natural though corrupt love of the lie itself. One of the later school of the Grecians examineth the matter, and is at a stand to think what should be in it, that men should love lies, where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets,[1] nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell: this same truth is a naked and open day-light, that doth not shew the masks and mummeries and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily[2] as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that sheweth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond or carbuncle, that sheweth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would,[3] and the like, but it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves? One of the Fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum dæmonum[4] because it filleth the imagination; and yet it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in and settleth in it, that doth the hurt; such as we spake of before. But howso-
- ↑ "There should always be some foundation of fact for the most airy fabric, and pure invention is but the talent of a liar." Byron. Letter to John Murray. April 2, 1817. Letters and Journals. T. Moore.
- ↑ Daintily. Delicately, elegantly, gracefully.
- ↑ As one would. That is, as one willed, or wished. The verb will has here its presentive sense, as in Philippians ii. 13, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
- ↑ Wine of devils. Used by St. Augustine, 354–430 A.D., Bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia. The Confessions of Augustine. I. xvi. 26.
