HONESTY

Otago Witness, Issue 3757, 16 March 1926, Page 10

HONESTY

By Colonel Arthur Lynch. (Fob thi Witness.) VII. Once upon a time a man who bad great fame by the brilliancy of his intellect was asked in what manner lie would like to be remembered. He replied, “As an honest man.” His friends laughed, accounting that a small thing. I am not so sure. More and more I feel convinced rather that honesty is not only one of the great fundamental attributes that go to the building up of a fine character, but that it is also something superior in itself, and not a mere humdrum, dull quality that.is generally supposed. If a man means to be honest—that is to say, honest to the groundwork of his being, on all occasions, and even at times where honesty implies loss to himself—then he will have enough to convince him that this virtue is beyond rubies. That is the right spirit. Honesty is the best policy, but it is a mean doctrine to affect honesty only for that reason. The honest man desires to be honest just as he desires to be clean and to be strong and to have all his senses about him—to stand free and undaunted on his own basis. Of liis “ Village Blacksmith ” Longfellow says: He looks the whole world In the face, For he owes not any man. Well, that itself is w’orth more than the things money can buy. A similar thought had already passed through the mind of Burns, when in that great manifesto of democracy, “ A man’s a man for a’ that ” he cried: A king can mak’ a belted knight, A marquis, duke, and a’ that. An honest man’s aboon his might, Gude faith he mauna fa’ that! Word.; in our language go up and down in appreciation. Villain at one time simply meant a sort of small tenant farmer, w’liereas knight meant a servant; honesty, which comes to us from the Latin, originally meant more than being scrupulous about money matters: it implied a true regard for personal honour. We ought to restore that word to its pride of place; it can stand scrutiny; it can stand testing; it can stand time; it is honest.

What things are honest ? Oak, granite, iron—these are all lionest materials; —they have helped to build up the world. Amongst nations it is usually, though not always, the most civilised which are the most honest, but so as not to excite invidious comparisons I will draw an illustration from a nation which lias of late years lost popularity with us—the Bulgarians. When in Constantinople I learnt that the Bulgarians were considered anything but a clever people, but that they were laborious and honest. If a Bulgarian owed you anything he w r ould search for you high and low, not simply because lie might be sued, but because lie wished to rectify himself. Yet honesty is partly a matter of education. The Spartans of old were a virile ] ople, but they were taught that stealing was not a crime—and they stole. On the other hand, some of the peoples of Europe have had a reputation for pleasure-loving and for laxity of principle, yet when a friend of mine some time ago lost a gold watch which fell from his motor car in a lonely road in the Tyrol he did not know where, he found* it soon afterwards restored to him by the mayor of the little country village, who reported that a poor peasant had found it.

Even all this may be easy. But suppose tliat you have a house for sale, it is considered clever to conceal its defects; and there are a score of smart tricks that secure applause—are they honest? Are any of the tricks of trade honest ?

This principle of honesty becomes terribly searching. It is recorded of Stewart, who, beginning in a small draper’s shop, founded a powerful American family, that hearing one of his assistants declare tliat a piece of cloth would wash, lie caught him up at once, and told the customer that it would not wash. Trade is low, aristocrats say, or rather used to say. Let the best of them vie with this tradesman," and keep to that principle in all things great and small: he will have a new diploma of nobility.