ord is as good as his
bond. "He sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not." The truthful man
brings truth and man together.

THE VIRTUE.

+Veracity has two foundations: one reverence for truth; the other regard
for one's fellow-men.+--Ordinarily these two motives coincide and
re-enforce each other. The right of truth to be spoken, and the benefit
to men from hearing it, are two sides of the same obligation. Only in
the most rare and exceptional cases can these two motives conflict. To a
healthy, right-minded man the knowledge of the truth is always a good.

+Apparent exceptions to the duty of truthfulness.+--We owe truth to all
normal people, and under all normal circumstances. We do not necessarily
owe it to the abnormal. In sickness, when the patient cannot bear the
shock of distressing news; in insanity, when the maniac cannot give to
facts their right interpretation; in criminal perversity, when knowledge
would be used in furtherance of crime, the abnormal condition of the
person with whom we have to deal may justify us in withholding from him
facts which he would use to the injury of himself or others. These are
very rare and extreme cases, and are apparent rather than real
exceptions to the universal rule of absolute truthfulness in human
speech. For in these cases it is not from a desire to deceive or mislead
the person, that we withhold the truth. We feel sure that the sick
person, when he recovers; the insane person when he is restored to
reason; the criminal, if he is ever converted to uprightness, will
appreciate the kindness of our motive, and thank us for our deed. To the
person of sound body, sound mind, and sound moral intent, no conceivable
combination of circumstances can ever excuse us from the strict
requirement of absolute veracity, or make a lie anything but base,
cowardly, and contemptible.

THE REWARD.

+Society is founded on trust.+--Without confidence in one another, we
could not live in social relations a single day. We should relapse into
barbarism, strife, and mutual destruction. Since society rests on
confidence, and confidence rests on tried veracity, the rewards of
veracity are all those mutual advantages which a civilized society
confers upon its members.

THE TEMPTATION.

+The costliness of strict truthfulness.+--Truth is not only hard to
discover, but frequently it is costly to speak. Truth is often opposed
to sacred traditions, inherited prejudices, popular beliefs, and