hey like lying, it is their favorite occupation;
there is no necessity in the case. Now what good can they get out of
it?

_Philocles._ Why, have you ever known any one with such a strong
natural turn for lying?

_Tychiades._ Any number of them.

_Philocles._ Then I can only say they must be fools, if they really
prefer evil to good.

_Tychiades._ Oh, that is not it. I could point you out plenty of men
of first-rate ability, sensible enough in all other respects, who have
somehow picked up this vice of romancing. It makes me quite angry:
what satisfaction can there be to men of their good qualities in
deceiving themselves and their neighbors? There are instances among
the ancients with which you must be more familiar than I. Look at
Herodotus, or Ctesias of Cnidus;[126] or, to go further back, take the
poets--Homer himself: here are men of world-wide celebrity,
perpetuating their mendacity in black and white; not content with
deceiving their hearers, they must send their lies down to posterity,
under the protection of the most admirable verse. Many a time I have
blushed for them, as I read of the mutilation of Uranus, the fetters
of Prometheus, the revolt of the giants, the torments of hell;
enamored Zeus taking the shape of bull or swan; women turning into
birds and bears; Pegasuses, Chimaeras, Gorgons, Cyclopes, and the rest
of it; monstrous medley! fit only to charm the imaginations of
children for whom Mormo and Lamia have still their terrors. However,
poets, I suppose, will be poets. But when it comes to national lies,
when one finds whole cities bouncing collectively like one man, how is
one to keep one's countenance? A Cretan will look you in the face, and
tell you that yonder is Zeus' tomb. In Athens, you are informed that
Erichthonius sprang out of the earth, and that the first Athenians
grew up from the soil like so many cabbages; and this story assumes
quite a sober aspect when compared with that of the Sparti, for whom
the Thebans claim descent from a dragon's teeth. If you presume to
doubt these stories, if you choose to exert your common sense, and
leave Triptolemus' winged aerial car, and Pan's Marathonian exploits,
and Orithyia's mishap, to the stronger digestions of a Coroebus and
a Margites, you are a fool and a blasphemer, for questioning such
palpable truths. Such is the power of lies!

_Philocles._ I must say I think there is some excuse, Tychiades, both
for your national liars and for the po