Mutual confidence being the foundation of society, we look askance at the liar as at an enemy of the human race. There is, moreover, no pleasure in lying for its own sake. A lie that takes nobody in becomes to its inventor "a dead sea fruit that turns to ashes on the lips." If he be not rewarded by the open-eyed admiration of his audience he had better have remained silent—yea, though he has lied like Ananias. For these two reasons we all wish to be believed, and it is a pitiful circumstance that the more untruthful we are the greater is our hunger for credence. The unimaginative man, who has nothing worth telling, need not and does not concern himself about the acceptance of his paltry stories. But the genius who has struck out a first-rate figment is touched in his being if the child of his fancy fails to make good.
Among anglers, therefore, a convention exists that everything shall be believed. In communities
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