Page:Independence, Rectorial address delivered at St Andrews October 10 1923.pdf/19

INDEPENDENCE despatch them hopefully up another tree! Can you blame the Creature for thinking himself a god? The only thing that kept him within bounds must have been the discovery that this miracle-working was not confined to himself.

Unfortunately—most unfortunately—we have no record of the meeting of the World’s First Liar with the World’s Second Liar; but from what we know of their descendants to-day, they were probably of opposite sexes, married at once, and, begat a numerous progeny. For there is no doubt that Mankind suffered much and early from this same vice of lying. One sees that in the enormous value attached by the most primitive civilizations to the practice of telling the Truth; and the extravagant praise awarded, mostly after death, to individuals notorious for the practice. [7]