![]() Non enim omnis qui falsum dicit mentitur, si credit aut opinatur verum esse quod dicit. Quapropter videndum est quid sit mendacium. Ad mendacium an in loquente voluntas fallendi requiratur vel sufficiat. Setting aside, therefore, jokes, which have never been accounted lies, seeing they bear with them in the tone of voice, and in the very mood of the joker a most evident indication that he means no deceit, although the thing he utters be not true: touching which kind of discourse, whether it be meet to be used by perfect minds, is another question which we have not at this time taken in hand to clear but setting jokes apart, the first point to be attended to, is, that a person should not be thought to lie, who lies not. Exceptis igitur iocis, quae nunquam sunt putata mendacia: habent enim evidentissimam ex pronuntiatione atque ipso iocantis affectu significationem animi nequaquam fallentis, etsi non vera enuntiantis: quo genere utrum sit utendum perfectis animis, alia quaestio est, quam modo enodandam non suscepimus: exceptis ergo iocis, prius agendum est, ne mentiri existimetur qui non mentitur.Ģ. Eloquence you must not look for: we have been intent upon things, and upon dispatch in putting out of hand a matter which nearly concerns our every day life, and therefore have had small pains, or almost none, to bestow upon words. ![]() But whoso readest, you will do well to find no fault until you have read the whole so will you have less fault to find. For they who find great fault say it is too much, whereas perhaps Truth would say after all, it is not yet enough. ![]() Wherein if there is any error, yet as Truth is that which sets free from all error, and Falsehood that which entangles in all error, one never errs more safely, methinks, than when one errs by too much loving the truth, and too much rejecting of falsehood. At last, however, the chase will bear down more surely, and will overtake our sentence. It is, indeed, very full of dark corners, and has many cavern-like windings, whereby it oft eludes the eagerness of the seeker so that at one moment what was found seems to slip out of one's hands, and anon comes to light again, and then is once more lost to sight. This question we will painfully discuss by seeking with them that seek: whether to any good purpose, we need not take upon ourselves to affirm, for the attentive reader will sufficiently gather from the course of the discussion. There is a great question about Lying, which often arises in the midst of our every day business, and gives us much trouble, that we may not either rashly call that a lie which is not such, or decide that it is sometimes right to tell a lie, that is, a kind of honest, well-meant, charitable lie. Eloquium noli quaerere: multum enim de rebus laboravimus, et de celeritate absoluendi tam necessarii quotidianae vitae operis unde tenuis, ac prope nulla fuit nobis cura verborum.ġ. Sane quisquis legis, nihil reprehendas, nisi cum totum legeris atque ita minus reprehendes. Qui enim seuere reprehendunt, hoc nimium dicunt esse: ipsa autem veritas fortasse adhuc dicat: Nondum est satis. In qua si ullus error est, cum ab omni errore veritas liberet, atque in omni errore falsitas implicet nunquam errari tutius existimo, quam cum in amore nimio veritatis et reiectione nimia falsitatis erratur. ![]() Ad extremum tamen sententiam nostram velut certior indago comprehendet. Quam quaestionem tam sollicite pertractabimus, ut quaeramus cum quaerentibus: utrum autem aliquantum inveniamus, nihil nobis temere affirmantibus, lectori bene attendenti satis indicabit ipsa tractatio: latebrosa est enim nimis et quibusdam quasi cavernosis anfractibus saepe intentionem quaerentis eludit ut modo velut elabatur e manibus quod inventum erat, modo rursus appareat, et rursus absorbeatur. Magna quaestio est de mendacio, quae nos in ipsis quotidianis actibus nostris saepe conturbat: ne aut temere accusemus mendacium, quod non est mendacium aut arbitremur aliquando esse mentiendum, honesto quodam et officioso ac misericordi mendacio. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887.) From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. ![]()
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