No: lying is so
deeply rooted in nature that we may expel it with a fork, and yet
it will always come back again: it is like the poor, we must have
it always with us; we must all eat a peck of moral dirt before we
die.
All depends upon who it is that is lying. One man may steal a
horse when another may not look over a hedge. The good man who
tells no lies wittingly to himself and is never unkindly, may lie
and lie and lie whenever he chooses to other people, and he will
not be false to any man: his lies become truths as they pass into
the hearers' ear. If a man deceives himself and is unkind, the
truth is not in him, it turns to falsehood while yet in his mouth,
like the quails in the Wilderness of Sinai. How this is so or why,
I know not, but that the Lord hath mercy on whom He will have mercy
and whom He willeth He hardeneth.
My Italian friends are doubtless in the main right about the
priests, but there are many exceptions, as they themselves gladly
admit. For my own part I have found the curato in the small
subalpine villages of North Italy to be more often than not a
kindly excellent man to whom I am attracted by sympathies deeper
than any mere superficial differences of opinion can counteract.
With monks, however, as a general rule I am less able to get on:
nevertheless, I have received much courtesy at the hands of some.
My young friend the novice was delightful--only it was so sad to
think of the future that is before him.
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