VERACITY. 48 s 



and says that Darius thought a Greek who kept his word a nota- 

 ble exception. 



Evidence of the relation between chronic hostilities and utter 

 disregard of truth, is furnished throughout the history of Europe. 

 In the Merovingian period " the era of blood " oaths taken by 

 rulers, even with their hands on the altar, were forthwith broken ; 

 and Salvian writes " If a Frank forswear himself, where's the 

 wonder, when he thinks perjury but a form of speech, not of 

 crime ? " After perpetual wars during the two hundred years of 

 the Carolingian period, with Arabs, Saracens, Aquitanians, Sax- 

 ons, Lombards, Slavs, Avars, Normans, came the early feudal pe- 

 riod, of which H. Martin says : 



" The tenth [century] may pass for the era of fraud and deceit. At no other 

 epoch of our history does the moral sense appear to have been so completely 

 effaced from the human soul as in that first period of feudalism." 



And then, as an accompaniment and consequence of the inter- 

 nal conflicts which ended in the establishment of the French 

 monarchy, there was a still-continued treachery : the aristocracy 

 in their relations with one another " were without truth, loyalty, 

 or disinterestedness. . . . Neither life nor character was safe in 

 their hands/' Though Mr. Lecky ascribes the mediaeval " indif- 

 ference to truth " to other causes than chronic militancy, yet he 

 furnishes a sentence which indirectly yields support to the induc- 

 tion here made, and is the more to be valued because it is not 

 intended to yield such support. He remarks that ' ' where the 

 industrial spirit has not penetrated, truthfulness rarely occupies 

 in the popular mind the same prominent position in the catalogue 

 of virtues " as it does among those " educated in the habits of in- 

 dustrial life." 



' Nor do we fail to see at the present time, in the contrasts be- 

 tween the Eastern and Western nations of Europe, a like relation 

 of phenomena. 



Reflection shows, however, that this relation is not a direct 

 one. There is no immediate connection between bloodthirstiness 

 and the telling of lies. Nor because a man is kind-hearted does 

 it follow that he is truthful. If, as above implied, a life of amity 

 is conducive to veracity, while a life of enmity fosters un veracity, 

 the dependencies must be indirect. After glancing at some fur- 

 ther facts, we shall understand better in what ways these traits of 

 life and character are usually associated. 



In respect of veracity, as in respect of other virtues, I have 

 again to instance various aboriginal peoples who have been thrust 

 by invading races into undesirable habitats ; and have there been 

 left either in absolute tranquillity or free from chronic hostilities 



