Truth And Error

Truth by her own simplicity is known,
Falsehood by varnish and vermilion.

Truth by her own simplicity is known,
Falsehood by varnish and vermilion.

Truth is best found out by the time and eyes;
Falsehood wins credit by uncertainties.

Error is a hardy plant; it flourisheth in every soil;
In the heart of the wise and good, alike with the wicked and foolish.
For there is no error so crooked, but it hath in it some lines of truth:
Nor is any poison so deadly, that it serveth not some wholesome use:
And the just man, enamoured of the right, is blinded by the speciousness of wrong;
And the prudent, perceiving an advantage, is content to overlook the harm,
On all thuigs created remaineth the half-effaced signature of God,
Somewhat of fair and good, though blotted by the finger of corruption:
And if error cometh in like a flood, it mixeth with streams of truth;
And the Adversary loveth to have it so, for thereby many are decoyed.
Providence is dark in its permissions; yet one day, when all is known,
The universe of reason...

Teage has told lies so long that when Teage tells
Truth, yet Teage's truths are untruths, nothing else.

'Twixt kings and tyrants there's this difference known:
Kings seek their subjects' good, tyrants their own.