III. I cannot help remarking a monstrous contradiction, that is
very frequent in this matter. If a man of any rank or figure in the
world, is told to his face that he lies, he considers himself as very
seriously injured, and according to the cruel laws of human honour, is
esteemed as having put up with a very gross affront, if he does not
demand of the man who told him so, a very sanguinary satisfaction; but
I would be glad to know, how telling a man he lies, can be a very
serious injury, if lying is not esteemed a very serious defect in him
who is addicted to it; or how a man can be considered as affronted,
because he is told he lies, if the action of lying is not scandalous
or unworthy. The degree of reproach annexed to a vice, is generally
estimated according to the light in which that vice is considered
by the world at large. If the vice is not held to be such a one, as
tarnishes a man’s honour, his honour will not be deemed wounded by
the commission of it; and it may be said of a man in such a case,
that his honour is not injured. This being a notorious fact, the
inference I would draw from the before-mentioned observation, is, that
the frequency of lying, lessens in the generality of mankind, the
abhorrence, which natural reason left to itself, has of this vice; but
notwithstanding this custom, it has not diminished so thoroughly, but
that there still remains in the soul of man, a clear conviction, that
lying is a baseness.
IV. I am confirmed in this opinion, by the observation, that a man’s
denying what he has said, is looked upon as an opprobrium to him.
And why is this? why because it amounts to a confession that he had
before told a lie. The opprobrium cannot lie in the truth of what he
now confesses; and therefore must consist in the lie which he told
before. Confessing that he has lied, is a mark of sincerity, and no one
need blush for having been sincere; therefore all the ignominy must be
annexed to the lie. This, I say, makes it manifest to me, that their
native sentiment of this matter is not so obscured in mankind, but that
it represents a lie to them as a most unworthy and a vile thing.