The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1880-06-03
Prophet, Curse Me the Blabbine
Lin!

Prophet, Curse Me the Blabbine
Lip!'
The mischief that an idle tongue can
DO q = sum past calculation. For, as the
apostle says, title matter kindles !
great fre;; and the spark IS dropped BY
that idle tongue, without thought Of
conseque fences, which sends the confapra-
ton Tar and wide. That there are peo-
pie too close-mouthed for any comfort IN
their society is MOTTO be denied, but bet
ter g the strictest and sOurest reserve
than that loosely brio died habit Of speech
which never pauses for second thought,
and deals havoc right and left, although
It may be with no unkind intention.
Probably it would be good fer people
possessed Of this habit to recollect that
| it is only the wings Of gnat that flap
fifteen thousand times in 8 second.
These babbling lips, as Tenneyson
calls them, will undergo a sort Of classl-
ficatlon in three different orders: one
that thinks absolute frapkness and truth
fullness can be maintained only by al
ways telling all one knows about every-
thing, whether it is the listeners business
OF NOT and that to keep anything to
onessself is suppressio cert; another
VINO talks on the impulse, and without
taking the trouble to think if it is best
to speak or be silent, although ALWAYS
good natured; and third who talks for
the sake of talking, and revels malici-
ously, obviously, revengefully, in spread
ing evil report. The first is very COS
sip IN all simplicity, an individual too
frequently of transparent folly, a well Of
information where every neighbor
pumps the last sometimes adds q
spice to life by the peculiarly pungent
way Of looking at things and reporting
them, and both Of them are known for
what they are; and so although the harm
they 90 Is immense, 1t is not so unfath-
enable as that Of the second, or the inn
pulsiye and purely idle and thoughtless
tongue.
Il everybody with whom one talks
knew all the co-relatlons of things, and
could weigh trifles at their worth, and
had no biases, p1ejudices, or rancors, it
might not do so much mischief for one to
Haunt the virtue of unrestricted frank
ness; but as that presupposesa universal
omniscence and infinite benevolence
which do not belong to humanity, 1t is
impossible to tell all one knows either
with wisdom or righteousness; and there
is always root of selfshness and love Of
pleasure at the base Of this order Of talk,
to say nothing Of the fragrant disregard
OF the rule of doing unto others as you
would have them do unto you, manifest
ed both by the singulariy frank and the
singularly malicious talker. And if
everybody were of saint-like kindness,
the venom of the malicious talker would
roll off lnnoeently as dew rolls off cab
bage leaf. But as these are the only con-
diti0ns under which either Of these two
takers last alluded to might display
their powers freely, and these conditions
are impossible, it follows that silence
would better become them.
But we can imagine no circumstances
under which it would be best for the
thOughtless talker to have unrestricted
play. The use of the tongue, like all our
other gifts, is something God given, and
as such is sacred. We have no right to
play the profigate with it; and there is
even species of profanity in its thought
less use. The drop of water that drips
from the fingers to the palm unfelt tails
Hike bullet, down the deep shaft of the
mine; and the word launched into infin-
t1ty acquires more force with every mo-
|.ment Of passing time. Professor You
mans tells us that tive may easily hear
the song of little bird five hundred feet
above us; but before that note could
have travelled to our ears it must have
filled with wave pulsations a sphere of
air one thousand feet in diameter, or
have thrown into agitation nearly eigh-
teen tons Of atmospheric cases." And if
such things are true concerning merely
material and physical affairs, how great
is the growing momentum of the mean
ing Of every spoken work!
Certain philosophers hold that each
material object in the universe has its
| spiritual correspondent or counterpart,
like that of the body and It's ghost. And
thus If the word, if sound, be the materr
ial thing, the significance Of that word,
the effect OF that sound, disturbs with It's
vibrations the spiritual atmosphere. If
the hunter in the 1rozen air of the upper
Alps, as we are told, bounds from peak
to peak, speeches. and silent, lest any
sound he makes should dislodge the ava
lanche, and hurl all about and below to
obstruction, it would seem as if the most
empty headed babbler might have as
much thought concerning the disastrous
consequences Of the echeing and re-echo-
ing OF idle words consequences that
may dislodge lives from their happy ways,
and ruin souls. Doubtless, if they paused
think of this, as well as of the next word
they said, the poet would cease to find a
cause tor his mad hero to cry out SO wild
II, Prophet, curse me the babbllng
hp!'
Doctor and Patient.
a young physician passed the summer
at Long Branch some years ago. While
there the daughter of wealthy New
| Yorker was rescued from the ocean in a
drowning condition. She was placed on
the beach insensible and liieless, and the
doctor being summoned, worked ove1
her for several hours, finally having the
satisfaction Of seeing her restored to con.
seriousness and life, much to the joy Of
her agonizing parents. She was saved
but nothing was said about paying the