A fact may be an exception; but the
feeling is the law, and it is that which you must neither
garble nor belie. The whole tenor of a conversation is a
part of the meaning of each separate statement; the
beginning and the end define and travesty the intermediate
conversation. You never speak to God; you address a
fellow-man, full of his own tempers: and to tell truth,
rightly understood, is not to state the true facts, but to
convey a true impression ; truth in spirit, not truth to
letter, is the true veracity.
*
He talked for the pleasure of airing himself. He was
essentially glib, as becomes the young advocate, and
essentially careless of the truth, which is the mark of the
young ass; and so he talked at random. There was no
particular bias, but that one which is indigenous and
universal, to flatter himself, and to please and interest
the present friend.
*
How wholly we all lie at the mercy of a single prater, not
needfully with any malign purpose! And if a man but talk
of himself in the right spirit, refers to his virtuous
actions by the way, and never applies to them the name of
virtues, how easily his evidence is accepted in the court
of public opinion!
*
In one word, it must always be foul to tell what is false;
and it can never be safe to suppress what is true.
*
Conclusions, indeed, are not often reached by talk any more
than by private thinking.
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