It may be that the mental trouble has already deprived him of sleep, and has intensified his anxiety over a special business matter that awaits his attention down town, and that all this shows in his face.  If so, these facts are secondary but very real causes of his troubled look, as he meets a neighbor on leaving his house, who says to him:  “You look very much troubled this morning.  What’s the matter with you?” Now, if he were to say in reply, “Then my looks belie me; for I have no special trouble,” he would say what was not true.  But he might properly say, “I think it is very likely.  I didn’t sleep well last night, and I am very tired this morning.  And I have work before me to-day that I am not easy about.”  Those statements being literally true, and being made for the purpose of concealing facts which his questioner has no right to know, their utterance is justifiable, regardless of the workings of the mind of the one who hears them.  They are made in order to conceal what is back of them, not in order to deceive one who is entitled to know those primary facts.

If, again, a physician in attendance on a patient sees that there is cause for grave anxiety in the patient’s condition, and deems it important to conceal his fears, so far as he can without untruthfulness, he may, in answer to direct questions from his patient, give truthful answers that are designed to conceal what he has a right to conceal, without his desiring to deceive his patient, and without his being responsible for any self-deception on his patient’s part that results from their conversation.  The patient may ask, “Doctor, am I very sick?” The doctor may answer truthfully, “Not so sick as you might be, by a good deal.”  He may give this answer with a cheerful look and tone, and it may result in calming the patient’s fears.

If, however, the patient goes on to ask, “But, doctor, do you think I’m going to die?” the doctor may respond lightly, “Well, most of us will die sooner or later, and I suppose you are not to be exempt from the ordinary lot of mortals.”  “But,” continues the patient, “do you think I am going to die of this disease?” Then the doctor can say, seriously and truthfully, “I’m sure I don’t know.  The future is concealed from me.  You may live longer than I do.  I certainly hope you are not going to die yet awhile, and I’m going to do all I can to prevent it.”  All this would be justifiable, and be within the limits of truthfulness.  Concealment of the opinions of the physician as to the patient’s chances of life, and not the specific deception of the patient, is the object of these answers.

In no event, however, would the physician be justified in telling a lie, any more than he would be in committing any other sin, as a means of good.  He is necessarily limited by the limits of right, in the exercise of his professional skill, and in the choice of available means.  He is in no wise responsible for the consequences of his refusal to go beyond those limits.