“_Incorrupta Fides, nudaque Veritas._”
HORACE.
“Good Faith unstained, and Truth all-unadorned.”
_Nuda Veritas_: it was Horace who in a famous Ode first presented the
figure of Truth thus. And whom did he make her companions and sisters?
They were three, and their names were “Modesty,” “Fair Dealing,” and
“Good Faith.” The four sisters do indeed go together in a quadruple
alliance and _entente_, and when one is flouted or estranged, the
others are alienated and become enemies too.
The Germans were believed to be--some few still believe them to be--a
“truth-loving nation.” They had a passion, we were told, for truth, for
accuracy, for scientific exactness. Theirs might be a blunt and brutal
frankness, but they were at least downright and truthful.
Well, they first flouted Modesty--they bragged and blustered, bluffed
and “bounded.” They could not keep it up. They had to act. Fair Dealing
went by the board. Then Good Faith became impossible, for, as this
very von Bethmann-Hollweg declared, “Necessity knew no law.” Now they
have forsaken Truth. They must deceive their own people. The “lie”
has entered into their soul. Never was so systematic a use made of
falsehoods small and great.
But Truth expelled is not powerless. Naked, she is still not
weaponless. She has her little “periscope,” her magic mirror, which
shows the liar himself, as well as the world, what he is like. And
she has another weapon, as those who know their “Paradise Lost” will
remember:
“Bright Ithuriel’s lance
Truth kindling truth where’er it glance.”
It is not shown here, for it is invisible, but none the less potent.
With it Truth can indeed “shame the devil.” She not only shows what the
liar is like outside, but reveals his inner hideousness, and actual
shape, for all to see.
There are many sayings about Truth, and they are all awkward for
the liar. “Truth will out,” said a witty English judge, “even in an
affidavit.” It will out, even in a German Chancellor’s _démenti_.