virtue, everything on which human happiness on the largest scale depends, — we feel that the violation, for a present advantage, of a rule of such transcendent expediency, is not expedient, and that he who, for the sake of a convenience to himself or to some other individual, does what depends on him to deprive mankind of the good, and inflict upon them the evil, involved in the greater or less reliance which they can place in each others’ words, acts the part of one of their worst enemies.”] The evil resulting to the man who lies is less generally recognized.  We may summarize it under three heads: 

(1) It is much simpler and less worrisome, usually, to tell the truth.  A lie is apt to be scantly on our guard; and one lie is very likely to need propping by others.  We are led easily into deep waters, and discover “what a tangled web we weave When first we practice to deceive.”  But when we tell the truth, we have no need to remember what we said; there is a carefree heartiness about the life that is open and aboveboard that the liar, unless he has given up trying to maintain a reputation, never knows.

(2) Lying is usually a symptom — of selfishness, vanity, greed, slovenliness, or some other vicious tendency which a man cannot afford to tolerate.  Refusing to give vent in speech to these undesirable states of mind helps to atrophy them, while every expression of them insures them a deeper hold.  Untruthfulness is the great ally of all forms of dishonesty; and strict scruples against lying make it much easier to clear them from the soul.  This is the best vantage point from which to attack the half-conscious egotism which seeks to create a false impression of one’s virtues or powers, the insidiously growing avarice that instinctively overvalues goods for sale and disparages what is offered.  It is a good vantage point from which to attack carelessness, inaccuracy, and negligence; the man who has trained himself to precision of speech, who is painstakingly honest in his statements, who qualifies and discriminates, and hits the bull’s eye in his descriptions of fact, can be pretty safely depended upon to do things rightly as well.  The selfish lie is never justifiable, because selfishness is never justifiable; the cowardly lie — “lying out of” unpleasant consequences — is wrong, because cowardice is wrong.  To banish the symptoms may not wholly banish the underlying causes, but it is one good way to go about it.  At least, the lies are danger signals.

(3) The habit of lying is very easily acquired; and the habitual liar is sure, sooner or later, to be caught and to be despised.  He has forfeited the confidence of men and will find it almost impossible to regain it or to win a position of trust.  If one must lie, then, it pays to lie boldly, as a definite and authorized exception to one’s general rule; in this way one may keep from sliding unawares into the habit.  All equivocations and dissimulations, all literal truths that are really deceptions, all