Page:Lucian (IA lucianlucas00collrich).pdf/162

152 as did the simplest of the people Men believed everything—and nothing."

It is in derision of this passion for the marvellous that Lucian composed this Dialogue between two friends, Tychiades and Philocles, of whom the former may be taken to represent the author himself. Tychiades wants to know why so many people prefer lies to truth? Well, replies his friend, in some cases men are almost obliged to tell lies for the sake of their own interest; and in war, lies to deceive an enemy are allowable. But some people, rejoins the other, seem to take a pleasure in lying for its own sake; and this is what puzzles him. Herodotus and Homer, so far as he can make out, were notorious liars; and lied withal in such a charming way, that their lies, unlike most others, have had immense vitality.

Philocles thinks something may be said in their defence: they were obliged, in order to be popular, to consult the universal taste for the marvellous. Besides, if all the old Greek fables are to be set aside, what is to become of the unfortunate people who get their living by showing the antiquities and curiosities?

Be this as it may, Tychiades has been quite shocked and astonished at what he has heard at a party lately given by his friend Eucrates—a grey-headed philosopher, who at least ought to have known better. He was laid up with gout; and the lying absurdities which his friends and physicians were prescribing for him by way of remedies were atrocious. A weasel's tooth wrapped in a lion's skin—though the doctors gravely