CHAPTER IV
ON LYING
i. A lie is defined by St Thomas to be a speech contrary to one's mind. [1] It is, then, of the essence of a lie that there should be an intention of saying what is false, that there should be a contradiction between the mind and the external expression of it. One may tell a lie, then, by saying what is true if it is believed by the speaker not to be true, and a lie is told by denying what is false if it is believed to be true. Although a liar usually has the intention of deceiving others, yet such an intention is not of the essence of a lie. A man may be well aware that he has no chance of being able to deceive another, but may say what he knows to be untrue in order to excuse himself or not to stand self- convicted. Men who are known to lie habitually do not expect others to be deceived by what they say, but still they lie when they say what is not true. One may lie to God, though he knows that he cannot deceive him.
In saying that a lie is a speech contrary to one's mind we understand not only words but gestures, or any signs by which our thought is manifested to others. As St Augustine says: " He tells a lie who has one thing in his mind and says something else by word or by any signs whatever." [2] For we may and do constantly speak not only by word of mouth, but by our tone, looks, gesture, actions, and by the very circumstances in which our words are uttered. The words " I am not guilty " in the mouth of a murderer have quite a different meaning when they are uttered in the dock and at the feet of his confessor. The words, the tone, the look may be the same; the circumstances make it a true speech in the first case and a sacrilegious lie in the second.
A lie in action is called hypocrisy or simulation, but the malice is the same as in lying words.
Lies are divided by theologians into jocose, officious, and hurtful lies.
A jocose lie is told to amuse others; it is something said in joke which the speaker knows to be false, and uttered with
