"He (the modern politician) believes a man's words and his meanings should never agree together: for he that says what he thinks lays himself open to be expounded by the most ignorant; and _he who does not make his words rather serve to conceal than discover the sense of his heart_, deserves to have it pulled out, like a traitor's, and shown publicly to the rabble." Young has the thought in the following couplet on the duplicity of courts: "When Nature's end of language is declin'd, And men talk only to _conceal their mind_." From Young it passed to Voltaire, who in the dialogue entitled "Le Chapon et la Poularde," makes the former say of the treachery of men: "Ils n'emploient les paroles que pour _déguiser leurs pensées_." Goldsmith, about the same time, in his paper in _The Bee_, produces it in the well-known words: "Men who know the world hold that the true use of speech is not so much to _express_ our wants, as to _conceal_ them." Then comes Talleyrand, who is reported to have said: "La parole n'a été donnée à l'homme que pour _déguiser sa pensée_." The latest writer who adopts this remark without acknowledgment is, I believe, Lord Holland. In his _Life of Lope de Vega_ he says of certain Spanish writers, promoters of the _cultismo_ style: "These authors do not avail themselves of the invention of letters for the purpose of _conveying, but of concealing, their ideas_." From these passages (some of which have already appeared in Vol. i., p. 83) it will be seen that the germ of the thought occurs in Jeremy Taylor; that Lloyd and South improved upon it; that Butler, Young and Goldsmith repeated it; that Voltaire translated it into French; that Talleyrand echoed Voltaire's words; and that it has now become so familiar an expression, that any one may quote it, as Lord Holland has done, without being at the trouble of giving his authority. If, from the search for the author, we turn to consider the saying itself, we shall find that its practical application extends not merely to every species of equivocation, mental reservation, and even falsehood; but comprises certain forms of speech, which are intended to convey the _contrary_ of what they express. To this class of words the French have given the designation of _contre-vérité_; and, to my surprise, I find that they include therein the expression _amende honorable_. Upon this point the _Grammaire des Grammaires_, by Girault Duvivier, has these remarks: "La contre-vérité a beaucoup de rapport avec l'ironie. Amende honorable, par exemple, est une contre-vérité, une vérité prise dans un sens opposé à celui de son énonciation; car, au lieu d'être honorable, elle est infamante, déshonorante."