"He was incapable of untruth..."

On page 11 of "To the Lighthouse," Woolf describes Mr. Ramsay as being "incapable of untruth, never tampered with a fact; never altered a disagreeable word to suit the pleasure or convenience of any mortal being, least of all at his own children, who, sprung from his loins, should be aware from childhood that life is difficult..." The entirety of the first chapter revolves around this "untruth," as Mr. Ramsay informs James that he will not be able to go to the lighthouse like he had planned before, even though his mother had promised him that this would be a possibility. The OED provides several definitions for the word "untruth," including "unfaithfulness, unbelief, falsehood, and inexactness.  Mr. Ramsay's character believes in the "inexactness" aspect of these several definitions, which is what makes his own children despise him. Childhood should be about celebrating that life then, isn't as difficult as Mr. Ramsay makes i t out to be, but he is overbearing and convinced that informing them of life's future pains is the best way to go about it. This definition of "inexactness," is one of the newest and most evolved definitions of untruth, as one of the first was the idea of "unfaithfulness." In a way, Mr. Ramsay is doing this to be faithful to his children in the way he feels is the most effective, to refrain from telling lies about the plausibility of events. Knowing that definition adds depth to the word and sentence, as he is not only incapable of being unfaithful but he is also incapable of inexactness, much to his children's dismay.