36. But for that we are men and among men do live, and I confess that I am not yet in the number of them whom compensative sins embarrass not, it oft befalleth me in human affairs to be overcome by human feeling, nor am I able to resist when it is said to me, “Lo, here is a sick man in peril of his life with a grievous disease, whose strength will no more be able to bear it, if the death of his only and most dear son be announced to him; he asks of thee whether his son liveth, and thou knowest that he is departed this life; what wilt thou reply, when, whatever thou shall say beside one of these three; either, He is dead; or, He liveth; or, I know not; he believes no other than that he is dead; which thing he perceives thee to be afraid to tell, and unwilling to tell a lie?” It comes to the same thing, if thou altogether hold thy peace. But of those three, two are false, He liveth, and, I know not; and they cannot be said by thee but by telling a lie. Whereas if thou shall say that one thing which is true, that is, that he is dead, and the man be so perturbed that death follow, people will cry out that thou hast killed him. And who can bear men casting up to him what a mischief it is to shun a lie that might save life, and to choose truth which murders a man? I am moved by these objections exceedingly, but it were marvelous whether also wisely. For, when I shall set before the eyes of my heart (such as they be) the intellectual76    Intelligibilem beauty of Him out of Whose mouth nothing false proceedeth, albeit where truth in her radiance doth more and more brighten upon me, there my weak and throbbing sense is beaten back: yet I am with love of that surpassing comeliness so set on fire, that I despise all human regards which would thence recall me. But it is much that this affection persevere to that degree, that in temptation it lack not its effect. Nor doth it move me while contemplating that luminous Good in which is no darkness of a lie, that, when we refuse to lie, and men through hearing of a truth do die, truth is called a murderer. For if a lewd woman crave of thee the gratification of her lust, and, when thou consentest not, she perturbed with the fierceness of her love should die, will chastity also be a murderer? Or, truly, because we read, “We are a sweet savor of Christ in every place, both in them which are saved and in them which perish;”77    2 Cor. ii. 15, 16. [See R.V.] to the one, indeed, a savor of life unto life, to others a savor of death unto death; shall we pronounce even the savor of Christ to be a murderer? But, for that we, being men, are in questions and contradictions of this sort for the most part overcome or wearied out by our feeling as men, for that very reason hath the Apostle also presently subjoined, “And who is sufficient for these things?”

CAPUT XVIII.

36. An mentiendum ut aegro celetur, quod ei mortem afferret. Non timendum ne homicida dicatur veritas. Permisso mendacio in proposito casu, quam difficile mendaciis fines figuntur ne succrescant usque ad perjuria et blasphemias. Acute contra mendacii doctores. Verum quia homines sumus, et inter homines vivimus, fateorque me nondum esse in eorum numero quos compensativa peccata non turbant; saepe me in rebus humanis vincit sensus humanus, nec resistere valeo cum mihi dicitur: Ecce gravi morbo periclitatur aegrotus, cujus jam vires ferre non possint, si ei mortuus unicus et charissimus filius nuntietur; a te quaerit an vivat, quem vitam finisse tu nosti; quid respondebis, quando quidquid aliud dixeris praeter unum de tribus; aut, Mortuus est; aut, vivit; aut, nescio; nihil aliud credit ille quam mortuum; quod te intelligit timere dicere, et nolle mentiri? Tantumdem valet, etiamsi omni modo tacueris. Ex illis autem tribus duo falsa sunt, Vivit; et, nescio; nec abs te dici possunt nisi mentiendo. Illud autem unum verum, id est, mortuum esse, si dixeris, et perturbati hominis mors fuerit subsecuta, abs te occisus esse clamabitur. Et quis ferat homines exaggerantes quantum sit mali salubre mendacium devitari, et homicidam diligi veritatem? Moveor his oppositis vehementer, sed mirum si etiam sapienter. Cum enim proposuero ante qualescumque oculos cordis mei intelligibilem illius pulchritudinem, de cujus ore falsi nihil procedit; quamvis ubi radians magis magisque clarescit veritas, ibi palpitans mea reverberatur infirmitas: tamen sic amore tanti decoris accendor, ut cuncta quae inde me revocant humana contemnam. Sed multum est ut iste in tantum perseveret affectus, ne in tentatione desit effectus. Nec me movet contemplantem luminosum bonum, in quo mendacii tenebrae nullae sunt, quod nobis mentiri nolentibus et hominibus vero audito morientibus homicida dicitur veritas. Numquid enim si stuprum expetat impudica, et te non consentiente, saevo amore perturbata moriatur, homicida erit et castitas? 0544 An vero quia legimus, Christi bonus odor sumus in omni loco, et in iis qui salvi fiunt, et in iis qui pereunt; aliis quidem odor vitae in vitam, aliis autem odor mortis in mortem; etiam odorem Christi pronuntiabimus homicidam? Sed quia homines sumus, et nos in hujusmodi quaestionibus et contradictionibus plerumque superat aut fatigat sensus humanus, ideo mox et ille subjecit, Et ad haec quis idoneus (II Cor. II, 15 et 16)?