138 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



number of contrary instances, and an individual, when con 

 fronted by the alternative, receives no help from a united 

 public opinion. The effect of these conditions extends to 

 degrees of strength. Religious thinkers rank obedience 

 among the two or three supreme virtues ; others may 

 accord it a moderate or partial value ; philosophers of the 

 individualist school hardly allude to it, though Hume 

 recognizes it in political, and Herbert Spencer in domestic 

 relations, and in no others. 



In this connexion I may be allowed to instance another 

 virtue which is of peculiar interest, in that it served the 

 greatest of all moral philosophers as an illustration of the 

 universality of the ethical commands. I mean, truthfulness. 

 A lie that is, the statement of an untruth with the intent 

 to deceive is regarded with very various degrees of repro 

 bation in different countries, and by different people in 

 the same country ; and, even where the prohibition is most 

 strict, the admitted exceptions are numerous. It is the 

 common opinion, whether right or not, that a man may 

 lie when the interests of his country clearly demand it : to 

 save an innocent man from murderers ; in answer to mis 

 chievous and impertinent inquiries ; or to mitigate the shock 

 of sudden calamity : and this list of exceptions is probably 

 not complete. Lovers lies, though hardly legitimate, 

 are venial. The saying, Promises like piecrusts are meant 

 to be broken, though intended as a jest, would not be 

 current at all, were the reprobation as strong and as certain 

 as in the case of more serious offences. When truthfulness 

 is opposed to other moral commands, the individual con 

 science will often appeal in vain to the accepted morality 

 of the community for clear instructions as to whether it 

 is to be preferred as a duty. 



In this case, though, like all other moral impulses, truth 

 fulness finds itself in occasional conflict with other moral 

 impulses, there is no directly opposite virtue, as in the 

 examples of obedience and self-assertion. The fact that 

 it is more highly esteemed in some countries than in others 

 can hardly be due to direct adaptation. A lie is not more 



