[18] The circumstances under which falsehood and
insincerity are tolerated by the community in the best societies of
modern days are very numerous; and the worst society of modern days
in the civilized world, when slavery does not prevail, is
immeasurably superior to the best in ancient days, or in the Middle
Ages. Do we not every day hear men and women, in what are called the
best societies, declaring to one individual or one set of
acquaintances that the pity, the sympathy, the love, or the
admiration they have been expressing for others is, in reality, all
feigned to soothe or please? As long as the motive is not base, men
do not spurn the falsehood as such. How much of untruth is tolerated
in the best circles of the most civilized nations, in the relations
between electors to corporate and legislative bodies and the
candidates for election? between nominators to offices under
Government and the candidates for nomination? between lawyers and
clients, vendors and purchasers? (particularly of horses), between
the recruiting sergeant and the young recruit, whom he has found a
little angry with his widowed mother, whom he makes him kill by false
pictures of what a soldier may hope for in the 'bellaque matribus
detestata' to which he invites him?[19]
There is, I believe, no class of men in India from whom it is more
difficult to get the true statement of a case pending before a court
than the sepoys of our native regiments; and yet there are, I
believe, no people in the world from whom it is more easy to get it
in their own village communities, where they state it before their
relations, elders, and neighbours, whose esteem is necessary to their
happiness, and can be obtained only by adherence to truth.
Pages:
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869