of striking examples of this fact are brought into view in the recently
published "Life and Letters of Charles Darwin," in which, speaking of
his childhood, Mr. Darwin says: "One little event has fixed itself very
firmly in my mind, and I hope it has done so from my conscience having
been afterward sorely troubled by it. It is curious as showing that
apparently I was interested at this early age in the variability of
plants! I told another little boy that I could produce variously colored
primroses by watering them with certain colored fluids, which was of
course a monstrous fable, and has never been tried by me. I may here
also confess that as a little boy I was much given to inventing
deliberate falsehoods, and this was always done for the sake of causing
excitement. For instance, I once gathered much valuable fruit from my
father's trees and hid it in the shrubbery, and then ran in breathless
haste to spread the news that I had discovered a hoard of stolen fruit."

Mr. Darwin also relates the following incident, as illustrating the lack
of truthfulness and candor on the part of another: "I must have been a
very simple fellow when I first went to school. A boy of the name of
Garnett took me into a cake shop one day, and bought some cakes for
which he did not pay, as the shopman trusted him. When we came out I
asked him why he did not pay for them, and he instantly answered, 'Why,
do you not know that my uncle left a great sum of money to the town on
condition that every tradesman should give whatever was wanted without
payment to any one who wore his old hat and moved it in a particular
manner?' He then showed me how to move the hat, and said, 'Now, if you
would like to go yourself into that cake shop, I will lend you my hat,
and you can get whatever you like if you move the hat on your head
properly.' I gladly accepted the generous offer, and went in and asked
for some cakes, moved the old hat, and was walking out of the shop, when
the shopman made a rush at me; so I dropped the cakes and ran for dear