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Article THE USE AND ABUSE OF SPEECH. ← Page 3 of 4 →
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The Use And Abuse Of Speech.
of the former , is that of swearing on every slight , and sometimes on no occasion . If an oath conveyed to the mind of a christian the terrible sense it properly signifies , it would be impossible for him to be so weak as to use it ; besides , considering the present flourishing state of infidelity , we may often be assured an oath is a sound without any idea belonging to it ; for , what idea can an atheist have in his mind when he swears by his Creatoror a deistwho swears by any
, , , of the articles of the christian faith . There are several other methods too tedious to mention , in which particular men very happily succeed : an argument Or a story often carry off some thousands of words , and leave no person the wiser ; not to mention certain phrases which have by long custom arrived at meaning nothing , though often used ; such as , It is very earlyvery late ; very hotvery cold ; a very gooda very bad
, , , play or opera ; the best in the world , the ivorst in the world , and several others . But , besides many other species of word-squandering which are generall y practised , every particular profession seems to have laid violent hands on some certain syllables , which they use ad libitum , without conveying any idea whatsoever . I need not mention that custom so notorious among gentlemen of the lawof taking away from ,
, substantives the power given them by Mr . Lilly of standing by themselves , and joining two or three more substantives to shew their signification ; I mean the noble art of tautology , which is one kind of extravagance in the use of words : they have also several words , or rather sounds , peculiar to themselves , without any meaning , such as ,
learned in the law , dispatch , reasonable , and many others . Physicians seem to have so carefull y avoided this extravagance that , in all their prescriptions , they use no words at all , conveying their meaning to the apothecary by certain strange figures , which some think to have a very mystical and even magical force in them ; and yet these gentlemen have some words in use among them , to which it will be very difficulty to assign any certain idea ; such areout of dangersafe
pre-, , scription , it fallible method , &' c . Nay , I have been told , that physician itself is a word of very little , if any signification . The mercantile world may at first si g ht , from their writings , be supposed to spare all ¦ superfluity of language , and use no more than the needful ; and yet , notwithstanding their frequent , banishment . of the first person out of their epistles , we shall find in their mouths several words and phrases
of as little meaning as any before-mentioned ; such are , very cheap , lowest price , get nothing by it , fair trader—as I have a soul to be saved , this cost me , & c . There . are also , several ways at first used to distinguish particular degrees of men , but by time immemorial stript of ail ideas whatever ; such are , Captain , Doctor , Esquire , Honourable , and Riht Honourable ; the two last of which signifies no more than if you
g should pronounce the above-mentioned word , Barababatha . Great men have peculiar phrases , which some persons , imagine to have a meaning among themselves , but g ive no more idea to others than any of those unintellig ible sounds which the beasts utter ; such are , Upon my honour , believe me , depend on me , PU certainly serve you another time , this is promised , I vjishyou had spoke sooner ; and some hundred others
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Use And Abuse Of Speech.
of the former , is that of swearing on every slight , and sometimes on no occasion . If an oath conveyed to the mind of a christian the terrible sense it properly signifies , it would be impossible for him to be so weak as to use it ; besides , considering the present flourishing state of infidelity , we may often be assured an oath is a sound without any idea belonging to it ; for , what idea can an atheist have in his mind when he swears by his Creatoror a deistwho swears by any
, , , of the articles of the christian faith . There are several other methods too tedious to mention , in which particular men very happily succeed : an argument Or a story often carry off some thousands of words , and leave no person the wiser ; not to mention certain phrases which have by long custom arrived at meaning nothing , though often used ; such as , It is very earlyvery late ; very hotvery cold ; a very gooda very bad
, , , play or opera ; the best in the world , the ivorst in the world , and several others . But , besides many other species of word-squandering which are generall y practised , every particular profession seems to have laid violent hands on some certain syllables , which they use ad libitum , without conveying any idea whatsoever . I need not mention that custom so notorious among gentlemen of the lawof taking away from ,
, substantives the power given them by Mr . Lilly of standing by themselves , and joining two or three more substantives to shew their signification ; I mean the noble art of tautology , which is one kind of extravagance in the use of words : they have also several words , or rather sounds , peculiar to themselves , without any meaning , such as ,
learned in the law , dispatch , reasonable , and many others . Physicians seem to have so carefull y avoided this extravagance that , in all their prescriptions , they use no words at all , conveying their meaning to the apothecary by certain strange figures , which some think to have a very mystical and even magical force in them ; and yet these gentlemen have some words in use among them , to which it will be very difficulty to assign any certain idea ; such areout of dangersafe
pre-, , scription , it fallible method , &' c . Nay , I have been told , that physician itself is a word of very little , if any signification . The mercantile world may at first si g ht , from their writings , be supposed to spare all ¦ superfluity of language , and use no more than the needful ; and yet , notwithstanding their frequent , banishment . of the first person out of their epistles , we shall find in their mouths several words and phrases
of as little meaning as any before-mentioned ; such are , very cheap , lowest price , get nothing by it , fair trader—as I have a soul to be saved , this cost me , & c . There . are also , several ways at first used to distinguish particular degrees of men , but by time immemorial stript of ail ideas whatever ; such are , Captain , Doctor , Esquire , Honourable , and Riht Honourable ; the two last of which signifies no more than if you
g should pronounce the above-mentioned word , Barababatha . Great men have peculiar phrases , which some persons , imagine to have a meaning among themselves , but g ive no more idea to others than any of those unintellig ible sounds which the beasts utter ; such are , Upon my honour , believe me , depend on me , PU certainly serve you another time , this is promised , I vjishyou had spoke sooner ; and some hundred others