Fifteen letters followed, signed "Cantab," "Oxoniensis," and so
forth, some recommending one course, some another. One, signed
"X.Y.Z.," included "The Righteous Man" which will be found in the
last group of this volume, headed "Poems." From the following letter
signed "Ethics" Butler afterwards took two passages (which I have
enclosed, one between single asterisks the other between double
asterisks), and used them for the "Dissertation on Lying" which is in
Chapter V of Alps and Sanctuaries.
To the Editor of the Examiner.
Sir: I am sorry for your correspondent "An Earnest Clergyman" for,
though he may say he has "come to smile at his troubles," his smile
seems to be a grim one. We must all of us eat a peck of moral dirt
before we die, but some must know more precisely than others when
they are eating it; some, again, can bolt it without wry faces in one
shape, while they cannot endure even the smell of it in another. "An
Earnest Clergyman" admits that he is in the habit of telling people
certain things which he does not believe, but says he has no great
fancy for deceiving himself. "Cantab" must, I fear, deceive himself
before he can tolerate the notion of deceiving other people. For my
own part I prefer to be deceived by one who does not deceive himself
rather than by one who does, for the first will know better when to
stop, and will not commonly deceive me more than he can help.
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