It is curious how much one despises and condemns the vices which one does not happen to possess. I am indeed not a severe man, nor would I permit myself to become intolerant of those failings which I share with others. But, having no particular temptation to be untruthful, I find myself believing that when one comes to think of it, truth is the major virtue and lying the most blameworthy of all the vices. I should like, therefore, to get my mind a little clearer on the truth question. I flatter myself, as I have said, that I am a truthful man: a man who, when he tells a lie, is careful not to forget that he has done so, and. who takes infinite precautions to prevent his being found out. This, in the end, is the only test by which you can distinguish the liar from the man of truth. The latter who is bothered by untruthfulness, is worried and anxious. The real liar, however, is merely amused: he doesn't mind in the least even if he is subsequently exposed: he regards the truthful man as somewhat of a fool. But this surely is one of the many false statements with which the real liar will try hard to idealize his failing: It may be inevitable and even just to tell lies, but it cannot seriously be argued that such habits are intelligent. A lie is always an act of mental cowardice, whereas intelligence is brave. And yet there was Bismarck, and yet there was Napoleon--surely intelligent men, and surely liars. The problem, therefore, is not so simple as it seems. It was simple enough, in those old days, to define with approximate accuracy when a given statement ceased to be the truth and became a lie. The essential test was whether the maker of a false statement knew that he was saying something false, and consciously wished his audience to accept, and to remain under, this false impression. Life in civilized communities is a process of adjusting the personal to the social, of conforming the individual impression to the joint impressions of the common 'people. This process of adjustment leads inevitably and rightly to a certain unconscious deception. Absolute truth, whether unconscious or even conscious, is thus impossible. It is to relative truth only that we can hope to aspire. The author claims that ______.