Yet throughout the Orient truth is a thing unknown, lies of courtesy being de rigueur and lies of convenience de raison; while with us, fortunately, mendacity is generally discredited.

But we need not travel so far for proof.

The same is evident in less antipodal relations.

Have the least religious nations of Europe been any less truthful than the most bigoted?
Was fanatic Spain remarkable for veracity?
Was Loyola a gentleman whose assertions carried conviction other than to the stake?
Were the eminently mundane burghers whom he persecuted noted for a pious superiority to fact?
Or, to narrow the field still further, and scan the circle of one's own acquaintance, are the most believing individuals among them worthy of the most belief?
Assuredly not.
We come, then, to the second point.

Has there been any influence at work to differentiate us in this respect from Far Orientals?
There has.