X. THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. ness of Language. WERE I asked what I thought was the most Wonderfulwonderful faculty of man, I would answer: The faculty of language. Just consider for a moment what a word is. A word consists of two elements, which not only have nothing in common, but which are even diametrically opposed. Suppose it is a spoken-that is, an audible-word; as such it is but a sound, an aerial vibration striking tympanum and brain; or, suppose it is a written—that is, a visible-word; as such it is but a certain shape on a piece of paper. Yet in either case, whether an audible word or a written word, it is also an enshrined, infigured-so to speak-materialized idea. A word is a symbolized thought, an embodied idea. The same material air that wafts a leaf may enshrine and waft to the percipient mind an immaterial idea. Language marries thought to matter, or rather thought to thought, in the sphere of matter. A word may incarnate the vastest conception, as, for example, gravitation; or it may incarnate the subtilest conception, as, for example, the undulatory theory. Again: Words conserve the immaterial past, turning it into an immortal heirloom; a word carries us back to Washington, to Shakspeare, to Sacredness of Mohammed, to Cicero, to Plato, to Abraham, to I shot an arrow into air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; I breathed a song into the air, Long, long afterward, in an oak, And all the song, from beginning to end, Even the You think that the phonograph is a wonderful thing; and so it is. But it does not compare in wonderfulness with the most careless, insignificant word which it echoes and preserves. childish prattle of the nursery is more wonderful than the most surprising transformation in chemistry for it turns vibrations of material, unconscious air into immaterial, intelligible, influencing ideas. Words are the most wonderful of things. But language is not only wonderful, language is Language. also sacred. For, as I indicated in my lecture on the Third Commandment, God has bestowed on man the gift of language that it may serve as the means of human intercommunication and reciprocal cooperation. It is by means of words that men can understand and enjoy one another, and can cooperate in carrying on and building up society. Language is the bridge between man and man; it is the circulating medium of human exchange-the exchange of human thoughts, sentiments, plans. Language is the blood of humanity, flowing through its arteries and veins, making all mankind one human corporation or body, converting numberless human units into the one human unity, all men into one Man. Words are the very ligaments of human society; language is the osseous, vertebral framework of humanity itself. In other words, language is the covenant of a people. If I may say it, each language is the sacramental bond of the nation speaking it. In brief, language is the sacred compact of humanity, the very symbol of human unity itself. Hence language, in order to its being true to its great mission, must itself be true-that is, trustworthy. For confidence in one another is one of the basal stones of society. Accordingly, falsehood is one of the blackest of sins, for it is a crime directly against society itself, sapping its very foundations. St. Paul puts the case forcibly thus: "Putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one Eph. iv, 25. with his neighbour." Why? "Because," he immediately adds, "we are members one of another." That is to say, membership in human society means a common, reciprocal, interacting life; so that falsehood on the part of one member is treachery against the whole body. To utter a lie is even more criminal, morally speaking, than to forge a note, or to counterfeit a coin; for the note and the coin you can catch and destroy: but the lie you can never overtake; the poison of it is already ab |