the alternative is to deny one's
political or religious convictions, or to suffer death for the profession
of them. Here, however, there can be no difference of opinion. Political
freedom and religious truth have been, in past ages, propagated more
effectively by martyrdoms, than by any other instrumentality; and no men
have so fully merited the gratitude and reverence of their race as those
who have held the truth dearer than life.

But the form which the question ordinarily assumes is this: *If by false
information I can prevent the commission of an atrocious crime, am I
justified in the falsehood?* It ought first to be said, that this is
hardly a practical question. Probably it has never presented itself
practically to any person under whose eye these pages will fall, or in any
instance within his knowledge. Nor can the familiar discussion of such
extreme cases be of any possible benefit. On the other hand, he who
familiarizes himself with the idea that under such a stress of
circumstances what else were wrong becomes right, will be prone to apply
similar reasoning to an exigency somewhat less urgent, and thence to any
case in which great apparent good might result from a departure from
strict veracity. Far better is it to make literal truth the unvarying law
of life, and then to rest in the assurance that, should an extreme case
present itself, the exigency of the moment will suggest the course to be
pursued. Yet, in ethical strictness, falsehood from one self-conscious
person to another cannot be justified; but we can conceive of
circumstances in which it might be extenuated. There are no degrees of
right; but of wrong there may be an infinite number of degrees. One
straight line cannot be straighter than another; but we can conceive of a
curve or a waving line that shall have but an infinitesimal divergence
from a straight line. So in morals, there may be an infinitesimal
wrong,--an act which cannot be pronounced right, yet shall diverge so
little from the right that conscience would contract from it no
appreciable stain, that man could not condemn it, and that we cannot
conceive of its being registered against the soul in the chancery of
heaven. Such may be the judgment which would properly attach itself to a
falsehood by which an atrocious crime was prevented.

* * * * *

*Promises* belong under the head of veracity for a double reason, inasmuch
as they demand in their making t