Page:Diplomacy and the Study of International Relations (1919).djvu/60

 We are perhaps reduced to the half-cynical maxim and device of Torcy, that the best way of deceiving foreign Courts is always to speak the truth. Or, are we led to some via media, in the words of advice of a senior in diplomacy to a junior: 'Take snuff often and slowly, sit with your back to the light, and speak the truth; the rest you will learn by observing your older colleagues'? Does that really mean to seniors priority in niceties of conduct that shall not be Machiavellian, as well as in resolute avoidance of the mixture of a lie which, Bacon tells us, doth ever add pleasure? Halifax's 'Trimmer' adored the goddess Truth and all who worshipped her, but