The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-04-22

liable to be, and the stronger his will
power, the better he can check his
impulse
A man may not only swear to re-
lease his pent-up feelings, he may use
profane language to lend emphasis to
his statements, an extraordinarily
common habit, especially among men
of limited education and still more
limited vocabulary. UncOunted num-
| berS of men there are that seem ut
terly unable to form simple sentence
without inserting sundry Oaths, BIAS
phemies and improprieties.
Man is an initiative being; most
particularly is the child. While | was
teaching school several years ago a
little chap was brought into our class
room one day by his fond parents.
For weeks the young Che was an
Indian gentleman remained absolute
| ly imperVious to any attempt to mi
tiate him into the rudiments of the
English language. AS time went on,
the yOungster grew somewhat holder
and less restrained and the unexpected
happened. One morning he took into
his head to create disturbance in the
schoolroom. While we were engaged
in the unpleasant task of administer
ing a dose of the white mans medicine
unto him, the little scamp broke
loose, and shaking with anger poured
forth a torrent of choice profanity
the fluency of which any able-bodied
seaman would have envied. His
tongue was loosened; of course, he
had learned English back home on the
reservation long before he was brought
to school; that is, he had picked up
the lingo of half-breeds and white
men who were prowling around the
edges of the reservation, and 10, here
we had been laboring for weeks under
the illusion that he knew nothing but
his native idiom.
Once the child had mastered the
rudiments of swearing either from
his parents at home, from companions,
or strangers in the street, the habit
speedily fastens upon the young man,
and accompanies him through life.
We are not only initiative beings, we
are also creatures of habit.
Here again psychology lights up the
innermost recesses of our minds. We
speak of good habits and of bad habits,
says a noted psychologist, but when
people use the word habit" in the
majority of instances it is bad habit
which they have in mind. They talk
of the smoking habit and the swear
ing habit and the drinking habit or the
moderation habit or the courage
habit. But the fact is that our virtues
are habits as much as our vices. All
our life, so far as it has definite
forms, is but a mass of habit-prac-
teal, emotional and intellectual-sys-
tematically organized for our veal or
woe, and bearing us irresistibly
toward our destiny, whatever the lat
ter may be. The hell to be endured
hereafter 1--WE are quoting from Henry
James classical chapter on the laws
of habit, is no worse than the hell
we make for ourselves in this world
by habitually fashioning our char.
acters in the wrong way. Could the
young but realize how soon they will
/ become mere walking bundles OF
l habit, they would give more heed to
l thir conduct while in the plastic state
1 We are spinning our own fates, good
] or evil, and never to be undone. Ev
cry smallest stroke of virtue or OF
vice leaves it's never-so-little scar. AS
we become permanent drunkards by
so many separate drinks, the Prot
estant scholar continues, so we become
> saints in the moral, and authorities
and experts in the practical and scien
tific spheres, by so many separate act!
and hours of work.
Henry James definition of vice an(
virtues as habits is but the recapitula
ton Of what st. Thomas Aquinas, thu
- Angel Of the School, taught man,
centuries ago. What he adds as {
maxim for forming good habits reads
as of it were culled from our owl
ascetic authors: Be systematicall,
heroic in little unnecessary points, d.
every day or two something for NJ
. other reason than it's difficulty, 81
that when the hour of dire need draw.
nigh it may find you not unnerve,
and unframed to stand the test
Check your tongue, and don't swear
for there's a reason!'
" Rep E. F., in the Providence Visitor.