[Footnote:
Ethics, p. 103.] In such cases the public, including the very
people deceived (except the murderer, who deserves no
consideration), applaud the lie; no lack of confidence is
engendered. Other cases, less commonly discussed, are
equally clear. A mother has just lost a son whom she has
idealized and believed to be pure; his classmates know him
to have been a rake. If she asks them about his character,
will not all feel called upon to deceive her, and leave her in
her bereavement at least free from that worst sting? When
a timid woman or a sensitive child is alarmed, say, for example,
at sea in a fog, will not a considerate companion reiterate
assurance that there is little or no danger, even when he
himself believes the risk may be great? When a man is asked
about some matter which he has promised to keep secret, if
the attempt to evade the question in the nature of the case is
practically a letting-out of the secret, there seems sometimes to
be hardly an alternative to lying. Mrs. Gerould puts it thus: "A
question put by some one who has no right to the information
demanded, deserves no truth. If a casual gossip should ask
me whether my unmarried great-aunt lived beyond her means,
I should feel justified in saying that she did not although it might
be the private family scandal that she did. There are inquiries
which are a sort of moral burglary" [Footnote: In the Atlantic
essay referred to at the end of this chapter.
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