things corrupted. The lie, therefore,
grows out of the truth. The clearest heaven's truth, half told,
distorted, patched upon, is the vilest lie thenceforth.

Now, when one wants to kill lies successfully, he must remember all
this. He may turn, as many have done, to the work of proving
Mohammedanism a cheat. He sees it is. He wants to get others to see it.
He brings his logic artillery and the rifle brigades of his flashing
rhetoric to the battle. But, let him not be surprised if his heavy shot
is powdered, and his Minie bullets glance harmless, as from a Monitor's
turret, for beneath lies the iron truth that 'God is God,' and that
saves the lie that 'Mohammed is His prophet.' He is not to rush, like a
madman, at the lie, and try to maul it to death by sheer force of arm
and hand. There is a hard truth beneath it, and he will only lame his
knuckles. Let him go at the thing scientifically. They say of slander,
which is one kind of lie, that, if left alone, it will sting itself to
death. It is so somewhat with all falsehood. One should pay less
attention to the lie and more to the truth. And the best way to destroy
the false is to teach simply the true, and leave the false no room to
stand on.

It is possible to destroy one lie by another. They are cannibals, and
eat each other. Voltaire tried to conquer the lie of a corrupt church by
establishing the greater lie of the denial of any church. That is a very
unfortunate process, and yet it is common enough. The best way is to set
out the truth, plain, and simple, and whole, and so kill lies in flocks.
Positive teaching will be found the most effective teaching. The man who
takes up the business of combating error, may originate quite as many
errors as he destroys. There are a hundred prominent examples. Negative
teaching is barren business at best. Better show what _is_ the truth
than worry oneself to show what is _not_ it.

For, as I have shown, all lies have some truth in them. That is why they
kick, and struggle, and die so hard. Now, take the truth, tear away the
lies patched about it, tell it all, and you have quenched that
particular lie that worried you, do you not see? and every lie that
roots itself in that given truth, or lives on its distortion. Declare
your one truth convincingly, clearly, warmly as if you loved it, and the
work is done. All that does not agree with that is, of course, false,
without further breath wasted.

I might spend one day in proving