PROFANITY. Professor G. T. W. Patrick distin guishes two kinds of swearing, asseverative or legal, and ejaculatory or profane. The latter he defines as " the ejaculatory or exclamatory use of a word or phrase, usually the name of the deity or connected in some way with religion or other sacred things, having no logical connection with the subject in hand, and indicative of strong feeling, such as anger or disapproval." This definition would include the severer forms of profanity. such as cursing, and blasphemy, as well as the milder and more common forms. As far as religion is affected. such profanity makes use of : names of deities, angels, and devils; names associated with the sacred matters of religion (e.g.. Cross); names of saints and sacred persons (e.g., Holy Moses); names of sacred places (e.g., Jeru salem); and terms relating to the future life (e.g., Heavens, Hell). There is of course also a vulgar kind of profanity which scoffs at religion and holds it np to ridicule. This is described usually as blasphemy Pro faulty may be said to be common to all religious. The
vice was common among the Hebrews and the Arabs. It is common still in countries which are not irreligious (e.g., England and America). How is the habit, which is considered sinful by strictly religious people, to be accounted for? Professor Patrick, examining the matter psychologically, offers a noteworthy explanation. Pro fanity is a reaction in the civilized man against the sup pression of the combative instinct in his primitive nature. Profane outbursts are like the "noises which an animal may make in order to ' strike terror to the heart' of the opponent, such as the growl, the snarl, the roar, the bellow, and the hiss, all of which are, like the curse or oath of anger in human beings, harmless in themselves, but useful as indirect means of defense, since they induce in the opponent the reactions of flight instead of combat." Profane oaths do this because " they possess that which all weapons possess, the power of producing a shock in the one against whom they are directed."