4 o6 LITERARY PAPERS 



able and praiseworthy. He shows if the character is thoroughly 

 impregnated with truth the outward expressions are truth- 

 ful, and the man " who is cautious of falsehood for its own sake 

 will surely be cautious of it as being disgraceful." Aristotle 

 advises to decline "from the truth rather on the side of de- 

 fect; for this appears to be in better taste because excesses 

 are hateful." This means that it is not truthful to volunteer 

 true statements regarding persons or affairs for the sake of 

 talking, as this tends towards arrogance, unless by withholding 

 information through false modesty harm should befall our 

 neighbor. 



The individual conscience alone can be the guide to the mid- 

 dle path oj Truth. To give one's own conscience into the keep- 

 ing of another must in the end prove baneful. A close study 

 of Browning's poems and the application of their ethics to 

 every- day life will prove useful in aiding the growth of the 

 individual conscience. Many conditions of woman's social 

 state have seemed to justify her in resorting to deceit and false- 

 hood, the weapons of the weaker, for these alone were her 

 means to sustain and defend herself. Indirectness is the neces- 

 sary outcome of inequality. If women had once seen this 

 and combined for equality and truth, no matter what the 

 results, Browning need not have remarked upon man's truth 

 subduing 



"for sake of chivalry and ruth 

 Its rapier edge to suit 

 The bulrush-spear womanly falsehood fights with!" 



Just here scientific training is of value in strengthening 

 the character and in guiding the senses to a nicer percep- 

 tion of the Truth. Any one may prove this to himself by going 

 for the first time into a physical laboratory and attempting 

 to carry out even the simplest experiments requiring the per- 

 fect adjustment of muscular action with vision. The inability 

 of the novice will be proven in almost every case. Likewise 

 such training, while aiding the cultivation of more exact touch 

 and sight, is of value as bringing the Will into concentrated 

 action and coordination with muscular movement. Scientific 



