Short Studies in Ethics: An Elementary Text-Book for SchoolsMiller, John Ormsby
Philosophy
Short Studies in Ethics: An Elementary Text-Book for Schools
Miller, John Ormsby
Ethics
(5) Concealment of the truth may be an unspoken lie. There is an old
Latin motto which says: "The suppression of the truth is the suggestion
of an untruth." By keeping back a necessary part of the truth one may
give a totally wrong impression of the facts, and this is just as much a
lie as absolute misstatement.
(6) Trickery, or underhand dealing of any kind, is a kind of lying. A
London merchant had business with another in a foreign country. The
latter asked the former to send out certain packages of goods marked
less than the real weight, so as to escape the customs duty. "I can't do
it," said the English merchant. "Very well," said the foreigner, "if
you won't, there are plenty of others who will, and I shall take my
business away from you"--which he did, causing the other firm a heavy
loss. A few years afterwards the foreigner wrote to the English
merchant: "Enclosed is a draft for so much, which please put to my
credit. I am sending my son to England to learn your way of business.
There is nobody in whom I have such confidence as I have in you. Will
you take him into your office and make him the same sort of man that you
are yourself?"
(7) Truthfulness lays upon us the most solemn obligation to keep our
promises, no matter how small may be the matter concerned. He who makes
a promise, not intending to keep it, is guilty of gross deception. In
making a promise it is our duty to express our _intention_ in the
plainest terms, and we must then consider ourselves under obligation to
carry out that intention faithfully and fully. When Blücher was
hastening with his army over bad roads to the help of Wellington at the
battle of Waterloo, he encouraged his troops by calling out frequently,
"Forward, children, forward." "It is impossible; it can't be done," was
the answer. Again and again he urged them. "Children, we must get on;
you may say it can't be done, but it must be done! I have promised my
brother Wellington--_promised_, do you hear? You wouldn't have me _break
my word_!"
Lord Chesterfield once said: "It is truth that makes the success of the
gentleman." Those words should be taken to heart by every boy who wishes
to honour truth. Clarendon said of Falkland, one of the noblest and
purest of men, that he "was so severe an adorer of truth that he could
as easily have given himself leave to steal as to dissemble."
Shakespeare said:
"This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow as the night the day
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
No. IV.
COURAGE
+Courage is that disposition which enables us to meet danger or
difficulties firmly and without fear. There are two kinds of Courage:
Physical and Moral; and it has two aspects: Fearlessness and Boldness.+
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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