SWEARING, the habit of using the name or attributes of God in a light and familiar manner by way of asseveration or emphasis. It was specially con demned by the Mosaic law, was long pun ished by severe penalties, and is still an actionable offense in England. By oaths are loosely understood many terms and phrases of a gross and obscene char acter, as well as those words the use of which specially implies profanity proper. Again, there is a legitimate use of imprecations and curses when intense hatred is to be expressed, and when it is justifiable. It is only taking the sacred name in vain that need be condemned.
To call God to witness is a thing natural enough on occasions of grave asseveration, as in giving witness in courts of law and the like, and it has been from the beginning a custom to take oaths on things sacred or august, as the head of the emperor, the beard of the prophet, the sword blade or hilt, and the Gospels.
Swift's "Swearer's Bank" (Scott's "Swift," vol. vii.) is a characteristic sa tire on the profanity of his day. It is computed by geographers, he begins, that there are 2,000,000 in this kingdom (Ireland), of which number there may be said to be 1,000,000 of swearing souls. It is thought that there may be 5,000 gentlemen, each with one oath a day at a shilling each, yielding an annual revenue of $456,250. All classes of citi zens contribute to this revenue, the farmers, the commonality, the hundred pretty fellows in Dublin alone at 50 oaths a head daily, the oaths of a little Connaught fair themselves computed at 3,000. Militia under arms are to be
exempted, etc.
The Church ever denounced profane swearing, but was powerless to check the practice. St. Chrysostom spent 20 homi lies on it, and St. Augustine's judgment Is summed up with unnecessary severity in the solemn passage, "Not less do they sin who blaspheme Christ reigning in heaven, than did they who crucified Him walking about on earth." For much of our popular swearing is little more than the mere habit of vocabulary, a sin only from the lips outward, as Bishop Light foot said of the habitual profanity of the colliers of his diocese.
In England the growth of Puritanism was marked by a series of attempts to stamp out swearing. In 1601 a measure for this end was introduced into the House of Commons and one was carried in 1623. "Not a man swears but pays his 12 pence," says Cromwell proudly of his Ironsides. As early as 1606 swearing in plays had been forbidden, and even Ben Jonson himself narrowly escaped the $50 penalty. An act of 1645 in Scotland de tails the penalties to be inflicted, even on ministers of religion. St. Paul's Cathe dral is supposed to have been built with out an oath, the regulations of Sir Christopher Wren being so stringent, and this may be allowed to remain its most remarkable distinction.