ell a lie to a patient; although he
thought he might have done so if he had deemed it necessary to save
a patient's life. In other words, while he admitted the possible
justification of an "emergency lie," he had never found a first-class
opening for one in his practice. And he added, that he knew very well
that if he had been known to lie to his patients, his professional
efficiency, as well as his good name, would have suffered. Medical
men do not always see, in their practice, the supposed advantages of
lying, which have so large prominence in the minds of ethical writers.

Another profession, which is popularly and wrongly accused of having
a place for the lie in its system of ethics, is the legal profession.
Whewell refers to this charge in his "Elements of Morality" (citing
Paley in its support). He says: "Some moralists have ranked with the
cases in which convention supersedes the general rule of truth, an
advocate asserting the justice, or his belief in the justice, of his
client's cause." But as to an advocate's right in this matter, Whewell
says explicitly: "If, in pleading, he assert his belief that his cause
is just, when he believes it unjust, he offends against truth; as any
other man would do who, in like manner, made a like assertion."[1]

[Footnote 1: Whewell's _Elements of Morality_, sec. 400.]

Chief-Justice Sharswood, of Pennsylvania, in his standard work on
"Legal Ethics," cites this opinion of Whewell with unqualified
approval; and, in speaking for the legal profession, he says: "No
counsel can with propriety and good conscience express to court or
jury his belief in the justice of his client's cause, contrary to the
fact. Indeed, the occasions are very rare in which he ought to throw
the weight of his private opinion into the scales in favor of the side
he has espoused." Calling attention to the fact that the official
oath of an attorney, on his admission to the bar, in the state of
Pennsylvania, includes the specific promise to "use no falsehood," he
says: "Truth in all its simplicity--truth to the court, client,
and adversary--should be indeed the polar star of the lawyer. The
influence of only slight deviations from truth upon professional
character is very observable. A man may as well be detected in a great
as a little lie. A single discovery, among professional brethren, of a
failure of truthfulness, makes a man the object of distrust, subjects
him to constant mortification, and soon this