Page:Euripides the Rationalist.djvu/105

Rh and could not escape an Athenian of average intelligence, to say nothing of Aristophanes, that this saying, taken with the facts to which Euripides has applied it, cannot with fairness or sense be cited in favour of perjury. This being so, Aristophanes may claim from us the equity of supposing that he had other reasons, not grounded upon the Hippolytus, for converting the verse into a general reproach against its author; and for my own part I find no difficulty in believing it. The constant practice of dexterous ambiguity, and the habit of witnessing such dexterity with enjoyment, would not lose their tendency to weaken the springs of truth merely because the temptations, the justifications even, were strong, and the pleasure not only innocent in itself, but deserving to be classed for its intellectual quality among the highest of which humanity is capable. An Athenian notorious as an admirer of Euripides must frequently have had occasion to consider, not only in the law-courts but in various social relations, just how far he might go safely, or with a safe conscience, in pretending a convenient ignorance. It is likely enough that the enemies of such men would call them habitual liars, and not unlikely that they did something to deserve the appellation. Where in such cases the blame should rest, or how it should be distributed between those who practise deception and those who do their utmost to make it attractive or inevitable, is a problem which may be left to the student of politics and ethics, who will be frequently forced to consider it.

But to say the truth, in the particular case of Euripides, though the forms of concealment must have had their use and at times their necessity, we are not bound to suppose that practical security was the sole or the chief reason for maintaining them. From the Athenian point of view (and no man of candour, whatever his personal tastes, ought to have any difficulty in comprehending that point of view) Euripides as an artist had motive enough without the pressure of danger for 'keeping up the game', so to speak, when once it was fairly