ttle
ones was suddenly taken with some baby ailment, and the poor fellow, in
his wife's absence, was scared out of his few wits in consequence. He
sent for the kind-hearted widow, and begged her help for Johnny. She
came, nursed the young scamp like a mother, and returned at nine, with
her conscience glowing under the performance of a kindly and neighborly
act.

Now, without this much of truth, the amiable Mrs. Tattle would never
have manufactured this particular lie. All liars understand the
principle. They scarcely ever, until they become blind and stupid liars,
invent a falsehood out of mere fancy. They pay tribute to humanity's
instinct for truth so far as to tell as much of it as possible without
ceasing to lie. They get in as great an amount of truth as convenient,
to save their lie from swift, sure death.

But a rousing big lie!--not one of these small neighborhood affairs,
that buzz about like wasps in every community--but a grand and
magnificent lie, imposed on a nation, imposed maybe on half a world,
must have a corresponding truth to make it prosper. It takes less salt
to cure the small pig, more to cure the large hog. So, the greater the
weight of dead lie, the greater the amount required of preserving truth.

Mohammed imposed a lie on half a continent. That lie has lived and, in
some sort, prospered to this day. All sorts of babblement have been
written and spoken about that wonderful fact. The truth is, Mohammed's
great lie was founded on, and propagated with, an equally great truth, a
truth amply sufficient to carry it. In the midst of abominable idolatry,
of stupid polytheism, Mohammed proclaimed: 'There is no God but God!'
His wild and foolish fictions were based on that grand, unalterable
truth. That truth is big enough to bear up more lies than even he
ventured to cover it with. The human heart leaped up to grasp the great
fact that props the Universe--'GOD IS!'--and, in its love for that,
accepted also the falsehoods woven into its proclamation.

In all the universe the evil roots itself into the good. Evil never has
an independent life. Like an idol, 'it is nothing in the world.' An evil
nature is a good nature, only turned from its aim. Death exists only
because there is life. Disease feeds on rosy health. Devils are, by
nature, angels. The foulest fiend is only the loftiest seraph spoiled.
The evil is always a parasite. All things were made 'very good.' An evil
thing is only one of those good