ir point of view does not lack plausibility. But
as to your astonishment at finding that the world has outgrown lying,
there is really no ground for it. Falsehood, even in your day, was not
common between gentlemen and ladies, social equals. The lie of fear was
the refuge of cowardice, and the lie of fraud the device of the cheat.
The inequalities of men and the lust of acquisition offered a constant
premium on lying at that time. Yet even then, the man who neither
feared another nor desired to defraud him scorned falsehood. Because we
are now all social equals, and no man either has anything to fear from
another or can gain anything by deceiving him, the contempt of
falsehood is so universal that it is rarely, as I told you, that even a
criminal in other respects will be found willing to lie. When, however,
a plea of not guilty is returned, the judge appoints two colleagues to
state the opposite sides of the case. How far these men are from being
like your hired advocates and prosecutors, determined to acquit or
convict, may appear from the fact that unless both agree that the
verdict found is just, the case is tried over, while anything like bias
in the tone of either of the judges stating the case would be a
shocking scandal."

"Do I understand," I said, "that it is a judge who states each side of
the case as well as a judge who hears it?"

"Certainly. The judges take turns in serving on the bench and at the
bar, and are expected to maintain the judicial temper equally whether
in stating or deciding a case. The system is indeed in effect that of
trial by three judges occupying different points of view as to the
case. When they agree upon a verdict, we believe it to be as near to
absolute truth as men well can come."

"You have given up the jury system, then?"

"It was well enough as a corrective in the days of hired advocates, and
a bench sometimes venal, and often with a tenure that made it
dependent, but is needless now. No conceivable motive but justice could
actuate our judges."

"How are these magistrates selected?"

"They are an honorable exception to the rule which discharges all men
from service at the age of forty-five. The President of the nation
appoints the necessary judges year by year from the class reaching that
age. The number appointed is, of course, exceedingly few, and the honor
so high that it is held an offset to the additional term of service
which follows, and though a judge's appointmen