On the Decay of the Art of Lying

Mark Twain

• Publisher: pubOne.info
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN:
  9782819921042
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Classici

ON THE DECAY OF THE ART OF LYING

by Mark Twain [Sameul Clemens]

Essay, for discussion, read at A meeting of the historical and antiquarian club of Hartford, and offered for the thirty-Dollar prize.[*]

[*] Did not take the prize.

Observe, I do not mean to suggest that the custom of lying has suffered any decay or interruption—­no, for the Lie, as a Virtue, A Principle, is eternal; the Lie, as a recreation, a solace, a refuge in time of need, the fourth Grace, the tenth Muse, man’s best and surest friend, is immortal, and cannot perish from the earth while this club remains. My complaint simply concerns the decay of the art of lying. No high-minded man, no man of right feeling, can contemplate the lumbering and slovenly lying of the present day without grieving to see a noble art so prostituted. In this veteran presence I naturally enter upon this theme with diffidence; it is like an old maid trying to teach nursery matters to the mothers in Israel. It would not become to me to criticise you, gentlemen—­who are nearly all my elders—­and my superiors, in this thing—­if I should here and there seem to do it, I trust it will in most cases be more in a spirit of admiration than fault-finding; indeed if this finest of the fine arts had everywhere receive...

Table of contents

• ON THE DECAY OF THE ART OF LYING