mentaries_, Lect. 39, p. 490 f. (4th ed.);
cited in Story's _Equity Jurisprudence_, VI., p. 229 (13th ed.).]

In the decisions of Equity courts, while the duty of absolute
truthfulness between parties in interest is insisted on as vital, and
a suppression of the truth from one who had a right to its knowledge,
or a suggestion of that which is untrue in a similar case("_suggestio
falsi aut suppressio veri_"), is deemed an element of fraud, the
distinction between mere silence when one is entitled to be silent,
and concealment with the purpose of deception, is distinctly
recognized, as it is not in all manuals on ethics.[1] This is
indicated, on the one hand, in the legal maxim _Aliud est celare,
aliud tacere_,--"It is one thing to conceal, another to be silent;"
silence is not necessarily deceptive concealment;[2] and on the other
hand in such a statement as this, in Benjamin's great work on Sales:
"The nondisclosure of hidden facts [to a party in interest] is the
more objectionable when any artifice is employed to throw the buyer
off his guard; as by telling half the truth."[3] It is not in any
principles which are recognized by the legal profession as binding on
the conscience, that loose ethics are to find defense or support.

[Footnote 1: See Bispham's _Principles of Equity_, p. 261, (3d ed.);
Broom's _Legal Maxims_, p. 781 f. (7th Am. ed.); Merrill's _American
and English Encyclopedia of Law_, art. "Fraud."]

[Footnote 2: See Anderson's _Dictionary of Law_, p. 220; Abbott's _Law
Dictionary_, I., 53.]

[Footnote 3: _Treatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Property_, p.
451 f.]

But the profession that has most at stake in this discussion, and
that, indeed, is most involved in its issue, is the ministerial, or
clerical, profession. While it was Jewish rabbis who affirmed most
positively, in olden time, the unwavering obligations of truthfulness,
it was Jewish rabbis, also, who sought to find extenuation or excuse
for falsehoods uttered with a good intention. And while it was
Christian Fathers, like the Shepherd of Hermas, and Justin Martyr, and
Basil the Great, and Augustine, who insisted that no tolerance should
be allowed to falsehood or deceit, it was also Christian Fathers, like
Gregory of Nyssa, and Chrysostom, who having practiced deceit for
what they deemed a good end, first attempted a special plea for such
falsities as they had found convenient in their professional labors.
And it was other Christian Fa