LITERARY PAPERS 
406 
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 of 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 
