trivial effort
man can lie, does he believe
oh, probably not
If we would learn what the human race really is, at bottom, we need only observe it in election times.
A Hartford clergyman met me in the street, and spoke of a new nominee – denounced the nomination, in strong, earnest words – words that were refreshing for their independence, their manliness.
He said, “I ought to be proud, perhaps, for this nominee is a relative of mine; on the contrary I am humiliated and disgusted; for I know him intimately – familiarly – and I know that he is an unscrupulous scoundrel, and always has been.”
You should have seen this clergyman preside at a political meeting forty days later; and urge, and plead, and gush – and you should have heard him paint the character of this same nominee.
You would have supposed he was describing the Cid, and Great-heart, and Sir Galahad, and Bayard the Spotless all rolled into one.
Was he sincere?
Yes – by that time; and therein lies the pathos of it all, the hopelessness of it all.
It shows at what trivial cost of effort a man can teach himself a lie, and learn to believe it, when he perceives, by the general drift, that that is the popular thing to do.
Does he believe his lie yet?
Oh, probably not;
From The Character of Man in The Autobiography of Mark Twain by Mark Twain (Berkeley : University of California Press, 2010).
No Haiku For You 