8 1 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that intentional deception is apt to show itself toward certain 

 people only. There is many a schoolboy who would think it no 

 dishonor to say what is untrue to those he dislikes, especially by 

 way of getting them into hot water, though he would feel it mean 

 and base to lie to his mother or his father, and bad form to lie to 

 the head master. Similar distinctions show themselves in earlier 

 stages, and are another point of similarity between the child and 

 the savage, whose ideas of truthfulness seem to be truthfulness 

 for my people only. This is a side of the subject which would 

 repay fuller inquiry. 



Another aspect of the subject which has been but little inves- 

 tigated is the influence of habit in the domain of lying and the 

 formation of persistent permanent lies. The impulse to stick 

 to an untruth when once uttered is very human, and in the case 

 of the child is enforced by the fear of discovery. This applies 

 not only to falsehoods foisted on persons in authority, but to 

 those by which clever boys and girls take pleasure in befooling 

 the inferior wits of others. In this way there grow up in the 

 nursery and in the playground traditional myths and legends 

 which are solemnly believed by the simple-minded. Such inven- 

 tion is in part the outcome of the " pleasures of the imagination." 

 Yet it is probable that this is in all cases re-enforced not only by 

 the wish to produce a showy effect, but by the love of power 

 which in the child not endowed with physical prowess is apt to 

 show itself in hoodwinking and practical joking. 



Closely connected with this establishment of permanent false- 

 hoods is the contagiousness of lying. The propagation of false- 

 hood is apt to be promoted by a certain tremulous admiration for 

 the hardihood of the lie and by the impulse of the rebel which 

 never quite slumbers even in the case of fairly obedient children. 

 I suspect, however, that it is in all cases largely due to the force 

 of suggestion. The falsehood boldly anounced is apt to captivate 

 the mind and hold it under a kind of spell. 



This effect of suggestion in generating falsehood is very 

 marked in those pathological or semi-pathological cases where 

 children have been led to give false testimony. It is now known 

 that it is quite possible to provoke in children between the ages 

 of six and fifteen by simple affirmation, whether in the waking 

 or in the sleeping state, illusions of memory, so that they are 

 ready to assert that they saw things happen which they had 

 never seen.* 



* M. Motet was one of the first to call attention to the forces of childish imagination, 

 and the effects of suggestion in the false testimonies of children. Les faux temoignages 

 des enfants devant la justice, 1887. The subject has been further elucidated by Dr. 

 Berillon. 



