
judgment. But some people's judgments are so entirely gained over by
vanity, selfishness, passion, or inflated prejudices and fancies long
indulged in; or they have the habit of looking at everything so
carelessly, that they see nothing truly. They cannot interpret the world
of reality. And this is the saddest form of lying, "the lie that sinketh in,"
as Bacon says, which becomes part of the character and goes on eating
the rest away.
Again, to speak truth, a man must not only have that martial courage
which goes out, with sound of drum and trumpet, to do and suffer great
things; but that domestic courage which compels him to utter small
sounding truths in spite of present inconvenience and outraged
sensitiveness or sensibility. Then he must not be in any respect a slave
to self-interest. Often it seems as if but a little misrepresentation would
gain a great good for us; or, perhaps, we have only to conceal some
trifling thing, which, if told, might hinder unreasonably, as we think, a
profitable bargain. The true man takes care to tell, notwithstanding.
When we think that truth interferes at one time or another with all a
man's likings, hatings, and wishes, we must admit, I think, that it is the
most comprehensive and varied form of self-denial.
Then, in addition to these great qualities, truth-telling in its highest
sense requires a well-balanced mind. For instance, much exaggeration,
perhaps the most, is occasioned by an impatient and easily moved
temperament which longs to convey its own vivid impressions to other
minds, and seeks by amplifying to gain the full measure of their
sympathy. But a true man does not think what his hearers are feeling,
but what he is saying.
More stress might be laid than has been on the intellectual requisites for
truth, which are probably the best part of intellectual cultivation; and as

much caused by truth as causing it. {12} But, putting the requisites for
truth at the fewest, see of how large a portion of the character truth is
the resultant. If you were to make a list of those persons accounted the
religious men of their respective ages, you would have a ludicrous
combination of characters essentially dissimilar. But true people are
kindred. Mention the eminently true men, and you will find that they
are a brotherhood. There is a family likeness throughout them.
If we consider the occasions of exercising truthfulness and descend to
particulars, we may divide the matter into the following heads: - -truth
to oneself--truth to mankind in general--truth in social relations--truth
in business--truth in pleasure.
1. Truth to oneself. All men have a deep interest that each man should
tell himself the truth. Not only will he become a better man, but he will
understand them better. If men knew themselves, they could not be
intolerant to others.
It is scarcely necessary to say much about the advantage of a man
knowing himself for himself. To get at the truth of any history is good;
but a man's own history--when he reads that truly,