CHAPTER XXIII.

PROFANITY.

Proverbs or Verses.

"The language denotes the man.”

"Maintain your rank, vulgarity despise;

To swear is neither brave, polite nor wise."

"We will take thy word for faith, not ask thine oath; Who shuns not to break one will sure crack both."

"As the man, so is his speech."

-Shakespeare.

"It is more necessary to guard the mouth than the chest." "Speech is the picture of the mind.”

"Put a key on thy tongue."

“No one ever repented for having held his tongue.”

"Much tongue and much judgment seldom go together."L'Estrange.

"Keep your tongue within your teeth."

"His tongue goes always on errands, but never speeds.”
"He cannot speak well who cannot hold his tongue."
"Confine your tongue lest it confine you.”

"An unbridled tongue is the worst of diseases."-Euripides.

Dialogue.

Did you ever hear a man swear? "Yes," you say, "we certainly have."

How about boys? "It is the same," you admit. "We have even heard boys swear."

Which do you think is worse, for boys or for men to use such language? "Not much difference either way," you answer. Perhaps you are right.

Is it, after all, a nice or a manly thing to swear, or to use profane language? Is it a good sort of habit to have? "No," you confess, "surely not."

But suppose a boy does swear sometimes, or quite a good deal, is often given to using profane language, is it certain that he will stop it when he grows up and

becomes a man? "No," you assert, "that is not at all sure."

But why not? All he will have to do will be to cease using the same kind of language he was using as a boy. "Oh yes," you add, "but he has formed the habit of swearing and it will be found no easy matter to break it off."

Do you mean to tell me, for instance, that one cannot very easily change one's way of using words? What if one has used bad grammar until he is grown up, or pronounced words in a wrong way. Can one then not find out what good grammar is, and afterwards make use of the words in the right way? "It will not be so easy," you insist.

But why not? What will prevent him from at once making the change? "Oh," you reply, "he has formed a habit of talking in that way." Yes, you are quite right on that point. People who would really like to use correct language and speak grammatically when they are grown up, sometimes never can learn quite how to do it. "True," you point out, "it is because of the way they talk when they are boys and girls."

Again, therefore, I ask, which may be worse, for a boy or for a man to swear? "As to that," you acknowledge, "perhaps after all it is even worse for a boy, because it will be more difficult for him to get rid of the habit when he is grown up."

But what do people swear for? When you hear a boy using profane language, why is he talking in that way?

"Oh," you explain, "he may be angry and he is letting out his bad feelings." If that is true, using profane language does not show a very nice sort of a spirit, does it?

But have you ever heard persons using such language when they are not angry at all, just merely in conversation with other persons? "Yes," you answer, "it does happen."

What do they do it for? What reason is there in it,

or what sense? "Oh," you assure me, "perhaps they think it sounds fine."

But what do you mean by that? Would you imply that everybody who listens to it, admires them for it? "No, not quite that," you answer; “but perhaps it makes them feel important to use such language.' You think, then, do you, that swearing is a way of "showing off," appearing "smart.”

For my part I really believe that is the case. In my opinion people swear mainly as a way of showing off. They are calling attention to themselves.

What, by the way, was the bird or animal we mentioned as seeming to show pride? "The peacock?" Yes. And what does the peacock seem to do? "Strut," you tell me. True, that is just it.

Then you assume that swearing is a way of strutting like the peacock. After all, would there not be something contemptible in using profane language under those circumstances, even if there were no other objection to it?

Did you ever see a person who had clothes on that were too big for him? “Oh yes," you smile. When a boy, for instance, puts on a man's hat, how does he look? "Why," you say, "it is ridiculous. We laugh at him."

And suppose a man, for instance, should put on a hat twice too big for himself and walk along the street with it on, what would people do? "They would smile?"

Have you ever noticed that when persons are not very brave, they sometimes talk in a very bold sort of a way and use bad language? Does it strike you that profanity may be very much like assuming something on the outside which does not correspond with what you have inside, as if you were wearing a hat that is too big for you, showing off, or calling attention to yourself?

After all, you see, swearing is something really contemptible. It is using words which seem too big for us, and people appear to "swell out," as it were, when they swear, just as a peacock swells out.

By the way, do girls ever use profane language? You smile at that, I see. "Sometimes," you say. But do they swear as much as boys or as much as men? "No," you answer, "not in the same way."

What do you mean by that? "Oh," you tell me, "girls may use other words. They may employ phrases which sound just as bad for them as profane language would for boys or men.'

Then do you think it is swearing? "It is pretty much the same thing," you insist. Yes, I suspect you are right. You see, swearing does not depend altogether on the special words one uses. Girls can make themselves as contemptible with their kind of showy language, as boys or men can with their profanity.

But is there any other very serious reason which makes swearing not only contemptible, but bad? What kind of words do we usually associate with profanity? "Sacred words," you say. You imply, then, do you, by sacred words those names or words which are solemn to many people?

Do you mean to say that the use of those solemn or sacred words at any time may be swearing or profanity? "Oh no," you explain, "it is when one employs them lightly, or in order to make one's language seem strong, or in order to show off, or when one is angry, then it is swearing." Yes, you are right.

But what if some one to whom these words are very sacred, happens to hear another man swearing, how does it affect him? "Why," you admit, "it must, of course, be painful."

Why should he care? He does not use those words in that way himself. Let me give you an illustration. What if you heard another boy talking slightingly about your father or mother, how would you feel? "Hurt," you answer, Yes, most decidedly hurt.

But why should you care? Why should you not just turn away and not listen? "Oh," you assert, "one could not do that with regard to one's father or mother."

Then do you think it might be shameful or bad for another person to speak contemptuously in your pres

ence about your father or mother? "Yes, we do," you exclaim.

And now what if these words used in profane language are just as sacred to other people as your father and mother are sacred to you? If you employ those words slightingly in their presence, is it not low or mean on your part? Is it not really just the same as if you were talking contemptuously about their father or mother? It is almost like striking them a blow.

So you see it is not only contemptible or undignified to use profanity, but it is also low and unmanly to use lightly those names which are solemn or sacred to other people.

And yet all we have said about swearing may seem of trifling importance, in comparison to the further reason against it, which we have not even mentioned. What commandment against it have we heard about, which was put forward hundreds and thousands of years ago? Do you remember?

"Yes, indeed," you assure me. And what was it, I ask. "Why," you exclaim, ""Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.''

What, then, do we call swearing? It is the word we have already used, beginning with "p." "Profanity," you suggest. Yes, exactly. If, for instance, a man were to speak slightingly of his mother, would it shock us? "Surely," you tell me. Why? "There is no 'why' about it, you answer. It would be just

awful." Yes, that is true.

Does it not seem a little strange, then, that people who would never dream of speaking slightingly of their mothers, or who would never tolerate that anyone else should do this, on the other hand are careless in talking in this way about the great Maker and Father of all? If the names of one's human father and mother are sacred to us, should not the name of the great Father who made all things, be even more sacred?

I wonder what it suggests to you when you hear people using such language, taking sacred names 'in vain"? I should call it "brutishness." If swine could