1.
There is a great question about Lying, which often arises in
the midst of our every day business, and gives us much trouble,
that we may not either rashly call that a lie which is not such, or
decide that it is sometimes right to tell a lie, that is, a kind of
honest, well-meant, charitable lie. This question we will painfully
discuss by seeking with them that seek: whether to any good
purpose, we need not take upon ourselves to affirm, for the
attentive reader will sufficiently gather from the course of the
discussion. It is, indeed, very full of dark corners, and hath many
cavern-like windings, whereby it oft eludes the eagerness of the
seeker; so that at one moment what was found seems to slip out of
one’s hands, and anon comes to light again, and then is once more
lost to sight. At last, however, the chase will bear down more
surely, and will overtake our sentence. Wherein if there is any
error, yet as Truth is that which setteth free from all error,
and 458Falsehood that which entangleth in all error, one never
errs more safely, methinks, than when one errs by too much loving
the truth, and too much rejecting of falsehood. For they who find
great fault say it is too much, whereas peradventure Truth would
say after all, it is not yet enough. But whoso readest, thou wilt
do well to find no fault until thou have read the whole; so wilt
thou have less fault to find. Eloquence thou must not look for: we
have been intent upon things, and upon dispatch in putting out of
hand a matter which nearly concerns our every day life, and
therefore have had small pains, or almost none, to bestow upon
words.
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